Large Number of Pro-Palestinian Students Arrested at University of California

The management of the University of California, Santa Cruz, announced that a "large number" of pro-Palestinian students were arrested during a police operation to dismantle their encampment that had blocked the main entrance to the campus. Videos released by local media on Friday, June 1, show the raid by university police, local police, and state police in riot gear. Officers arrested several students who had formed a human chain in front of their encampment and handcuffed them. Scott Hernandez-Jason, a spokesperson for the University of California, Santa Cruz, stated, "In recent weeks, students who have camped out have been repeatedly and clearly told to dismantle the encampment and the barriers they have erected in front of various buildings and the main entrance to the university." He added, "They were informed that their actions were illegal and unsafe. This morning, police warned them multiple times to leave the area to avoid arrest. Unfortunately, many ignored this warning and were arrested." The strike by undergraduate staff at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in protest of how management has treated pro-Palestinian protesters, which began last week, is still ongoing. In recent months, student protests against the war in Gaza have spread to universities in the U.S. and European countries. One of their demands is to sever ties between the university and Israel, as well as with companies and institutions they believe support Israel's war in Gaza. The main goal of these protests is to emphasize the necessity of establishing a ceasefire and highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which they believe constitutes "genocide." The Associated Press has recorded at least 83 instances of police raids on U.S. universities leading to the arrest of protesting students since early April. Over three thousand people have been arrested across 62 universities and higher education institutions in the U.S. This data has been compiled based on reports from Associated Press journalists and statements from police and university management. On Thursday, June 1, several pro-Palestinian students were also arrested at the University of Detroit, and a large group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did not attend classes in solidarity with the protests against the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, June 6, riot police disrupted the students' encampment in the green space near the library of Wayne State University in Detroit, arresting at least 12 individuals. The university's administration stated that the police were dispatched to disrupt the students' encampment due to safety concerns and disruption of normal university activities. Summer classes at this university have currently been suspended, and remote teaching is being conducted this week. The opening ceremony for the summer training course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge was held on Friday without any disruption. However, on Thursday, several students from this institution, who wore keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestinians, left their classes chanting "Free, free Palestine." David Berkinski, a 27-year-old PhD graduate in chemistry, was among the students who left the class. He told the Associated Press, "As long as MIT participates in research projects for the Israeli army, normalcy will not return. There are no students left in Gaza, nor any universities, as the Israeli army bombs this strip every day." The students' encampment supporting Palestine at this university was dismantled in mid-April.