Pro-Palestinian demonstrations expanded to additional American college campuses on Thursday as police started to retaliate firmly and officials seemed to be losing patience.
At one campus, riot police used tasers and chemical irritants while officials at several of the nation’s most esteemed universities struggled to stop occupations from taking root.
The activists are demanding a halt to Israel’s war with Hamas and the dissolution of collegiate connections with both the nation and businesses they claim profit from the fighting by organizing loud protests and sit-ins.
“For 201 days, the world has watched in silence as Israel has murdered over 30,000 Palestinians,” organizers of a protest at the University of California, Los Angeles said in an online message.
“Today, UCLA joins students across the country in demanding that our universities divest from the companies which profit off of the occupation, apartheid and genocide in Palestine.”
At campuses in Los Angeles, Boston, and Austin, Texas, more than 200 demonstrators were taken into custody on Wednesday and early Thursday. On Thursday, almost 2,000 people gathered once more.
Photos from Emory College in Atlanta showed police fighting demonstrators on immaculately groomed lawns while brandishing tasers.
According to the Atlanta Police Department, police using “chemical irritants” and “met with violence” in response to the school’s plea for assistance.
The movement’s nucleus, an encampment at Columbia University in New York, was set to be removed by midnight on the day when the protests started to spread.
