Police Crack Down on Palestine Campus Protests in California, Detroit

By Al Mayadeen English

Graduate student workers at UC Santa Cruz pursue their strike, which began last week, protesting the university system's treatment of pro-Palestine demonstrators.

Police in riot gear surrounded pro-Palestine demonstrators at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with footage showing them demanding protesters leave before removing placards and a portion of a barricade, local TV stations reported.

Footage shows pushing and shoving and officers putting zip ties on some and arresting others. KION-TV cited a university official as saying that arrests were made.

On Friday, the institution held remote classes. On Thursday, the university administration called on protesters to "immediately reopen full access to the campus and return to protesting in a manner consistent with both our community values and our student code of conduct," while adding that "denying instructional access is not free speech."

Graduate student workers at UC Santa Cruz continued their strike, which began last week, protesting the university system's treatment of pro-Palestine demonstrators.

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) witnessed another flare-up on campus as academic workers staged a strike to protest the university's response to the Gaza encampment earlier this month. 

Unionized academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants, and post-doctoral scholars walked out for what they called unfair labor practices in the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks.

According to the Associated Press, at least 83 arrests have occurred during university protests around the US since April 18 and over 3,025 individuals have been detained across 62 schools and universities. 

On Thursday, police in riot gear dismantled fences and tents set up last week in open space outside Wayne State University's undergraduate library in Detroit. At least 12 were arrested and the school's president Kimberly Andrews Espy claimed the encampment “created an environment of exclusion – one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life”.

Days after students walked out of a commencement, another was planned for Friday at MIT in Cambridge, near Boston. Protesters screamed "Free, free Palestine" and hoisted posters that said "All eyes on Rafah" while wearing Keffiyehs. 

Pro-'Israel' billionaires are involved in crackdown on university protests

A coalition of billionaires and influential business figures, aiming to influence American public opinion regarding the Israeli war on Gaza, urged New York City's Mayor in private last month to deploy police to quell pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, The Washington Post reported on May 17, citing communications obtained and individuals familiar with the group.

Business leaders, including Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snack company, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik, and real estate investor Joseph Sitt, convened for a Zoom video conference with Mayor Eric Adams on April 26. This meeting took place about a week following the Mayor's initial dispatch of New York police to Columbia's campus, as indicated in a log of chat messages.

During the call, some participants discussed the possibility of making political contributions to Adams, as well as strategies for exerting pressure on Columbia's President and trustees to authorize the Mayor's deployment of police to address protesters on campus, according to summaries of the chat messages, as reported by The Post.

A member of the WhatsApp group chat said, as quoted by The Post, that he "contributed" $2,100, the maximum allowable amount, to Adams during that month.

Additionally, some members expressed willingness to fund private investigators to aid the New York police in managing the protests, as indicated in the chat log. A member reported in the chat that Adams accepted this offer. However, a spokesperson for City Hall claimed that the New York Police Department has not utilized private investigators for managing protests.