Anti-Israel protestors at Harvard University in the United States of America raised the Palestinian flag over the statue of John Harvard Yard, a spot which is reserved for the American flag as demonstrations against Gaza War continue to grip universities across the nation. The number of arrests nationwide has approached 900 since the April 18 arrests at the New York Columbia University.
The incident at the Harvard University on April 27, 2024, came as pro-Palestine have refused to end their ongoing agitation at the Ivy Leagues school campus. A Harvard spokesperson termed the incident as a violation of university policy adding that individuals involved will be subject to disciplinary action.
On April 27, 2024, alone some 275 people were arrested at various campuses including Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and Washington University in St Louis.
The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper said the three Palestinian flags were raised at the campus on the same day. As Harvard Yard operations staff removed the flags, protestors shouted Shame, Shame and also chanted Free, Free Palestine, and from River to the sea, Palestine will be free. The University of California, Los Angeles on April 28, 2024 witnessed skirmishes between pro-Israeli groups and pro-Palestine demonstrators.
An international media agency said the demonstrators broke through a barrier that the school had to separate the two factions. The protests continued on April 28, 2024, at the George Washington’s University Campus in Washington DC, where the students erected dozens of tents in a park and adjacent street, an international media agency reported.
Demonstrators with some wearing traditional keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags chanted free Palestine. At a refugee camp in southern Rafah in Gaza, Palestinian students staged a display of solidarity to express the gratitude for the support seen on the US college campuses, international media reported. The students held banners that said Students of Columbia University, continue to stand by us.
Vandalization of campus property was reported at the University of South California. The university said it carried out by individuals who are a part of the group that has continued to illegally camp on our campus. On the ongoing protests, the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that Joe Biden knows that there are very strong feelings, but would leave managing the protests to local authorities.
In a message on April 28, 2024, the Tufts University Medford Somervile Campus in Massachusetts said the encampment protest must end ideally peacefully and voluntarily in an effort to celebrate the class of 2024 at commencement without disruptions.
In a statement, the MIT president Sally Kornbluth said talks between negotiations between student protestors and administrators to end the protest came to as stalemate when students on social media that they will not accept anything less than their original demands. Columbia University pro-Palestine encampment has continued for two weeks now after negotiations between protesting students and the administration came at an impasse.
In an interview of April 28, 2024, the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnel called the nationwide protests as a dangerous situation. “There is no anti-Semitism which is completely unacceptable. I have been shocked to see that in this country,” he told a media agency.
