Protests and arrests continue in US universities

The presidential candidate for the U.S. elections in 2024 for the Green Party, Jill Stein, was arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Washington, local media reported today.

According to her campaign team, Stein was arrested on Saturday at a demonstration on the campus of that university where at least 80 people were detained.

The wave of protests is spreading to more colleges across the U.S., while other reports also indicate that Arizona State University Police arrested 72 people on Friday, including 15 students, for “trespassing after they set up an unauthorized encampment,” the institution said in a press release.

Similarly, Emory University in Atlanta reported the arrest of 28 citizens, including economics professor Caroline Fohlin, who was knocked to the ground by an officer, according to Democracy Now news service.

On the other hand, close to a hundred arrests were made in a similar action at Northeastern University; and Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California reported that it will close for the rest of the semester and begin to receive virtual classes, while protesters remain inside two campus buildings.

Meanwhile, students at Columbia University in New York City, the epicenter of the student encampment movement that began on April 17, filed a civil rights complaint on Thursday.

The lawsuit came after more than a hundred arrests by the New York police and threats to deploy the National Guard at the university.

Despite the police crackdown, the students say they will continue their protests, according to the news outlet, which quoted UCLA student Vincent Doehr.

“I don’t see concerns over our personal safety are the most important thing for us right now. I think what we are most concerned about right now is the violence that Palestinians have been suffering daily at the hands of the State of Israel for these past six months, in fact for almost 80 years,” he stressed.

Health sources in the Gaza Strip claim that more than 118,000 Palestinians have been killed, injured or are missing there since October 7.