Protesters chant 'Israel will fall!' at NY Union Square rally as nationwide demonstrations continue
Police in riot gear cleared an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago after a final notice was delivered to protesters. Columbia University has canceled its commencement ceremony amid the unrest, and anti-Israel riots have spread to Europe at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Coverage for this event has ended.
The Metropolitan Police Department is on the campus of George Washington University early Wednesday morning to clear the anti-Israel encampment, hours before D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is set to testify in front of the House about the handling of the protests at the school.
Dozens of officers could be seen near the encampment on University Yard as protesters, some with megaphones and speakers, confronted them with chants like "the people have all the power!" and "the people united will never be defeated!"
Video footage from affiliate FOX 5 DC showed officers knocking down tents in the encampment and making the agitators leave the area. About an hour into the encampment being cleared, a confrontation between police and protesters resulted in law enforcement deploying pepper spray in the protesters' direction.
Metropolitan Police Department officers deploy pepper spray toward anti-Israel agitators after a confrontation at George Washington University early Wednesday morning.
Hours before, officers were guarding the home of GWU President Ellen Granberg after a large group of protesters walked to her home and began chanting phrases suggesting she is scared to meet with them to discuss negotiations. Video on social media showed them carry a folding table to her home while demanding she "come to the table."
Granberg, on Sunday, released a long statement describing the encampment as "an unauthorized protest" in defiance of what free speech at the university allows for.
"What is currently happening at GW is not a peaceful protest protected by the First Amendment or our university’s policies. The demonstration, like many around the country, has grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property," she wrote.
She said in the past five days, protesters have overrun barriers erected to protect the community, vandalized a GWU statue and flag, surrounded and intimidated other students with "antisemitic images and hateful rhetoric," chased people out of University Yard based on their perceived beliefs, and ignored, degraded and pushed campus police officers and university maintenance staff.
"Conventional protests that abide by municipal law and university policy should and do receive protection and respect, no matter the message's viewpoint. As I have outlined, this is not what is happening at GW," Granberg wrote.
At least 35 protesters have been arrested as of Wednesday morning, Fox News confirmed, and eight students have been suspended so far.
"Long Live The Student Intifada" was projected on a giant American flag at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night.
As anti-Israel protesters at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., were awaiting the Metropolitan Police Department to come in and take down their encampment, they projected "Long Live the Student Intifada" on a giant American flag on campus.
Other phrases were projected onto the flag, such as a picture of President Biden with the words "Genocide Joe," an Arabic phrase with "Revolution Until Victory" below it in English and "you put the flag up backwards you f---ing idiots."
Posts on the DMV SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) Coalition X page showed a crowd of people below the flag staring at it and its various projections. Some were waving Palestinian flags.
Officers moved in shortly after 3 a.m. local time to begin breaking down the encampment, which has been set up on GWU's University Yard for over a week illegally.
Video shows anti-Israel protesters getting arrested after resisting a large police presence on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus Wednesday morning after a protest that began Tuesday evening.
"Arrests reported at UMass Amherst as police detain students amid an pro-Palestinian encampment protest," the tweet read. "Video footage captures tense moments as a possible student activist attempts to intervene, leading to his own arrest."
Another report by the UMA SJP states that more than 100 had been arrested on the campus, but that hasn't been confirmed.
A large police presence on campus was also reportedly broadcast on X.
NYPD has reportedly arrested around 20 protesters at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) on Tuesday night.
It's the latest encampment of anti-Israel protesters in New York City to have been detained.
"20 students at FIT have been arrested by the NYPD SRG for participating in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment protest calling on their university to divest from death," Talia Jane tweeted.
"Press has been moved away from the camp, but not allowed to leave the barricades around it."
NYPD says it would not have dismantled the encampment without the request or approval of FIT. All night protestors chanted ‘FIT go to hell’ and again chanted to cops “oink oink piggy piggy we will make your life sh*tty.”
Fox News correspondent Matthew Finn contributed to this report.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman on Tuesday said he believes the anti-Israel protests that have swept U.S. campuses are actually “working against peace” in Gaza.
"I'm not even sure what they're really, you know, protesting about,” the Pennsylvania senator told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report.” If you ask them, they're not really sure. They can't... and now they're not talking about cease-fires anymore, and now they're talking about divesting and harming Israel and that. It's crazy."
Fetterman highlighted a group of anti-Israel protesters demonstrating outside an Auschwitz Holocaust Remembrance Day event, saying it was "tasteless" and "disgusting."
"It's actually working against peace in Gaza, and Hamas is convinced that they've won the PR war and they keep seeing all these kinds of protests across the nation on these campuses,” he added. “And it's not helpful, but it's actually… it works against peace, I think.”
Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is now offering $5,000 of his own money to catch vandals who defaced a World War I memorial in Manhattan on Monday.
The 107th United States Infantry monument, located along Central Park on the Upper East Side, depicts seven U.S. Army soldiers in the throes of battle in September 1918, as they burst through the Hindenburg Line — the last and strongest of the German army's defense. As anti-Israel protests were underway in the area near Hunter College and the star-studded Met Gala, demonstrators placed pro-Palestinian stickers on the memorial, spray-painted "Free Gaza" and burned the American flag at the site.
"We're going to treat this crime with the seriousness that it deserves," Adams said Tuesday in front of the monument. "I will not stand by while people desecrate memorials for those who fought for democracy and human rights. The right rights that they (pro-Palestinian groups) are calling for."
NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering another $10,000 as a reward.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Hundreds of protesters descended upon Manhattan’s Union Square Tuesday evening, where some demonstrators could be heard shouting chants like “brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel will fall!”
“There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” the same group of protesters chanted along with “Long live the intifada!”
The massive protest appeared to be mostly peaceful, although the NYPD could be seen making some arrests.
Union Square is around five miles from Columbia University where anti-Israel protests have continued for weeks and where the NYPD was forced to clear an illegally occupied building last week.
Pro-Palestinian students occupy a central lawn on the Columbia University campus, on April 21, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Police have arrested three people after an argument between two protesters and a driver, 57, escalated into a protester being struck by the driver’s vehicle in Manhattan, the NYPD confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The argument started just before 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday in the 700 block of Park Avenue around three miles from Columbia University.
The driver’s vehicle was allegedly damaged by the protesters after the driver hit a demonstrator -- a 55-year-old woman who was hospitalized with minor injuries. Around two dozen demonstrators were marching at the time.
Police are not yet releasing the names of those arrested. Charges are pending.
A witness at the scene told Fox News Digital that the driver grabbed one of the protesters’ arms after asking for a flyer while the demonstrators were marching from one of the university trustees’ homes.
The witness claimed the driver circled the block after the argument, then veered toward the sidewalk and drove into the group, hitting the 55-year-old.
The incident comes as anti-Israel protests continue at Columbia and days after the NYPD emptied a campus building that had been occupied and damaged by agitators.
Tents and signs fill Harvard Yard by the John Harvard statue in the Pro-Palestinian encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 5, 2024. Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks were more muted Friday after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
More than 300 Harvard faculty members sent a letter to interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber on Tuesday urging “constructive dialogue” with the “peaceful protesters” who have occupied Harvard Yard.
The letter comes a day after Garber sent a public email warning that protesters who didn’t leave the Yard could face an involuntary leave of absence.
The faculty letter to Garber said they agreed with his statement that “disagreements are most effectively addressed through candid, constructive dialogue. We are concerned that the university has yet to meet with the students to hear their concerns. Instead, the administration has issued escalating threats of punitive disciplinary action, the severity of which the university has not seen in decades. We urge the administration to meet and engage in meaningful dialogue with peacefully protesting students.”
The unsanctioned group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, who are occupying the Yard, gave school administrators until Monday evening to begin negotiating with student protest leaders, but did not receive a response.
Those in the encampment are asking Harvard for disclosure of investments, divestment from Israel, and amnesty for protesters.
Harvard University student Alex Bernat told Fox News Digital these were "asinine demands," considering Harvard does not divest from any other country and protesters are in violation of time, place and manner restrictions.
Surveillance images of alleged vandals who spray painted a General Sherman statue. (NYPD)
Police in New York City said they were searching for three suspects after a statue of General Sherman in Central Park was vandalized Monday night.
The vandals allegedly spray painted the statue of the general who served with the Union during the Civil War.
The NYPD shared surveillance images of the suspects who wore black with at least two of them wearing white scarves over their heads and white face masks.
Police said the alleged vandals fled in an unknown direction around 8:30 p.m. ET.
The incident comes as anti-Israel protesters on campuses across the country have defaced statues, including a George Washington statue at his namesake university and the University of Southern California's Tommy Trojan.
The statue of George Washington at the university that bears his name wears Palestinian flags, kefiyeh and stickers in a Gaza solidarity encampment. (Photo by Allison Bailey / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)
Anti-Israel demonstrators at a George Washington University encampment called for the 'guillotine' for school administrators, a video posted to social media recently showed.
"Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine" a person with a bull horn could be heard chanting as other demonstrators joined in.
"Bracey, Bracey, we see you. You assault students too. Off to the mother------" gallows with you,” the protesters chanted, referring to Provost Christopher Bracey in what appeared to be a mock trial with other protesters playing the parts of the administration.
The board of trustees was also found "guilty" of “having a vested interest in the genocide of the Palestinian people” in the mock trial.
The school told Fox News Digital in a statement: "Ensuring the safety and security of all individuals on our campus remains our highest priority. Any threat, whether perceived or explicit, is treated seriously and referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities."
Protesters, who erected tents and displayed Palestinian flags at their encampment, have remained on campus for nearly two weeks.
They also defaced a statue of George Washington last week.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
A display of over one thousand Israeli and American flags was destroyed over the weekend at Harvard University.
The flags were planted by the local chapter of the Young America's Foundation to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that sparked the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish student who helped plant the flags with YAF, said he found the display vandalized coming home from a Sabbath service.
"We had almost all of our Israeli flags and our American flags either thrown all over the campus, thrown in the garbage, or ripped," Kestenbaum said in a video showing the damaged flags. "All of our hostage posters were of course ripped and destroyed, so we’re gonna get new ones."
YAF posted photos and videos of the damage on social media. The group plans to fix the memorial.
"These flags represent the Americans and Israelis who’ve been held hostage since October 7th," YAF President Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement following the vandalism. "The radicals who vandalized this display don’t care about them. They are wrong. So wrong."
Students at an encampment on the Harvard campus are facing threats of severe disciplinary action by the university administration.
Harvard President Alan Garber has announced that students involved in the unsanctioned group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) could face involuntary leave if their protest continues, according to the Harvard Crimson.
HOOP gave school administrators until Monday evening to begin negotiating with student protest leaders, but did not receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this update.
President Biden said Tuesday that the hatred of Jews "continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world" while delivering the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's annual Days of Remembrance ceremony.
The president spoke in Washington, D.C. as anti-Israel protests have been disrupting college campuses around the country.
Biden said the violent attacks and property destruction that is happening on some American college campuses is "not peaceful protest.
"It's against the law. And we are not a lawless country. We're a civil society. We uphold the rule of law. And no one should have to hide or be brave just to be themselves," the president said.
"To the Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt and your pain. Let me reassure you as your president, you're not alone. You belong," Biden continued. "You always have. And you always will. And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad. Even when we disagree."
He concluded his speech by calling for Americans to "rise against hate."
Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this update.
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, said professors should be fired if they withhold students' grades. (Travis Long/News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, said professors who withhold students' grades in a show of support for anti-Israel rioters should be "immediately" terminated.
The comment came after professors at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reportedly organized a protest where they would withhold the final grades of all students unless the university reinstates students they claim were suspended during an anti-Israel demonstration last week.
"UNC professors should be protecting students who are targets of antisemitism and violence," Hudson tweeted on X. "They should not be protecting the bigots and antisemites. Fire any faculty or staff participating in withholding grades immediately."
The UNC-Chapel Hill sent a letter cautioning professors and faculty members against withholding students’ final grades on Tuesday.
The academic anarchy comes after anti-Israel demonstrations sprang up on the campus last week. These agitators ripped down an American flag on the campus and replaced its patriotic red, white and blue with the Palestinian flag, flying the red, green and white high over the campus.
To restore order, university administrators took action and ordered police to clear the encampment. The students who participated in the unrest were forced to clear the area and some faced disciplinary action.
Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard contributed to this update.
US President Joe Biden speaks at the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony for Holocaust survivors at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2024. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
President Biden on Tuesday said he has not forgotten about the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against Israel on Oct. 7 and condemned antisemitic protests on college campuses.
In remarks at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony, Biden recounted the rapes, tortures and murders committed by Hamas and lamented that some people appear to have already forgotten Hamas' crimes seven short months after the attack.
"I have not forgotten, nor have you," Biden told his audience. "And we will not forget. And as Jews around the world still cope with the atrocities and trauma of that day and it's aftermath, we've seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world."
Biden said too many people have denied, downplayed rationalized and ignored the horrors of the Holocaust., as well as Oct. 7, "including Hamas' appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorized youth."
"It's absolutely despicable. And it must stop."
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, speaks at the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony for Holocaust survivors at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., spoke at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony Tuesday in the Capitol, where he condemned the ongoing anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses.
Johnson said that American colleges and universities are "quickly becoming hostile places for Jewish students and faculty."
"The very campuses which were once the envy of the international academy have succumbed to an antisemitic virus. Students who were known for producing academic papers are now known for stabbing their Jewish peers in the eyes with Palestinian flags. Faculty who once produced cutting edge research are now linking arms with pro-Hamas protesters and calling for a global intifada. Administrators who were once lauded by their peers for leadership are now barring Jewish faculty and choosing not to protect their Jewish students," Johnson said.
"And these Jewish students are physically threatened when they walked on campuses. Their peers hold posters repeating the Nazi propaganda in the program: the final solution. Now is a time for moral clarity, and we must put an end to this madness."
The New York Stock Exchange with a Hims & Hers Health, Inc banner is pictured as a person runs past in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., January 21, 2021. (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)
Hims & Hers founder and CEO Andrew Dudum said Sunday that his previous comments offering support for anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were "misconstrued by some" after the company's stock dipped.
In a thread on X, Dudum said he wished to clarify his earlier comments and said he does not support violence, antisemitism or intimidation.
"The last few days have been a disheartening reflection of just how divisive a time we live in," Dudum began. "I'd like to clarify a few things because my words have been misconstrued by some."
"I, in no way condone nor support acts or threats of violence, antisemitism, or intimidation and there is absolutely no justification for violence on our campuses," he continued. "Every student deserves to feel safe without fear of harm or being targeted for who they are. I am deeply saddened that my support for peaceful protest has been interpreted by some as encouraging violence, intimidation, or bigotry of any kind."
This comes after Dudum, whose company provides telehealth services and prescription medication for issues such as hair loss, erectile dysfunction and skin problems, said Wednesday that demonstrators' future employment is not as important as standing up for the cause they believe in.
"Moral courage > College degree If you're currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university's divestment from Israel, keep going," Dudum wrote on X. "It's working. There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline."
Dudum, a Palestinian-American, also provided a link for protesters to apply for a job at his company.
Billionaire Columbia University graduate and CEO Leon Cooperman is doubling down on previous comments he made blasting the anti-Israel protests that have taken place at his alma mater and other colleges, and says the situation has now escalated into "organized anarchy."
Cooperman told "The Claman Countdown" host Liz Claman in October following the initial demonstrations that began after Israel was attacked by Hamas terrorists, "These kids at the colleges have s--- for brains," and he repeated that refrain during another appearance on the show Monday.
The investor said his wife of 59 years had been critical of him for saying what he did about the demonstrators back in the fall, before declaring, "I would repeat that — it's worse, now. You know, this is organized anarchy, organized anarchy. Anarchy is a state of disorder, a refusal to recognize authority. These kids don't get it."
The Columbia business school alum and megadonor also told Claman in October that he had donated somewhere around $50 million to the university over the years, but that he was suspending his giving at the time. On Monday, he said he would "modify that a little bit" and that he was not ending his donations to the school.
"In the past I gave money without direction to the university, and my understanding was the university took a percentage of what you gave to the business school as a tax, and I specify all my future giving will be directly to the business school and no tax," Cooperman said. "I think that they recognize the problem now, and it's their responsibility to make the campus safe for all students, to eliminate hate and bigotry against all groups — not just Israelis, not just Jews."
Cooperman said the demonstrators fall into a couple of groups, one being students, and the other being "professional demonstrators that are wearing masks and doing crazy things."
He said it appears Columbia's administrators are finally addressing the issue.
"I think in the end, it's better late than never," he told Claman. "I think the administration at Columbia recognize the problem now and they're doing what has to be done."
Fox Business' Breck Dumas contributed to this update.
Several Columbia University students spoke out to Fox News Digital on Monday after administrators announced they would be canceling the school's main commencement ceremony. Security concerns in the wake of raucous anti-Israel protests were top of mind in making the decision, a university official told Fox News.
One graduating senior, who also testified before the House Education & Workforce Committee about the antisemitic agitators, said she did so in order to give voice to those in the community who all have the same concerns as well as a way to urge Columbia administrators to act.
"I think that [Columbia] has the potential to be the amazing institution that I know that it is," Yola Ashkenazie told Fox News Digital.
Ashkenazie said she was disappointed that the main commencement ceremony was canceled, saying graduation festivities are as much for the students as they are for the parents and families who work hard to ensure their children can attend a venerated institution like Columbia.
"So, it's really sad that we don't get to properly mark this moment with them and with all of our friends across all the different schools," she said.
Ashkenazie said administrators had at first acted like the anti-Israel protests were peaceful demonstrations, but she added that if that were true, she still would be attending graduation.
"[W]hy would they cancel commencement if they thought that they were entirely peaceful? It doesn't really make sense. And the administration can't keep their story straight."
Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz contributed to this update.
The New York Police Department strongly condemned the vandalism of a World War One memorial by anti-Israel agitators who marched on the Met Gala Monday night.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry called the desecration "unacceptable behavior that will not be tolerated."
"I want to assure you that the NYPD, backed by our finest detectives, is actively investigating this heinous crime. We will leave no stone unturned until the perpetrators are brought to justice," Daughtry said.
"Vandalizing a memorial, a symbol of remembrance and honor, is not only an act of criminal mischief but also a disrespect to the sacrifices of those who served our country," he continued.
"The NYPD is known for its exceptional investigative abilities, and this case will be no exception. We are committed to upholding the law and ensuring that justice prevails. Let this serve as a warning to anyone who dares to deface our city's landmarks – there will be consequences."
Anti-Israel agitators at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. are urging administrators not to call police to clear their encampment, which has remained on the campus for 13 days.
Protesters in GWU’s U-Yard have erected tents and displayed Palestinian flags at their encampment. They also defaced a statue of the campus's namesake, former President George Washington, with Palestinian iconography, which includes slamming "Free Palestine" stickers onto the statue.
The raucous crowd are demanding that the university divest itself of all companies that trade with Israel, as well as reveal all the university's investment information to students — and now, they do not want the university to call D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to clear the encampment.
"We are very disciplined and organized. We’ve instructed all of our participants not to engage with agitators. Not to engage with police," student organizer Reem Lababdi told 7News. "We have a peaceful study. We have political education. We have religious services. There is absolutely no reason for MPD to get involved."
The anti-Israel encampment has vowed not to disperse until their demands are met.
"They made it abundantly clear that, unless the school complies 100% with their demands, they will not be leaving," Skyler Sieradzky, a senior at George Washington University, told Fox News.
Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard contributed to this update.
Eman Abdelhadi attends the "Coming Around" premiere during the NewFest 35th Anniversary Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music on October 15, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Joy Malone/Getty Images)
Eman Abdelhadi, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, denounced the police raid at an anti-Israel encampment on campus early Tuesday.
Abdelhadi, who spoke at a press conference in support of the protest on Monday, said the point of the raid was "terror."
"They waited for those kids to fall asleep. And then they pulled the tents from under them while they were sleeping. Shame on the University of Chicago," the professor posted on X.
"A beautiful space destroyed," she lamented in another post, sharing video of police tearing down tents and removing signage from the camp.
University President Paul Alivisatos said the school decided to call police to remove the encampment after days of negotiations that failed to come to a reasonable resolution. Alivisatos said the protesters made "intractable and inflexible" demands that were "fundamentally incompatible with the University's principled dedication to institutional neutrality."
Abdelhadi slammed a "deal" the university purportedly offered students because it "didn't have the word Palestine or Palestinian once."
Police in riot gear are clearing an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago early Tuesday morning.
Protesters locked arms and stood opposed to officers who the university called to disperse the encampment on campus that has been set up for more than a week. Police gave a final notice to students participating in the protest that they must leave or be arrested for criminal trespass, according to video on social media.
"Additionally, failure to immediately leave will result in disciplinary action as outlined in the Student Manual. You will be immediately placed on emergency interim leave of absence from the University," the notice states.
Campus police surrounded the quad overnight and began removing tents, announcing over loudspeakers that anyone who remains in the encampment will be arrested.
In a message Tuesday, University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos said the university intervened to end the encampment Tuesday due to safety concerns and increasing risks that made the status quo unacceptable.
"The protesters were given an opportunity to disassemble their structures and depart the encampment, and there have been no arrests. Where appropriate, disciplinary action will proceed," Alivisatos said.
"Over multiple days, including through the weekend, we engaged with the representatives of the encampment to work toward a resolution. There were areas where we were able to achieve common ground, but ultimately a number of the intractable and inflexible aspects of their demands were fundamentally incompatible with the University’s principled dedication to institutional neutrality. As such, we could not come to a resolution," he explained.
"The University remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest."
Demonstrators tear down barricades that had been erected outside an anti-Israel encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass.
Anti-Israel agitators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tore down barricades and retook their encampment on campus Monday after the school set a deadline to disperse.
The afternoon deadline passed in which students were told to voluntarily leave the protest site or face suspension. Many left, according to an MIT spokesperson, who told the Associated Press protesters breached fencing after the arrival of demonstrators from outside the university. On Monday night, dozens of protesters remained at the encampment in a calmer atmosphere, listening to speakers and chanting before taking a pizza dinner break, the AP reported.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, told the AP the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing in Gaza.
“Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT’s direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this update.
Student protesters have occupied a building at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), demanding that the institution divest from Israel.
Protesters have occupied the first floor of an administrative building at 20 Washington Place in Providence, the Brown Daily Herald reported.
RISD spokeswoman Jaime Marland told Fox News Digital the school affirms "our students’ right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and peaceful assembly."
"RISD condemns violence and injustice, and we decry antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate. The wellbeing of all of our students has been and remains our top priority, and we continue to support all members of our community," she said.
The school's president and provost met with the demonstrators on site Monday night.
Marland did not respond to questions about whether the school will call police but pointed to an April 26 letter from President Crystal Williams to the RISD community that described the school's position on police presence.
In the letter, Williams wrote, “there is no moment when I, as your president, want to see police action taken against students who are peacefully protesting.”
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett joined "The Ingraham Angle" on Monday night and condemned college and university administrations that are giving in to the "temper tantrum" thrown by anti-Israel agitators.
Bennett reacted to the news that Rutgers University gave in to several demands from protesters on its campus, including that they accept at least 10 Gazan students to study at the school on a scholarship and hiring additional professors who specialize in Palestinian and Middle Eastern studies.
"Normal kids are fed up," Bennett said. "And I imagine normal kids would be fed up at Columbia. But this is what happens when adults capitulate their authority."
"Who's in charge at Columbia?" he asked. "Who's in charge at Rutgers? Who's in charge at UCLA? Certainly not the administrators. It's those demonstrators, a small group of demonstrators closing down these institutions."
Bennett said these institutions of higher learning have been "corrupted" by the left and warned that hatred directed towards Jews will come for Christians next.
NYPD officers line up outside Columbia University, Monday, April 29, 2024. A deadline of 2pm today has been set for anti-Isreal protestors to clear out of the Ivy League school. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
Between Columbia's and The City College of New York's campuses last week, police arrested 282 people and worked to dismantle illegal encampments. The NYPD revealed half of those arrested were outside agitators not affiliated with the universities.
Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael Mangual told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this month that the NYPD is spread thin as it juggles safety concerns revolving around the protests, in addition to a handful of other public safety issues in the city.
"The department being spread as thin as it is, is really going to constrain its ability to respond to any kind of major shift," Mangual said. "Again, we're hoping ... that the beginning of this trend of a crime decline continues. But if this summer turns out to be a very hot summer on the crime front, I mean, that can be particularly disastrous at a time in which the department is spread as thin as it is."
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.
Anti-Israel agitators occupy a central lawn on the Columbia University campus, on April 21, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
A group of 13 U.S. federal judges appointed by former President Trump have vowed not to hire law school students and undergraduates from New York City-based Columbia University due to the school’s handling of the anti-Israel protests that ultimately led to an academic hall being occupied.
In a letter obtained by Reuters which was addressed to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Law Dean Gillian Lester, the 13 conservative judges said they lost confidence in the university as an institution of higher education, saying instead it has become "an incubator of bigotry."
"Since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, Columbia University has become ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints on campuses across the nation. Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults, and destroyed property," the letter reads. "As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country."
The judges offered the administrators guidance on how the university could reclaim its "once-distinguished" reputation, starting with punishing students and faculty with profound consequences for those who participated in campus disruptions and violated established rules regarding the use of university facilities and public spaces as well as threats against fellow members of the school community.
They explained that in the past, citizens were warned that trespassing on public spaces was enough to warrant incarceration, and the same conduct should warrant lesser measures like expulsion or termination.
"After all, elite universities purport to train not just law-abiding citizens but future leaders," the letter reads. "Universities should also identify students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them."
The judges also offered their stance on free speech, saying the university should offer neutrality and nondiscrimination when protecting free speech and enforcing the rules of conduct on campus.
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner contributed to this update.
A group of fraternity members at the University of North Carolina (UNC) captured the attention of the nation last week when they held up the American flag as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to replace the Stars and Stripes with a Palestinian flag.
After enduring nearly an hour of screaming, slurring and flying objects, the fraternity brothers held up the fallen American flag until it could be restored in a display that many considered a heroic act of patriotism. A GoFundMe was started to throw a party for the fraternities involved, which raised over half a million dollars by the time donations closed.
Will, a member of UNC's Phi Delta Theta chapter, told Fox News Digital that in the lead-up to last Tuesday's protest, he spent time talking to people to better understand exactly what they aimed to achieve with their demonstrations. Will said he and his friend Ben went to see the protest in the early afternoon, but ultimately left. Once they heard the American flag had been ripped down and replaced by the Palestinian flag, they rushed back to campus.
"We were kind of baffled," Will said of his experience watching the Palestinian flag raise up on the flag pole at the American university.
"My biggest fear was that they had taken it down, it was under their feet or they're gonna try to light fire to it or something, but it ended up being taken by police," he added. "We hung out, [but] we were getting increasingly frustrated because we're both relatively neutral in the conflict. At the end of the day, it's a world away from here and we can't make much of a difference from North Carolina. It immediately became an issue for me and for a lot of other people that the American flag came down."
President Joe Biden arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., from a weekend trip to his Delaware home, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Biden is expected to deliver a strong condemnation of antisemitism Tuesday during a ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust as anti-Israel protests have roiled U.S. college campuses.
The president will deliver remarks at the Capitol after students and outside agitators protesting the war in Gaza — some of whom have used antisemitic chants and made threats towards Jewish students and Israel supporters — have disrupted universities across the country.
Biden has struggled to balance his support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack — the deadliest day for Jews worldwide since the Holocaust — with his efforts to constrain its war on the militant group in Gaza.
“You can expect the president to make clear that during these sacred days of remembrance, we honor the memory of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. “And we recommit to heeding the lessons of this dark chapter. Never again.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden would speak to the “horrors” of the Hamas attack, and how antisemitism is on the rise globally and at home.
“And he will speak to how since October 7th, we’ve seen an alarming rise in antisemitism in the U.S. and our cities, our communities and on our campuses,” she added.
The Associated Press contributed to this update.
In this image taken from video Police arrests some 125 activists as they broke up an anti-Israel demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, as protests that have roiled campuses in the United States spread into Europe. (AP Photo InterVision)
Anti-Israel riots have spread to the Netherlands.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, police arrested more than 120 people at an encampment erected at the University of Amsterdam. The sweeping arrest comes as demonstrations calling for the death of America and Israel have roiled campuses in the U.S. and have spread into Europe.
Police in the Dutch capital said the protests turned violent and that their action was "necessary to restore order" in a statement on X.
Officers used batons and shields as they moved into the demonstration, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents, video from the scene aired by national broadcaster NOS showed. Police also used a mechanical digger to rip down barricades.
There were no reported injuries.
On Monday, the agitators copied the template of those agitators at elite U.S. colleges and universities as they formed barricades from wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported.
Photos from the Amsterdam campus showed the agitators had erected tents, displayed anti-Israel banners and had gathered containers of food.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer detains a protester while clearing an anti-Israel encampment after dispersal orders were given at the UCLA campus on May 2. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced an investigation into the "group of instigators" who "violently attacked" an anti-Israel encampment on the school's campus last week.
Rick Braziel, inaugural associated vice chancellor and chief safety officer, has been chosen to lead the investigation "to identify the perpetrators of the violence and hold them to account."
The LAPD also has a detective committed to assisting UCLA in "investigative efforts," Block said, and LA County District Attorney George Gascón is also prepared to prosecute "the instigators" to the fullest extent of the law.
"This was a truly despicable act, and in my message to campus the following day, I committed to finding those responsible and bringing them to justice," Block said.
The university is also looking into "all available footage" of the incident and asking witnesses who "saw the violence firsthand" to report it. Block also said the school is conducting a "broader assessment of all acts of violence over the last 12 days, including those against counter-protestors(sic)."
"Holding the instigators of this attack accountable and enhancing our campus safety operations are both critical. Our community members can only learn, work and thrive in an environment where they feel secure," he concluded.
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