USA: Police clear pro-Palestinian protesters at three universities

On the East Coast, Boston police arrested about 100 protesters at Northeastern University. Posts appeared on social media showing security forces wearing riot gear. Police officers were also recorded loading protesters’ tents into a truck.

The move came after some demonstrators resorted to “violent anti-Semitic statements, including ‘Kill the Jews,'” Northeastern University said in a statement posted on the X social network.

Across the country, Arizona State University police arrested 69 people for trespassing after setting up an “unauthorized camp” on campus.

Arizona state officials said the protesters, “many of whom were not university students, faculty or staff,” set up camp Friday and later ignored repeated orders to disperse.

At Indiana University in the central US, police cleared a protest camp and arrested 23 people, the newspaper “Indiana Daily Student” reported.

According to the publication, police officers with shields, batons and other riot gear broke through the line of hand-held protesters.

Activists on college campuses are calling for an end to Israel’s war with Hamas, and are calling on colleges to sever ties with the country and companies they say are profiting from the conflict.

The protests have become a major challenge for university administrators trying to strike a balance between freedom of expression and complaints that the rallies have turned into manifestations of anti-Semitism and hate speech.