“Last night, the use of violent anti-Semitic slurs, including 'Kill the Jews,' crossed the line,” Renata Nyul, Northeastern's vice president of communications, said in a statement Saturday morning. “We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus.”
The tense scene was just the latest clash between students, police and university leadership since protests erupted on campus this month. At least 900 people were arrested on college campuses, according to a Washington Post count.
From Boston to California, student groups are demanding that schools sever any financial ties to Israel, calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and defying pressure from administrators to disband. The unrest prompted schools to cancel graduation ceremonies and cancel in-person classes. Zoomed out, it focuses sharply on American college campuses as the war in Gaza intensifies.
At Indiana University, authorities cleared an encampment, according to social media posts from the university's student newspaper. This came after several protesters were arrested on Thursday, according to local news. In video footage Posted online by the campus newspaper, several baton-wielding officers clashed with the crowd.
In a statement, Indiana University police said they arrested 23 people Saturday on charges including criminal trespass and resisting law enforcement. Before arresting them, police said they gave six verbal warnings to remove the structures they had built on the campus. “The relationship to Indiana University for those arrested has not been confirmed,” the statement said.
Also Saturday, police at Arizona State University arrested 69 people for trespassing, saying they had set up an unauthorized camp. The group, “most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff,” refused to leave after multiple warnings and were arrested, the university said in a statement.
At the University of Pennsylvania, interim president J. Larry Jameson called Friday night for the campus encampments to be broken up immediately. He too he said there was Vandalizing a campus statue “with anti-Semitic graffiti” and that it would be investigated as a hate crime, and said the “harassing and intimidating comments and actions” violated university policies, along with state and federal laws.
“Failure to immediately dismantle the camp and adhere to Penn policies will result in sanctions consistent with due process procedures as they apply to students, faculty and staff,” the statement said. As of late Saturday, however, a university spokesman said the camp had not been broken up.
In downtown Denver, about 40 protesters were arrested Friday at the Auraria Center for Higher Education, home to the University of Colorado Denver, the Community College of Denver and the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
After Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) on Friday called for the tents to come down, the Palestine Coalition of Colorado posted a photo of the camp early on Saturday in X saying, “We didn't inform, and the policemen left!”
In some places, the crackdown has become particularly tense. In Atlanta, police broke up an encampment at Emory University, with one officer using a stun gun on a restrained protester, according to social media videos reviewed by The Post.
At Northeastern, there were conflicting accounts of who was shouting “Kill the Jews” during the demonstrations. On Saturday morning, the Huntington News, the university's independent student newspaper, she told him The reporters “heard someone say the statement but could not determine who said it.” Separately, a video posted on a Instagram account for Huskies for Palestine, which coordinates the campus protests, said the statement was shouted by anti-Israel activists as a provocation. The Post was unable to independently verify the claims.
About 100 people were arrested, said Nyul, the university spokeswoman. Those who could show a valid Northeast ID card were released and would be punished within the university system. Those who refused to show their participation were arrested, the university said. It was unclear how many students were involved.
The area around the camp had calmed down by Saturday afternoon, with the tents cleared and the area cordoned off. A few policemen and security guards were walking around.
Aaron Richardson was a student activist before graduating from Hampshire College in 2021. When Richardson, 26, heard about the arrests from a friend who attends Northeastern, it was an easy choice to come to campus and offer his support, he said.
“I see the commanders' decision to arrest protesters as a way for the administration to make it look like they are fighting anti-Semitism,” Richardson said. “Students in the movement are clear that they are working to bring attention to Palestine while fighting anti-Semitism.”
In Denver, the education center said Auraria Campus police – along with Denver police – broke up an encampment of tents on one of the main blocks. Then, after the camp had been cleared, some protesters returned to the area and set up more than 30 tents.
“This action took place only after exhaustive efforts to re-engage the protesters and understand their perspectives and explain campus safety policies,” statement from the university system on Friday night he read. “As the crowd and safety concerns grew, it became increasingly clear that our duty to protect our students and the rest of our community was paramount.”
Local television footage showed law enforcement carrying students away from the protest site. The Auraria Campus said those arrested were charged with trespassing and that the student protesters had been joined by people outside the schools.
Devra Ashby, a spokeswoman for the Auraria Campus, said in a brief interview that as of Saturday morning, some of the protesters remained on the block as campus officials were set to meet with law enforcement.
On Friday, California State University Humboldt announced that the campus will be closed for the remainder of the semester. The decision to complete the next few weeks remotely came after administrators gave protesters who entered a building this week until Friday night to leave or face arrest. Only a few left.
correction
The metaheadline (the title a search engine uses to find articles) in an earlier version of this article incorrectly said that protesters at the University of Pennsylvania had been arrested. The subtitle has been fixed.
clarification
An earlier version of this article implied that the University of Pennsylvania had broken up campus encampments. While the university's president issued a statement on Friday evening ordering the immediate dismantling of the encampments, they had not been disturbed as of Saturday afternoon.
Stephanie Morales and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Boston contributed to this report.
