US campus protests of Gaza war lead to hundreds of arrests

Protests on US college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war continued on Thursday, as one prominent university announced it would cancel its main graduation ceremony as a result.

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles said it won't hold its main graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 10.

"With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially," USC said in its announcement.

The Los Angeles Police Department said 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest on the USC campus for allegedly trespassing. One person was arrested on allegations of assault with a deadly weapon.

On April 15, USC announced that valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who had been opposed by pro-Israel groups, would not be delivering the commencement speech after she faced criticism for her pro-Palestinian views.

USC said that "tradition must give way to safety", after Tabassum faced threats of an "alarming tenor".

"Although this should have been a time of celebration for my family, friends, professors, and classmates, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all," Tabassum, who is Muslim, said in a statement.

"This is a security decision," USC Provost Andrew T. Guzman said to the Los Angeles Times. "This is not about the identity of the speaker, it's not about the things the valedictorian has said in the past. We have to put as our top priority ensuring that the campus and community is safe."

More than 530 arrests have been made in the last week across major US universities related to the protests, according to a Reuters tally.

College officials are worried the ongoing protests could disrupt their plans for commencement ceremonies next month, as they have at USC. Some universities called in police to break up the demonstrations, resulting in scuffles and arrests, while others appeared content to wait out student protests as the semester draws to a close.

The current wave of protests was inspired by events at Columbia University in New York, where police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 100 people last week, only for students to put up tents again, in an area where many are set to graduate in front of families in a few weeks.

Columbia has said it plans to continue negotiations with protesters through early Friday.

"There is a heavy police presence. I'm sure when you entered the campus, you are aware of all of the security around here," Althea C., a 21-year-old environmental biology student at Columbia University in New York, told China Daily. "But our movement is very strong."

Professors were spontaneously standing in front of students against police officers on Monday night, wearing gowns and hoods, holding signs saying "Hands off our students".

"It's very difficult to have complicated conversations when you have 100 of your students being hauled off with zip ties around their wrists by the NYPD," Nara Milanich, a history professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, told China Daily.

As the encampment took place on the lawn, a small group of pro-Israel students also demonstrated on the steps.

"I want everyone to live in security to not have to fear for their lives. I do not wish war to be anywhere," said a pro-Israel student who requested anonymity. "I personally want an end to this war, and that includes the ceasing of rockets flying in Israel from every direction."

At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested at an alleyway encampment.

Some students protesting the war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from certain companies that they say have enabled the conflict.

Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and have made them afraid to walk around campus.

The University of Texas at Austin campus was much calmer Thursday after 57 people were jailed and charged with criminal trespass a day earlier. University officials pulled back barricades and allowed demonstrators onto the main square beneath the school's iconic clock tower.

At Emory University in Atlanta, local and state police swept in to dismantle a camp, although the university said the protesters weren't students but rather outside activists. Jail records showed 22 people arrested by Emory police were charged with disorderly conduct.

"Several dozen protesters trespassed into Emory University's campus early Thursday morning and set up tents," the school wrote in response to an emailed request for comment.

On the campus of Princeton University in New Jersey, officers swarmed a newly formed encampment, video footage on social media showed.

But many colleges, including Harvard University, were choosing not to take immediate action against protesters who had set up tents, even though they were openly defying campus rules.

Some colleges were making new rules, like Northwestern University, which hastily changed its student code of conduct Thursday morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus.

George Washington University in Washington DC said it would move its law school finals from a building next to the protest encampment to a new location, because of noise.

"We continue to follow reports about protests — including very alarming reports of antisemitism — on and around college campuses across the country," US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

Student protesters also have demanded that the US government rein in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, which Palestinian health authorities said have killed more than 34,000 people.

Israel is retaliating against an Oct 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and led to 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli numbers.

Agencies and Heng Weili in New York contributed to this story.