Student Gaza protests: top Republicans call on Biden to send in federal officers

[Celerity]

Letter from 25 senators including Mitch McConnell says president ‘must act immediately to restore order’ on university campuses

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/23/university-protests-arrests-yale-nyu-columbia

Pro-Palestinian students and activists face police officers as they protest the Israel-Hamas war on the campus of New York University on 22 April 2024. Photograph: Alex Kent/AFP/Getty Images

Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and his deputy, John Thune, wrote to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the education secretary, Miguel Cardona, with strong language calling demonstrators “anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.

Police had arrested about 150 protesters at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale and New York University on Monday night, while Columbia University announced that classes would be taught remotely for the rest of the semester, as anger boiled over following more than 100 arrests there last week. Some university leaders, most notably at Columbia, are facing calls for resignation this week and fierce criticism – from those outraged at the protests and those outraged at the crackdown on the protests.

On Tuesday afternoon, 25 Republican senators led by McConnell wrote: “The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated [sic] violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students.” The Missouri senator Josh Hawley and Arkansas senator Tom Cotton on Monday had called for Joe Biden to send national guard troops on to campus.

On the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, authorities arrested at least 47 protesters on Monday evening, the university said in a statement. Students who were arrested will be referred for disciplinary action. Several hundred people had been protesting at Yale, including hunger strikers, demanding the university divest from military weapons manufacturers and other companies with ties to Israel. And in downtown Manhattan, police clashed with protesters at New York University. There were reports of officers using pepper spray as demonstrators tried to block a police bus from leaving the scene with detained students, and more than 100 people were arrested.

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[comradebillyboy]

1. These are local matters best left to local authorities.

In any event the pro-Palestinian demonstrators seem to be working overtime to alienate the general public with their antics.