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Category: Protests

  • Student reporter confined to building during Columbia protests

    Columbia Journalism School student Oishika Neogi was among a group of student reporters herded away from a pro-Palestinian protest, confined to a campus building and threatened with arrest by New York City police, who were retaking another building occupied by protesters on April 30, 2024.

    Neogi, an investigative journalism fellow and master’s student at the school, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been reporting on the campus protests since mid-April, when protesters set up an encampment. Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Neogi and other student reporters were the only media allowed there that day, when New York Police Department officers in riot gear cleared the occupied Hamilton Hall.

    Neogi told the Tracker that when the police entered the campus at around 9 p.m., she was stationed at the side of Hamilton Hall, while other student journalists were in front of the building or at the center of campus. “As soon as they came in, they started pushing us away from Hamilton,” she said. Police had batons and were yelling to “move back,” but did not hit any of the journalists, Neogi added.

    She said she was wearing her Overseas Press Club ID around her neck and a student press sign on her back, and had her Columbia student press ID in her bag.

    Neogi and other journalists standing with her were forced by the NYPD to move to an exterior staircase near Hamilton where she could not see the building or what was happening in front of it. She said she was in that location for about 45 minutes. During that time, “We just didn’t know what was happening at Hamilton, which was the biggest problem.”

    Neogi then went back to Pulitzer Hall, where the journalism school is located and where she was keeping her equipment, and planned to go back out to report. She learned from a colleague, however, that police were outside, warning that people who tried to leave would be arrested. She then went with faculty members and the school’s dean to the gate of the building to speak with police, who told them, “Stay in, or you can get arrested.”

    “Basically, Pulitzer was on lockdown after that. All student journalists who were on campus who were covering this had to be inside Pulitzer Hall. And we couldn’t see anything,” Neogi said.

    She added that there was no official notification from the police about when they were allowed to exit the building. Neogi left around 1:30 a.m., but still could not go near Hamilton or other areas where there was police activity.

    “We should have been in front of Hamilton. There was no other press from the outside,” she said.

    The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Jewish Prof Body-Slammed by Police Tells Biden to Stop Weaponizing Antisemitism

    Gaza solidarity protests continue at college campuses across the nation — as does the police crackdown. This comes as more than 50 chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a statement condemning the violent arrests by police at campus protests. At Dartmouth College last week, police body-slammed professor and former chair of Jewish studies Annelise Orleck to the…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • NYPD confines student reporter to building, threatens arrest as Columbia protests cleared

    Francesca Maria Lorenzini, a student reporter at the Columbia Journalism School, was among a group of student journalists forced into a campus building by New York City police and threatened with arrest on April 30, 2024, as officers retook another building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters.

    Lorenzini had been covering the protests on Columbia University’s campus for City Newsroom, a news outlet staffed by journalism school students. Due to restrictions on outside press access to the campus, Lorenzini and other student reporters were the only media allowed there that day, when New York Police Department officers in riot gear cleared the occupied Hamilton Hall.

    Lorenzini told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and other student journalists were reporting outside Hamilton Hall around 9 p.m. when NYPD officers arrived at the campus. She said she was wearing a Columbia Journalism School press pass around her neck and a sign on her back that said “press.”

    She said that for a brief time, the reporters were able to remain in front of Hamilton, but then police began to progressively push them away from the building. That prevented the journalists from reporting on what was happening inside or taking videos of the operation, in which more than 100 protesters were arrested.

    After about an hour, Lorenzini said, police began to clear a protest encampment on campus, and officers then told the reporters to go into the journalism school building.

    “Shortly before they started clearing the encampment, they pushed us into Pulitzer Hall, which is the main building of the Columbia Journalism School, telling us not to go out, otherwise we would have been arrested,” she said, adding that there was no physical contact from the police.

    She said one of the journalism school deans went out to talk to the NYPD, “telling them that we were press, we’re not just students.”

    Lorenzini said she remained in Pulitzer Hall for about an hour and a half before she was allowed to leave.

    “Nobody was there to document what was happening” during the police operation, Lorenzini noted, “So I feel like that night, freedom of the press was really severely limited.”

    The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

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  • Georgia Protests Update: Students March In Batumi


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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  • Fake images of US college protests circulate in China

    Pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses have gotten attention on Chinese social media, but some of these posts show unrelated demonstrations that happened months or even years earlier.

    One aerial video showing a massive gathering of thousands of people packed together – purported to be at Columbia University in New York – is actually a demonstration in January in Hamburg, Germany, against a far-right political group.

    Another photo claimed to show a protester holding up a famous Mao Zedong quote in Chinese, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” But Asia Fact Check Lab found this to be from a pro-gun rally held in Virginia in 2020. 

    As the Israeli-Hamas conflict drags into its seventh month, student demonstrations supporting the Palestininans and calling for a cease-fire have spread across dozens of U.S. university campuses.

    The aerial video of thousands gathered in public was shared on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo on April 28, with the breathless caption: “U.S. university demonstration: Pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University is majestic!” 



    1.png
    Chinese netizens claimed that a video posted on Weibo shows a pro-Palestinian demonstration in April, but in reality it wasn’t. (Screenshot/Weibo and TikTok)

    But a reverse image search found the video, shared on TikTok  Jan. 21, 2024, actually depicted 80,000 people in Hamburg, Germany, protesting against the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party “since their ‘secret meeting’ with the fascist Identitarian Movement was revealed.

    Keyword searches including “AfD” found the Hamburg demonstrations were one amongst a series of protests to break out against the party after a news report surfaced that the group had considered a plan to expel all people of “non-German backgrounds” from the country, including immigrants who have already obtained residency at a meeting with influential leaders.

    2.png
    Video of demonstrations against the AfD released by German media and government agencies match the purported footage of pro-Palestianian demonstrations at Columbia University spread on Weibo. (Screenshots/YouTube)

    In another case, a number of Weibo influencers and X accounts also recently claimed that one protester at an unspecified college campus held up a poster with the Mao quote, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” 

    But this is false. The photo is from a pro-gun rally held in Virginia in 2020, and has nothing to do with any pro-Palestine demonstration. 

    3.png
    The photo of a purported April protest recently spread on Weibo has actually been circulated online since 2020. (Screenshot/Sina Military and Weibo)

    A reserve image search reveals that a version of the same image shown in a larger frame was published in an article published on the Chinese military news blog Sina Military in 2020

    Keyword searches using visual clues from the photo, including a banner that reads Constitutional Conservatives, found that it shows a rally held by pro-gun advocates from all across the U.S. in Richmond in 2020. 

    A closer look at the image also shows a street sign reading “N. 9th St.” at the top of the frame. A search in Google Maps found that this was a street in Richmond and not part of the university campus. 

    5.png
    A person uploaded a photo of the pro-gun rally to Google Maps in January 2020 in real time as it was happening. (Screenshot/Google Maps)

    Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke, Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.

    Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Dong Zhe for Asia Fact Check Lab.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Facing PR Crisis, UT Austin Administrators Manufacture Myth of Outside Agitators

    Austin, Texas—Although Travis County Attorney Delia Garza initially dropped criminal trespass charges against the first 57 people arrested while protesting in solidarity with Palestine on the University of Texas (UT) at Austin campus on April 24, her office is approaching a second batch of charges stemming from an attempt to reestablish an impromptu encampment on April 29 differently: Garza has…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Revolt on Campus: Protests over Gaza Disrupt Graduation Ceremonies; Police Crack Down on Encampments


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  • Revolt on Campus: Protests over Gaza Disrupt Graduation Ceremonies as Police Crack Down on Encampments

    Seg3 campusrevolt

    Police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests across the U.S., yet students continue to call for an end to the war on Gaza and universities’ investment in companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestine. We speak to three student organizers from around the country: Salma Hamamy of the University of Michigan, president of the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, about the commencement ceremony protest she helped organize, and Cady de la Cruz of the University of Virginia and Rae Ferrara of the State University of New York at New Paltz about police crackdowns on their schools’ encampments. De la Cruz was arrested in the UVA raid and banned from campus without an opportunity to collect any of her belongings. She says repression has strengthened the resolve of many protesters, who are willing to risk their academic futures to push for divestment. “All of us there felt like we have more time on our hands … than the people of Gaza,” she explains, “We would hold it down for anything.”


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  • Auckland academics call out university stance over pro-Palestine protest

    RNZ News

    A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians.

    This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it supported the right of students and staff to protest peacefully and legally, it would not support an overnight encampment due to health and safety concerns.

    The university’s statement said advice from police had been taken into account, and the university would “work constructively” with the protesters to facilitate an alternative form of protest.

    “This compromise enables students and staff who wish to express their views to do so in a peaceful and lawful manner, without introducing the significant risks that such encampments have brought to other university campuses,” the statement said.

    On Wednesday, more than 100 people gathered at the university’s central city campus for the rally, with those taking part expressing a range of views toward violence between Israel and Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

    Protest organisers Students for Justice in Palestine, said the demonstration was the initial event in a long-term campaign to advocate for Palestinian rights, in “support for justice and peace”, and invited any member of the university to take part, “regardless of background or affiliation”.

    After the university’s statement against the planned encampment, the group changed the event to a campus rally, which they said would make it more accessible to a more diverse range of people.

    Open letter of concern
    However, now an open letter signed by 65 university staff and academics says they held deep concerns about the university’s stance toward the protest.

    The institution’s reaction “mischaracterised” the focus of the protest, minimised the violence in Gaza, and had not acknowledged a call for the institution to “divest from any entities and corporations enabling Israel’s ongoing military violence against Palestinians in Gaza”, the letter said.

    It condemned the university for not seeking advice about the planned protest from its own students and staff, and said the institution’s stance had implied the protesters would “introduce significant risks”.

    One of the signatories, senior law lecturer Dylan Asafo, told RNZ the University of Auckland vice-chancellor had taken poor advice.

    “The vice-chancellor is essentially blaming the violence and unrest that we’re seeing on the newest campuses [overseas] on staff and students who set up peaceful encampments there, rather than on university administrators and police forces who have broken up those peaceful encampments.”

    The academics also want confirmation protesters won’t be punished by the university.

    “We also urge you not to discipline or penalise students and staff who may choose to participate in peaceful protests and encampments in any way, and to engage with them in good faith,” the letter said.

    The university has been approached for comment.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

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  • To Confront Antisemitism, Stand With the Oppressed, Not Today’s Pharaohs

    In a satirical Instagram post, musical theater composer Daniel Maté lamented that Jewish dissenters’ efforts to “increase antisemitism” by denouncing Israel’s abuses of Palestinians were “not really working.” Rather, he joked, they were sparking favorable impressions of Jews from the broader pro-Palestine solidarity movement. He then facetiously suggested a new tactic — to find Jewish billionaires…

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  • ICC demands end to threats against court amid Gaza war probe

    Asia Pacific Report

    The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court.

    The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement yesterday that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately.

    While the prosecutor’s statement did not mention Israel, it was issued after Israeli and US officials have warned of consequences against the ICC if it issues arrest warrants over Israel’s war on Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.

    “The office seeks to engage constructively with all stakeholders whenever such dialogue is consistent with its mandate under the Rome Statute to act independently and impartially,” Khan’s office said.

    “That independence and impartiality is undermined, however, when individuals threaten to retaliate against the court or against court personnel should the office, in fulfillment of its mandate, make decisions about investigations or cases falling within its jurisdiction.”

    It added that the Rome Statute, which outlines the ICC’s structure and areas of jurisdiction, prohibits threats against the court and its officials.

    Arrest warrants speculation
    Over the past week, media reports have indicated that the ICC might issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in Gaza.

    The court may prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The Israeli military has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza and destroyed large parts of the territory since the start of the war on October 7.

    News of possible ICC charges against Israeli officials led to an intense pushback by the country and its allies in the United States.

    On Tuesday, Netanyahu released a video message rebuking the court.

    “Israel expects the leaders of the free world to stand firmly against the ICC outrageous assault on Israel’s inherent right of self-defence,” he said.

    “We expect them to use all the means at their disposal to stop this dangerous move.”

    The court has been investigating possible Israeli abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory since 2021. Khan has said his team is investigating alleged war crimes in the ongoing war in Gaza.

    In October, Khan said the court had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes committed by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israeli forces in Gaza.

    Student protests spread to NZ
    Meanwhile, more than 2200 students have been arrested in the United States as protests against the war on Gaza and calling for divestment from Israel have spread to more than 30 universities in spite of police crackdowns, and have also emerged in Australia, Canada, France, United Kingdom — and now New Zealand in the Pacific.

    RNZ News reports that more than 100 students gathered on Auckland University’s city campus to protest against the war.

    The rally was originally planned as an encampment, but the university said any overnight stand would not be allowed.

    Tents had been set up within the crowd, but protest organisers said the event would be a rally.

    Academic staff have appealed over the administration’s decision against the encampment.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

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  • NYPD Officer Fired Gun During Violent Raid of Columbia Hamilton Hall Protest

    A New York Police Department officer fired his gun while he and fellow officers were violently raiding Columbia University students’ protest in and around Hamilton Hall, officials say, in a show of the militaristic and dangerous nature of the police crackdown on demonstrators on Tuesday night. The news of the gun discharge was first reported by The City and was confirmed by the office of Manhattan…

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  • Documents Expose How DC Police Surveil Protest Activity, Social Media Profiles

    Internal documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Brennan Center and Data for Black Lives reveal that for years, Washington, DC, police have used online surveillance tools to monitor people’s social media activity, collect data on individual users and their friend networks, and keep tabs on public protests. The documents provide a window into a secret world of…

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  • “Free Speech Absolutist” Elon Musk Wants to Deport Protesters Who Remove US Flag

    On Thursday, self-described free speech absolutist Elon Musk proffered a new rule for nonviolent protesters: if they remove the flag of the United States and replace it with another country’s emblem, they should be required to be deported to that other country. The description of the removal of the U.S. flag alluded to protests by students at colleges and universities across the country against…

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  • College Democrats Applaud Student Protests, Slam Biden for Gaza Policy

    In a bold statement released this week, college Democrats broke from President Joe Biden and the party establishment by condemning the administration for its support of Israel’s “destructive, genocidal, and unjust” assault on Gaza and throwing their support behind the wave of pro-Palestine protests sweeping the U.S. The College Democrats of America, the Democratic National Committee’s official…

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  • 2,000 Campus Protesters for Gaza Have Been Arrested. Momentum’s Only Building.

    At the University of Florida encampment for Gaza, student protesters are forcing themselves to keep their eyes open night after night, fearing that if they doze off, they could be arrested. “We are not allowed to sleep,” University of Florida freshman Cameron Driggers told Truthout having spent multiple nights at the encampment. “We’ve literally had folks, at least a dozen each night…

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  • Workers Rallied in New York City on May Day in Solidarity With Palestine

    Workers around the world rallied Wednesday to mark May Day, with many calling on the labor movement to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In New York, Democracy Now! spoke to demonstrators who demanded that U.S. unions apply political pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza and to stop their government’s arms trade with Israel. “Workers do have the power to shape the world…

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  • The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – May 2, 2024 Biden weighs in on campus anti-war protests.

    Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

     

    The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – May 2, 2024 Biden weighs in on campus anti-war protests. appeared first on KPFA.


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  • Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus


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  • Pro-Palestinian Student Protesters Are Enacting the Highest Ideals of Education

    April 30, 2024, was the 56th anniversary of Columbia University calling in the police to arrest 700 students who had taken over Hamilton Hall in a protest against racism and the war on Vietnam. It was also the day when the Columbia administration invited the NYPD onto its campus for the second time in less than two weeks. Police in riot gear proceeded to arrest pro-Palestinian students…

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  • Former Brandeis President on Gaza Protests: Schools Must Protect Free Expression on Campus

    Seg2 lawrence encampment protest 2

    We look at how university administrators have responded to Palestine solidarity protests by students with Frederick Lawrence, former president of Brandeis University and now the CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a lecturer at Georgetown Law School. Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community in the wake of the Holocaust and named after the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, the celebrated free speech advocate Louis Brandeis. Lawrence says the nationwide university crackdown on student protesters is a worrying violation of the principles of academic freedom. “Provoking people, challenging people, asking difficult questions, making people uncomfortable, that’s part of the price of living in a democracy,” he says. He also notes that what constitutes a threat to campus safety should be narrowly defined. “You are not entitled to be intellectually safe. You are entitled to be physically safe.”


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  • Massive Crowds Meet Fresh Police Crackdown As Georgian Protests Continue


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  • Explainer: Why Are Mass Protests Shaking Tbilisi?


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  • Explainer: Why Are Mass Protests Shaking Tbilisi?


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  • CPJ calls on authorities to allow journalists to safely cover US campus protests

    Washington, D.C., May 1, 2024– With tensions over pro-Palestinian protests escalating on college campuses across the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on university authorities and law enforcement agencies to allow reporters to freely cover the demonstrations.

    “Journalists – including student journalists who have been thrust into a national spotlight to cover stories in their communities — must be allowed to cover campus protests without fearing for their safety,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen on Wednesday. “Any efforts by authorities to stop them doing their jobs have far-reaching repercussions on the public’s ability to be informed about current events.”

    Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker – a CPJ partner – has documented at least 13 arrests or detentions and at least 11 assaults of journalists covering protests related to the conflict. 

    Those arrested include FOX 7 reporter Carlos Sanchez, who was shoved to the ground on April 24 while covering a protest at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently facing two misdemeanor charges.


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  • 300+ Arrested in Police Raids on Columbia and CCNY to Clear Gaza Encampments

    New York police in full riot gear stormed Columbia University and the City College of New York Tuesday night, arresting over 300 students to break up Gaza solidarity encampments on the two campuses. The police raid began at the request of Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who has also asked the police to remain a presence on campus until at least May 17 to ensure solidarity encampments are not…

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  • Antisemitism vs. anti-Zionism: Jewish students are at the forefront of Palestine protests #Columbia


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  • Pro-Israel Mob Attacks Students in Violent Assault on Encampment at UCLA

    A pro-Israel mob violently attacked a Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles overnight Tuesday, hurling fireworks at the structure and beating demonstrators as campus security and city police stood by. Los Angeles Times higher education journalist Teresa Watanabe reported that members of the pro-Israel mob used explicitly genocidal language as they ripped down…

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  • Our Unions Can Turn the Tide for the Campus Palestine Revolt

    Right now, the biggest student revolt of this century is rocking the country, denouncing the genocide of Palestinians and calling for divestment from Israel and an end to the war on Gaza. The repression has been bipartisan and savage. College administrators are calling in heavily armed police of Democrat-controlled cities to drag away hundreds of students and faculty, for the crime of sitting on a…

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  • Ngāti Kahungunu becomes NZ’s first iwi to call for a Gaza ceasefire

    Asia Pacific Report

    Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News.

    Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies each Sunday at the Hastings Clock Tower.

    “I have taken every opportunity at the iwi level to present the case that we should be standing in solidarity with the Palestinians,” Huata (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Te Arawa) said.

    “This means we don’t support the ongoing bombing and slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and also the brutal apartheid and occupation that’s happening in the occupied West Bank.”

    This initiative started among Huata’s whānau who presented the case to their hapū Ngāti Rāhunga-i-te-Rangi, wider marae and eventually the iwi of Ngāti Kahungunu.

    Huata has brought Palestinians into the conversation at iwi events, at hui-ā-motu with Te Kiingitanga and Rātana Pā, and subsequently on the Treaty Grounds.

    “Then came to the hui-ā-iwi, last Friday, really with the intention of asking ‘what does kotahitanga look like?’ And what what can we present to the hui-ā-motu because Kahungunu will be hosting Hui Taumata on May 31 at Omahu marae.”

    Māori iwi leadership in solidarity
    Huata believes Māori cultural and iwi leadership can be used in solidarity with other minority groups and said it was important because all injustices were interconnected.

    As part of the kaupapa, Huata choreographed a haka, written by his cousin Māhinarangi Huata-Harawira, “with the intention to not be flashy, or that you had to be the best performer”.

    Gaza rallies organiser Te Ōtane Huata
    Gaza rallies organiser Te Ōtane Huata . . . “Tino rangatiratanga to me isn’t only self determination of our people, it is also collective liberation.” Image: Te Ao Māori News screenshot APR/Māori Television

    “Really the haka was about how we can all throughout the world stand in solidarity through this vessel of haka.”

    Haka mō Paratinia is used at rallies and protests around Aotearoa.

    The kaupapa was also brought to the stage this year in kapa haka regionals where Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga Pakeke carried Palestinian flags and messages of in support of a ceasefire.

    “Tino rangatiratanga to me is not only self determination of our people, it is also collective liberation, so the oppressions of other marginalised Indigenous groups, are an oppression on everyone else,“ Huata said.

    Republished from Te Ao Māori News/Māori Television.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.