The mobilization to demand peace in the Middle East does not subside on the campuses of the United States. The University of Southern California (USC), one of the most important private educational centers in the State, announced this Thursday that it will cancel its graduation ceremony due to the security risks posed by the protests. The decision comes a day after the police arrested nearly a hundred people who improvised a camp on the campus to demand freedom for the Palestinian people. A similar protest appeared this Thursday at another renowned Californian institution, UCLA, located northwest of Los Angeles.
After yesterday's tension, USC professors chose to teach Thursday's classes remotely. The university reported this afternoon that it has canceled the graduation ceremony, which was to be held on May 10 and which attracts about 65,000 people annually. The institution ensures a statement What security threats have led to the decision. The controversy over the public event has resonated since last week. The short speech that a biomedical engineering student, the best grade of the generation, Asna Tabassum, was going to give, had been criticized by pro-Israel students. They have called her partner anti-Semitic for comments made on social networks. USC has replaced the event with smaller, more private meetings for which it will be necessary to have an entrance ticket and cross security filters.
The protesters at the USC camp, several of them unrelated to the university, arrived Wednesday minutes before the sun rose. They set up tents and wrote messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people on cardboard, they played drums while shouting “Long live free Palestine!” and “we just want peace.” Those responsible for the private university requested the presence of the police, whose numbers increased as the afternoon progressed. At 5:00 p.m. there was already a strong deployment of tactical teams, ready to dissolve the camp. They surrounded the main park to ask the protesters for identification. They began to arrest people one by one from 7:00 p.m. until around 10:00 p.m.
This Thursday morning a camper appeared at the UCLA facilities, northwest of Los Angeles. The tents were captured by the cameras of the helicopters that flew over the city to report on morning traffic. A similar protest spans three days at the University of Berkeley, near San Francisco. California Polytechnic canceled its Wednesday activities on the campus in Arcata, a city near Oregon State, after students took over an administration building on Monday.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, stated this Thursday that he is aware and closely observing the demonstrations that are taking place in various parts of the State, with 40 million inhabitants. “We want to maintain the right to demonstrate as long as they are peaceful and there are no messages of hate. “I want to avoid what is happening in other places in the United States,” said the Democratic politician.
In Texas, a state that culturally competes with California, police on Wednesday arrested 57 people who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Austin, the Texas capital. Among those detained was a journalist from the local Fox station. Images uploaded to social networks show how a policeman throws to the ground to the station cameraman.
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Prosecutors in Travis County (Austin), a progressive oasis in a conservative bastion, decided not to file charges against 46 of the 57 arrested. This has been criticized by sectors of the right who have applauded the dissolution of the protest at the hands of the police and call those who participated “Hamas sympathizers.” The role of the uniformed men has also been recognized by the president of the university, Jay Hartzell, who assured that the demonstration had the objective of “occupying the campus.”
Educational centers in the United States are experiencing a new boiling point due to the conflict in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian camps have multiplied in higher education centers. Columbia University, in New York, has become one of the epicenters. The metropolitan police have also evicted and detained numerous protesters there. Republican Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Columbia on Wednesday to shelter Jewish students who feel threatened by the rise in protests. The presence of one of the most important Republicans in the country increased the tension. A protest by Jewish students who support the Israeli Government's operation that has left more than 30,000 victims in the Strip has been called for this afternoon in New York.
Tougher penalties for protesters
Kate Sanchez, a Republican assemblywoman from California, has presented a bill in the state Congress that seeks to toughen the punishment for those who participate in protests. The initiative increases fines from $100 to $200 for those who block communication routes and highways during public demonstrations. The penalty can amount to up to $1,000, according to the document proposed by Sánchez, who represents a district in the south of the State.
The local legislator's plan responds to a protest on April 15 that blocked the Golden Gate, the famous bridge that connects the San Francisco Bay, for hours. The California Police arrested 38 people who chained themselves to each other to form a barrier that affected the workday of thousands of people and interrupted traffic in one of the areas with the greatest mobility in the entity. Newsom, who was mayor before becoming governor, said protesters needed to “take responsibility for their actions.” The district attorney did not file charges.
The judicial inaction caused cracks within the Democratic party, which is divided between sectors that support Israel and the sectors further to the left, who sympathize with the demonstrations demanding peace in Gaza. Sanchez's proposal is supported by four Democratic legislators. At the moment he has not advanced from the parliamentary committees, but he is still alive in a legislative body where the Democrats rule.
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