Pro-Palestinian protests take hold in Europe as they intensify in US

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at universities across the US, some of whom have clashed with police in riot gear, dug in Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, while several school faculties condemned university presidents who have called in law enforcement to remove protesters.

As Columbia University continues negotiations with those at a pro-Palestinian student encampment on the New York school’s campus, the university’s senate passed a resolution Friday that created a task force to examine the administration’s leadership, which last week called in police in an attempt to clear the protest, resulting in scuffles and more than 100 arrests.

Though the university has repeatedly set and then pushed back deadlines for the removal of the encampment, the school sent an email to students last night saying that bringing back police “at this time” would be counterproductive, adding that they hope the negotiations show “concrete signs of progress tonight.”

The decisions to call in law enforcement, leading to hundreds of arrests nationwide, have prompted school faculty members at universities in California, Georgia and Texas to initiate or pass votes of no confidence in their leadership. They are largely symbolic rebukes, without the power to remove their presidents.

But the tensions pile pressure on school officials, who are already scrambling to resolve the protests as May graduation ceremonies near.

In Berlin, a pro-Palestinian camp that was set up in front of parliament by activists was dismantled. The protesters demanded that the government stop exporting arms to Israel.

The temporary camp was made up of about 20 activists, but when police were called to the scene, dozens of other people joined the protesters to resist the police operation. Local media reported that around 75 people were arrested.

Students at Paris’s famed Sciences Po university, blockaded the entrance of a campus building, prompting the institution to move classes online for time being.

On Friday, scores of protesters occupied a central campus building and dozens of others blocked its entrance with trash cans, wooden platforms and a bicycle.

Protesters gathered at the building’s windows chanted slogans and hung placards reading “We are all Palestinians,” in defiance of administrators who students say called the police on their peers two days earlier.