US police break up Gaza protest encampment at George Washington College | Protests Information

Police say arrests made in Washington, DC, as US-wide crackdown continues on student-led demonstrations in assist of Palestinians in Gaza.

Police in america capital have damaged up a pupil protest encampment at George Washington College, certainly one of dozens of tent camps arrange on campuses throughout the nation in assist of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Metropolitan Police Division in Washington, DC, mentioned in a statement that it “moved to disperse” demonstrators on Wednesday morning after “a gradual escalation within the volatility of the protest”. It didn’t elaborate on what precisely which means.

“Throughout the course of the operation, arrests have been made for Assault on a Police Officer and Illegal Entry,” the division mentioned, with out specifying what number of arrests have been made.

Citing an unnamed police supply, CNN reported that 30 to 40 folks have been arrested.

The Gaza encampment at George Washington College is certainly one of dozens which have sprung up world wide since late April in protest of Israel’s struggle on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

College students throughout the US in addition to in Canada, the UK, France and elsewhere are demanding an finish to Israel’s army offensive, which has killed practically 35,000 Palestinians since early October.

They’re additionally calling on their universities to divest from any firms which can be complicit in Israeli human rights abuses, amongst different calls for.

The arrests at George Washington College are a part of a wave of comparable police crackdowns on US school campuses, together with New York’s Columbia College, the College of Chicago and the College of California at Los Angeles.

College directors have accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of utilizing anti-Semitic language and creating an unsafe surroundings on campus.

The scholars have rejected these claims, which they are saying intention to distract folks from what is occurring within the Gaza Strip.

“It’s meant to take the main target away from the genocide in Gaza, and it’s meant to take the main target away from our calls for,” Mariam, a Jewish pupil demonstrator at George Washington College, advised Al Jazeera late final week.

US politicians – together with President Joe Biden, a Democrat and staunch backer of Israel – have criticised the Gaza encampments.

Republican James Comer, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability within the Home of Representatives, will maintain a listening to on the response to the George Washington College encampment on Wednesday.

The mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, and Police Chief Pamela Smith are to testify.