Gaza solidarity protests continue on U.S. campuses. At Princeton, 10 faculty members are joining 12 students who have already been on hunger strike for one week. We’ll be joined by one of the student hunger strikers later in the broadcast.
At the University of Pennsylvania, police in riot gear started arresting students early this morning. Yesterday, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro called for the Ivy League school to “restore order and safety on campus” after students refused to back down and end their protest until their demands for divestment from Israel were met. At least six students have been suspended.
Here in New York, at least 11 people were arrested outside The New School, the site of the nation’s first faculty encampment. Democracy Now! was at The New School yesterday as the arrests were happening. We’ll have more on this story after headlines.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead has pulled out of his planned commencement speech at UMass Amherst next week after the police arrested over 100 students. He said, “Calling the cops on peaceful protesters is a shameful act.”
In a victory for the protest movement, Sacramento State in California agreed to review its investments so that it is not funding corporations that “profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.”
Outside the U.S., Dutch riot police bulldozed a protest camp at the University of Amsterdam after students defied orders to dismantle.