Pro-Palestinian protests continued to grow on college campuses across the US, with authorities arresting around 275 people over the weekend. The demonstrations that began over a week ago at Columbia University in New York have since spread rapidly.
Here are the top 10 points of pro-Palestine protests in the US
Pro-Palestinian protests at American universities, sparked by Israel's war against Hamas, spread over the weekend as police crackdowns and arrests continued for another week.
Protesters from Harvard University raised a Palestinian flag at the Ivy League school in a spot normally reserved for the American flag. They also unfurled a huge Palestinian flag from a top-floor window of the Washington Hilton Hotel, site of the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner.
Police arrested about 275 people on four separate campuses. Among them are 100 at Northeastern University in Boston, 80 at Washington University in St. Louis, 72 at Arizona State University and 23 at Indiana University.
Clashes were reported between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, where a tent camp was set up last week.
The nationwide protests have caught the attention of President Joe Biden, with the White House saying demonstrations must remain peaceful.
The campus activists are calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas and want universities to cut ties with the country and with companies they say are profiting from the conflict in Gaza.
The protests pose a major challenge for university administrators as they try to balance their free speech obligations with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate speech.
Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and “reiterated his clear position” on a possible invasion of the Gaza border city of Rafah.
The war between Israel and Hamas broke out after Hamas operatives carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli cities on October 7, killing around 1,170 people. They also took about 250 people hostage.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has since killed more than 34,00 people in Gaza.
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