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Police and pro-Palestinian protesters stand-off in front of the barricaded Portland State University library on Thursday.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images
Rutgers Administrators Agree to Most Protester Demands
Protesters at Rutgers University began to voluntarily disassemble their tents on the Voorhees Mall shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday after university officials agreed to eight of their 10 demands, according to local reporters.
President Jonathan Holloway had set a 4 p.m. deadline for the encampment to be cleared.
“Buildings surrounding Voorhees Mall are the site of hundreds of exams during the finals period, and students are rightly concerned about their ability to take exams in this environment,” the president wrote. “If the protesters do not comply and disperse … they will be considered to have trespassed.”
Among the concessions administrators made were to establish an Arab cultural center on each Rutgers campus, provide more Middle East studies faculty and academic programs and offer amnesty to all pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. The only two demands they did not agree to were full divestment and the termination of a partnership with Tel Aviv University, which will be further discussed in a later meeting.
Protest organizers stressed, however, that if the future meetings do not result in what they want, they will return and rebuild their encampment.
—Jessica Blake, 5:45 p.m.
In Pictures: Campus Protests
Protesters Leave Portland State Library but Standoff Continues
The Portland State University library has been cleared of all pro-Palestinian protesters, according to the Portland Police Bureau. But the standoff continues, with protesters outside the building blocking a van full of detained demonstrators from leaving the premises.
A video from The New York Times shows activists yelling, “Let them go,” as officers shove the crowd in an attempt to clear an exit pathway. Two protesters were arrested outside the library this morning, according to a social media alert from police. By 11 a.m., a total of 12 people had been arrested in and around the library; four were students.
The confrontation with police occurred after negotiations between university officials and protesters, who had seized the library on Monday, fell apart Wednesday. Demonstrators were given one last chance to exit the building voluntarily Thursday morning before law enforcement officials broke through the barricade.
Oregon governor Tina Kotek, a Democrat, condemned the damage protesters inflicted on the library.
“I have absolutely no tolerance for discriminatory harassment, violence, or property damage. This includes the acts of vandalism seen this week at the Portland State University library and against nearby businesses,” she said in a statement Thursday.
The actions contradict “Oregon values” and threaten everyone, she added. “The state is prepared to exercise the full extent of the law.”
—Jessica Blake, 3:15 p.m.
Rutgers Postpones or Relocates Final Exams
Rutgers University abruptly postponed or relocated final exams scheduled for Thursday in anticipation of escalated protest activities on campus.
The first announcement, at about 8 a.m., postponed all exams scheduled before noon. The second, released four hours later, added that all afternoon exams would be held, but in locations removed from the College Avenue area of campus, where protesters have been encamped for four days.
According to NorthJersey.com the decision followed an Instagram post published Wednesday night by Students for Justice in Palestine, the group leading the demonstration, which called for an “emergency protest” and urged university leaders to cancel finals entirely.
“No school when Gaza has no schools,” the post read. “Bring everyone you know to the liberated zone at 7 a.m.”
It remained unclear what Rutgers will do about the remainder of the exam period, which is scheduled to run through May 8.
—Jessica Blake, 2:30 p.m.
Police Storm UCLA Encampment
After being widely criticized for failing to respond to a brawl between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters on Tuesday night, UCLA administrators went full force Wednesday, deploying more than 250 militarized state highway patrol and local police officers to dismantle an encampment on Royce Quad.
Under cover of darkness, officers in body armor, helmets and face shields, with batons in their hands, approached the barricade surrounding the pro-Palestinian group. A chaotic back-and-forth ensued for nearly an hour, as the protesters’ wall of plywood boards, shipping pallets and metal gates stood strong. Finally, at about 3 a.m., officers breached the barrier, videos show.
They gave protesters one last dispersal warning—leave or face arrest. But the demonstrators stood their ground, linking arms and spraying fire extinguishers in an attempt to fend off law enforcement. The sound of guns being fired can be heard as troops overpower the demonstrators, tearing down the camp, zip-tying students’ wrists and pulling them away from the encampment with force.
A law enforcement spokesperson told The New York Times that all weapons utilized were “nonlethal,” including rubber bullets, flash-bang devices that emit loud noises and flashes used to get people’s attention.
Images this morning show a field of ruin, remains of what was once a bustling encampment scattered across the lawn. The few tents still standing are tattered, lying limply in pieces.
According to reports from The Los Angeles Times more than 200 people were arrested. It’s not clear how many were UCLA students.
—Jessica Blake, 1:00 p.m.
Biden: ‘Order Must Prevail’
In his most extensive remarks to date on the pro-Palestinian protests roiling campuses nationwide, President Biden said he would protect free speech and the right of Americans to protest peacefully, but that the recent demonstrations have been far from peaceful.
“You have the right to protest, not the right to cause chaos,” he said.
Speaking from the White House, Biden said the events convulsing many campuses test two fundamental American principles: the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and the rule of law—both of which must be upheld.
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” he said. “But neither are we a lawless country. We are a civil society and order must prevail.”
Biden added that while dissent is essential to democracy, it “must never lead to disorder or denying the rights of others to finish their semester or college education.” There’s no place in America for antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans, he said.
The president didn’t discuss the recent police crackdown on student protesters at some institutions, though he did say that the National Guard should not be sent to campuses, as some Republican lawmakers have called for.
—Katherine Knott, 12:00 p.m.
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