Demonstrators clash with the officers from the Metropolitan Police Department at George Washington University in Washington. Photo / AP
Police used pepper spray to clear a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University and arrested dozens of demonstrators today just as city officials were set to appear at the United States Congress to account for their handling of the two-week protest.
The House committee on oversight and accountability cancelled the hearing after the crackdown, with its chairman and other Republicans welcoming the police action.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “it should not require threatening to haul DC’s mayor before Congress to keep Jewish students at George Washington University safe”.
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she and Metropolitan police chief Pamela Smith decided to clear the camp because of signs that “the protest was becoming more volatile and less stable”.
There were indications that protesters had “gathered improvised weapons” and were “casing” university buildings with the possible intention of occupying them, police said.
But Moataz Salim, a Palestinian student at George Washington who has family in Gaza, said the authorities merely “destroyed a beautiful community space that was all about love”.
“Less than 10 hours ago, I was pepper-sprayed and assaulted by police,” he told a news conference held by organisers. “And why? Because we decided to pitch some tents, hold community activities, and learn from each other. We built something incredible. We built something game-changing.”
Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters of the Israel-Hamas war on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe.
Some colleges cracked down immediately. Others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.
Police also moved in yesterday to break up an encampment at the University of Massachusetts. Video from the scene in Amherst showed an hours-long operation as dozens of police officers in riot gear systematically tore down tents and took protesters into custody. The operation continued into today. Police said about 130 people had been arrested after protesters refused orders to disperse.
“I found it to be a complete over-reaction,” said Lucas Ruud, editor-in-chief of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. “It was a completely unnecessary show of force.” The staff of the college newspaper counted more than 100 police vehicles on campus for the crackdown.
In Washington, police said they arrested 33 people at the George Washington protest, including for assault on a police officer and unlawful entry. They confirmed they used pepper spray outside the encampment against protesters who were trying to break police lines and enter.
Two Democratic lawmakers appeared at a news conference with five of the students who had been arrested. “I want all Republicans and Democrats to know that they cannot arrest their way out of this growing dissent,” said Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. “This was an explicit attempt to repress students exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Representative Cori Bush of Missouri said that “those who refuse to stop the genocide in Gaza think they can arrest and brutalise their way out of this”.
The school said in a statement that while it is committed to free expression, “the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations”.
It said later that normal operations had resumed after the “orderly and safe operation” to disperse the demonstrators.
President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said he believes the right to dissent is “fundamental to who we are, but it cannot lead to disorder and violence, threats, vandalism, trespassing and/or shutting down campuses. Students have the right to be safe, and anti-Semitism is repugnant, and we’ve been very clear about that.”
Throughout the roughly two weeks of the encampment, the scene had been largely tranquil.
The tightly organised demonstrators and pro-Israeli counter-protesters who stood along the edges interacted without serious conflict. Some of the most charged confrontations involved people objecting to the treatment of a George Washington statue, wrapped with Palestinian scarves and flags with “Genocidal Warmonger University” spraypainted on its base.
Since April 18, about 2800 people have been arrested on 50 campuses — figures based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies after this latest anti-war movement was launched by a protest at Columbia University in New York.
At other US schools:
In Amherst, school chancellor Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after talks over a wide range of demands failed to yield an agreement to dismantle the encampment and engage in “constructive discussions”.
A week ago, the George Washington encampment was host to a somewhat chaotic visit from several Republican members of the House oversight panel who criticised the protests and condemned Bowser’s refusal at that point to send in police.
“We did not have any violence to interrupt on the GW campus,” she said then.
But today, hundreds of officers descended on the scene, reported the GW Hatchet, the university’s student newspaper.
At least two officers deployed pepper spray on protesters, who then set up an impromptu medical area at a market near the campus, the paper said. Organisers ran to a store to buy water to rinse their eyes.
The oversight hearing, now scrapped, was another pressure point in the fraught relationship between Republicans in Congress and officials in the heavily Democratic district. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has threatened a federal “takeover” of the city, to control crime, if he wins back the White House.
The district is already a federal enclave, though with a measure of self-government and its own police department, which the federal government can already exert control over in some emergencies.
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