Police fire tear gas at protesters at University of Florida / Tampa
Los Angeles, May 3 (RHC)-- The police in the United States have used tear gas, fired rubber bullets and made more arrests as protests against Israeli genocide on Gaza are gaining momentum on campuses across the country in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
More and more universities across the U.S. have joined protest rallies against the months-long genocidal war waged by the Israeli regime against the inhabitants of the besieged Palestinian territory. Under heavy police presence, anti-Israel protesters chanted and waved Palestinian flags at New York’s Fordham University on Wednesday while riot police massed by the hundreds on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles, where violent clashes were reported.
At the UCLA encampment, pro-Palestine protesters waved Palestinian flags and pointed strobe lights in the direction of law enforcement forces. A day earlier, at least ten protesters at an anti-Israel rally were arrested at the University of South Florida campus after the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators, who had arrived at the Tampa campus early in the day with items like wooden shields, umbrellas and tents.
Pro-Palestine chants have been reverberating through multiple universities across the U.S. and as police disperse rallies, more crowded ones are formed elsewhere.
Protests are sweeping college campuses nationwide after police at the Columbia University - the epicenter of student protests – attempted to clear a pro-Palestine encampment, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of students.
U.S. police stormed several colleges and made more arrests as rallies against Israel’s onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza simmer on campuses. The latest arrests were made at University of Texas, Dallas, where at least 20 students were taken into police custody.
More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested at colleges across the US so far by the police, who have been accused of using brute force against demonstrators. The current pro-Palestinian encampments are the most widespread and prolonged protest to rock US college campuses since protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
The bloody military campaign launched by the Israeli regime on October 7 has so far killed more than 34,500 Palestinians across Gaza, one of the world's most densely-populated territories.
