“Order above all,” Joe Biden says after dismantling UCLA encampment | Middle East, the eternal conflict

Speaking for the first time on the dismantling of pro-Palestinian encampments and arrests on college campuses, President Joe Biden said Thursday morning in remarks at the White House that Americans have the right to make their voices heard. their dissatisfaction to the extent that the rule of law is respected.

We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and crush dissent. But we are not a lawless country either.

Assuring that he defends freedom of expression, the president added that there is no place on American college campuses, or anywhere else in the country, for anti-Semitism Or any hate speech.

Destroying property and threatening people is not peaceful protest, it is against the lawhe added.

Asked by journalists if he intended to change his policy towards Israel following this wave of demonstrations, the president replied No. He also does not intend to deploy elements of the National Guard on campuses.

Police intervention atUCLA

Police forces entered the pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) during the night, where hundreds of demonstrators had taken refuge to resist their expulsion.

In the morning, all that remained of the camp were jumbled canvases on the ground littered with debris and waste.

After several warnings, around 300 protesters walked out voluntarily while more than 200 resisted orders to disperse and were arrestedUCLA President Gene Block said in a statement.

Police used gas and non-lethal projectiles, similar to rubber bullets, to force their way through the encampment, where demonstrators stood together to resist their eviction.

Numerous shots from deafening and blinding devices (flash bang) were also reported when police officers California Highway Patrol (CHP) began to tear down the makeshift barricades protecting the encampment.

flash bangs were used”,”text”:”Flash bangs were used”}}”>Of the flash bangs have been usedconfirmed Alec Pereyda, public information officer of the HPC. They are fired into the air in an attempt to attract the attention of the crowd and make them understand that it was time to disperse and leave the areahe explained.

Protesters responded by firing pyrotechnics, signal flares and various projectiles at the lines of riot police. Others activated fire extinguishers to repel the police.

One of the flashpoints was the historic Royce Hall building, where protesters had holed up.

The police forces who invaded the scene on several fronts at the same time held the demonstrators on the campus to avoid their dispersion in the city and to concentrate the arrests.

Buses had been arranged in nearby parking lots to evacuate the arrested demonstrators.

This island of tents was set up several days ago by students and activists protesting against the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip and the military and financial support it receives from the United States.

As elsewhere on many American and Canadian campuses, the demonstrators of theUCLA demand that the institution’s management cut ties with all patrons and businesses linked to Israel from which it receives funding.

“Hold the line, hold the line!” »

The police operation began in the middle of the night after police told demonstrators that they would be arrested and possibly injured if they refused to leave the camp immediately. The vast majority of occupants remained to the sound of the screams hold the line, hold the line!.

A little further, on the Janss steps, an emblematic place of theUCLAdozens of demonstrators confronted the police or lay down on the stairs to prevent them from accessing the camp.

This police intervention requested by the university management comes the day after a night of violent clashes between groups of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the grounds of the establishment. The police had to intervene massively to calm tempers and restore order on the campus. Around fifteen people were injured during the clashes.

Graeme Blair, professor of political science at UCLA, regrets a crisis oh so useless .

The university and the authorities had the opportunity to de-escalate. They sent the police very late against the extremists last night (during the attack on counter-protesters, Editor’s note) and now they are attacking students participating in a peaceful demonstrationhe confides to theAFP.

Hundreds of arrests in the country

Other police interventions were carried out on university campuses on Thursday, notably in Texas, where 17 people were arrested during the dismantling of an encampment at the University of Texas at Dallas. A dozen other people were also arrested during a protest at the University of New Hampshire. Arrests which are added to hundreds of others in recent days at universities across the country.

In Portland, Oregon, police also intervened Thursday to dislodge pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Portland State University, where two arrests were reported.

In New York, police yesterday arrested more than 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupied a building on the Columbia University campus. According to the New York Police Department, at least 282 of the protesters arrested had no ties to academia.

Numerous other police interventions took place on campuses in Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Louisiana.

The appearance of pro-Palestinian camps on university campuses in the United States has reignited the already tense debate on the war that Israel has been waging in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7.

A renewed tension which is disturbing the American political class six months before the presidential elections, in a country which has the largest number of Jews in the world after Israel, as well as millions of Arab-Muslim Americans.

These images which are going around the world also have an impact in Israel, accused by several countries of using the deadly Hamas attack as a pretext to carry out a campaign of ethnic cleansing, or even genocide, in the Gaza Strip. Allegations that the Jewish State rejects outright.

According to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, it is rather hatred and anti-Semitism Who contaminate American campuses.

Camps are multiplying in Canada

In Canada, opposition to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has also given rise to the appearance of pro-Palestinian camps, notably since last week on the lawns of McGill University in Montreal.

A camp in support of the Palestinians also emerged at the beginning of the week on the grounds of UBC University in Vancouver and another was also set up on the lawns of the University of Ottawa.

This morning, there were also reports of tents and fences appearing on the University of Toronto campus.

With information from CNN and Los Angeles Times