US: Anti-war protesters dig in as some schools close encampments

NEW YORK: As students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at universities across US dug in Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, some universities shut down encampments after reports of antisemitic activity among the protesters.

With the the death toll mounting in the war in Gaza, protesters nationwide are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.

Early Saturday, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Several dozen students shouted and booed at them from a distance, but the scene was otherwise not confrontational.


The school said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become "infiltrated by professional organisers" with no affiliation to the school and protesters had used antisemitic slurs.

"We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus," the statement posted on the social media platform X said.

The University of Pennsylvania took similar action on Friday when interim President J Larry Jameson called for an encampment of protesters on the west Philadelphia campus to be disbanded, saying it violates the university's facilities policies. The "harassing and intimidating comments and actions" by some protesters violate the school's open expression guidelines as well as state and federal law, Jameson said.