Tensions running high at New England campuses over protests around Israel-Hamas war

Thousands of University of Texas students demonstrate in support of Palestinians in front of Gregory Gymnasium and the UT Tower on campus on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 11 November 2023
Follow

Tensions running high at New England campuses over protests around Israel-Hamas war

  • “Our love and fight for the people of Gaza will not be swayed by the administration’s fear tactics,” MIT-wide Coalition for Palestine organizer Mohamed Mohamed said in a statement

BOSTON: Administrators of MIT suspended a number of students Thursday from the prestigious technology school after Israel-Hamas war protesters took over a prominent building for much of the day and then some refused to leave by a set deadline.
It was far from the only disruption at college campuses in recent days over the war. Brandeis University banned a pro-Palestinian student group this week, while nearly two dozen students were arrested over a protest at Brown University. On Friday, Columbia University announced it was suspending Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace as official student groups through the end of the term. It accused both of repeatedly violating campus policies including an unauthorized event Thursday.
The range of responses to these protests show that college administrators are struggling to address protests that have gotten heated and turned once-quiet spaces on campus into places where some students say they don’t feel safe.
At MIT, Sally Kornbluth, the school’s president, sent a letter to all students outlining the “boundaries of protest on campus” during a pro-Palestinian demonstration that she described as “disruptive” and “loud.” The protest in the building called Lobby 7 lasted much of the day and attracted counterprotesters.
When some protesters refused to leave after a deadline was set, the school said it would suspend them. But after hearing concerns including visa issues, Kornbluth said they would be “suspended from non-academic campus activities.” It was unclear how many students would be affected and when that would happen.
“After exhausting all other avenues for de-escalating the situation, we informed all protesters that they must leave the lobby area within a set time, or they would be subject to suspension,” Kornbluth wrote. “Many chose to leave, and I appreciate their cooperation. Some did not.”
People on both sides criticized the response.
“Our love and fight for the people of Gaza will not be swayed by the administration’s fear tactics,” MIT-wide Coalition for Palestine organizer Mohamed Mohamed said in a statement. “While the administration may possess the means to send letters and emails to all students, staff, faculty, and workers, we possess something even more potent — a just cause and the collective voices of thousands in the MIT community who remain committed to advocating for an end to the genocide and an end to the occupation.”
At the same time, the MIT Israel Alliance criticized the university for not academically suspending any of the protesters, whom they accused of preventing students from attending classes.
“Instead of dispersing the mob or de-escalating the situation by rerouting all students from Lobby 7, Jewish students specifically were warned not to enter MIT’s front entrance due to a risk to their physical safety,” the group said in a statement. “The onus to protect Jewish students should not be on the students themselves.”
The latest war began with an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants who targeted towns, farming communities and a music festival near the Gaza border, killing at least 1,200 people. Israel has responded with weeks of attacks in Gaza, which have killed more than 11,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry — most of them Palestinian civilians.
On Wednesday, Brandeis University President Ron Liebowitz put out a statement to the school community saying it no longer recognized the Brandeis chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine. It made the move over what the university said was the group’s support of Hamas and its “its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people,” he wrote.
Brandies was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community.
The group, according to The Boston Globe, was sent a notice Monday that its status as an official student group had been rescinded.
“All students, faculty, and staff are welcome here, and encouraged to participate in the free exchange of ideas,” Liebowitz wrote. “To promote such free exchange, we must not and do not condone hate, the incitement of violence, or threats against or harassment of anyone, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Israeli, Palestinian, or any other religion or ethnicity.”
The Brandeis chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine could not be reached for comment. But the Globe reported that the group, in an October statement after Hamas attacked Israel, said it was a “moral imperative to recognize and support the resilience of the people who have endured 75 years of oppression, displacement, and the denial of their basic rights.” That included “armed resistance.”
On Wednesday in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown University’s Department of Public Safety arrested 20 students who refused to leave a campus building during a sit-in. The students, with the group BrownU Jews for Cease-fire Now, posted on X that they were calling on the university to promote an “immediate cease-fire and a lasting peace” as well as the divestment of its endowment from companies that “enable war crimes in Gaza.”
In a statement, the university said it repeatedly warned students they were trespassing before arresting them.
“At Brown, we recognize our responsibility for being an educational institution that manages challenging discussions in a way that remains true to the fundamental principle of freedom of expression while emphasizing the importance of safety for all community members,” Brown said in a statement. “Brown leaders have met with many student groups in recent weeks to listen to and address concerns, and we will continue to do so moving forward.”

 


Tajikistan to jail people for illegal electricity use

Updated 44 sec ago
Follow

Tajikistan to jail people for illegal electricity use

  • Electricity consumption in Tajikistan is limited for about six months per year, as its outdated energy infrastructure struggles to keep up with rising demand

DUSHANBE: Tajikistan has introduced 10-year prison sentences for the illegal use of electricity, as a decades-long energy crisis caused by water shortages worsens in the poor Central Asian country.

Electricity consumption in Tajikistan is limited for about six months per year, as its outdated energy infrastructure struggles to keep up with rising demand.

The country’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry on Saturday announced measures to introduce “criminal liability for violations of regulations on the use of electricity.”

In a sign of how tightly the country controls the press and flow of information, it was only reported by independent media outlets on Monday.

Under the new rules, anybody found trying to disconnect or bypass an electricity meter will face up to 10 years in prison.

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan is ruled by President Emomali Rakhmon, a former state farm boss who has held power since 1992.

Justice Minister Rustam Shoemurod said earlier in April that those who alter meter readings or bypass them to avoid payments are “seriously damaging the country’s economic interests.”

A shortage of water needed to fuel hydroelectric plants, which generate about 95 percent of electricity output in Tajikistan, has led to years of regular power outages.


American trying to make contact with isolated tribe in India arrested

Updated 5 min 51 sec ago
Follow

American trying to make contact with isolated tribe in India arrested

  • Polyakov was fascinated by the mystique of the Sentinelese people

NEW DELHI: Indian police have arrested a 24-year-old American YouTuber who visited an off-limits island in the Indian Ocean to try to make contact with an isolated tribe known for attacking intruders.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested on March 31, two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island — part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands — in a bid to meet people from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, police said.

A local court last week sent Polyakov to a 14-day judicial custody and he is set to appear again in the court on April 17. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Indian authorities said they had informed the US Embassy about the case.

Visitors are banned from traveling within 5 kilometers of the island, whose population has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The inhabitants use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they attack anyone who lands onto their beaches.

Police said Polyakov was guided by GPS navigation during his journey and surveyed the island with binoculars before landing. He stayed on the beach for about an hour, blowing whistle to attract the attention but got no response from the islanders.

He later left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering, made a video on his camera, and collected some sand samples before returning to his boat.

On his return he was spotted by local fishermen, who informed the authorities and Polyakov was arrested in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago nearly 1,207 kilometers east of India’s mainland. A case was registered against him for violation of Indian laws that prohibit any outsider to interact with the islanders.

Police said Polyakov had conducted detailed research on sea conditions, tides and accessibility to the island before starting his journey.

“He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe,” Senior Police Officer Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal said.

An initial investigation revealed Polyakov had made two previous attempts, in October last year and January, to visit the islands, including in an inflatable kayak.

Police said Polyakov was drawn to the island due to his passion for adventure and extreme challenges, and was fascinated by the mystique of the Sentinelese people.

Survival International, a group that protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, said Polyakov’s attempted contact with the tribes of North Sentinel was “reckless and idiotic.”

“This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” the group’s director Caroline Pearce said in a statement.


Children found malnourished in Greek migrant camp

Updated 07 April 2025
Follow

Children found malnourished in Greek migrant camp

  • MSF doctors diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan aged between six months and six years with acute malnutrition
  • EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021

ATHENS: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Monday it had identified the first cases of malnourished children in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Samos, which has been criticized by rights groups for dangerous living conditions.
MSF doctors have diagnosed six children from Syria and Afghanistan aged between six months and six years with acute malnutrition needing immediate help, it said.
While it could not say if their malnutrition was due to living in the camp, conditions there — including insufficient food and medical care — endangered their health, MSF said.
“No child should suffer from malnutrition due to systemic neglect,” said Christina Psarra, director general of MSF Greece, calling for immediate action and adding that about a quarter of the camp’s residents were children.
The Greek migration ministry said the cases were isolated.
“Under no circumstances is there generalized malnutrition due to living conditions,” the ministry said, adding that asylum-seekers were provided with three meals a day.
On the forefront of Europe’s 2015-16 migration crisis, Greece saw a surge in arrivals in 2024, according to UN data. This year, nearly a third of arrivals to southern Europe from the Middle East and Africa were to Greece.
The EU-funded Samos camp, a sprawling, heavily-surveilled facility surrounded by barbed wire, was opened by the government in 2021 to replace the former camp of Vathy — once an overcrowded, rat-infested tent city of 7,000 people.
The six malnourished children arrived this year, MSF said.
Rights group Amnesty International has called conditions at Samos “inhumane and degrading” during periods of overcrowding, with water shortages and a lack of other basic services.
In December, a UN human rights expert accused Greece of failing to identify victims of sex trafficking in the camp.
MSF called on Greece and the EU to ensure adequate pediatric care and nutritional support in Samos and to restore financial support to asylum seekers suspended last June.


Thousands of Bangladeshi students join global strike in solidarity with Gaza

Updated 07 April 2025
Follow

Thousands of Bangladeshi students join global strike in solidarity with Gaza

  • Student leaders call for more action from international community, Bangladeshi government
  • Protest comes in wake of Israel’s new massacres, after unilaterally breaking Gaza ceasefire 

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshi students took to the streets of Dhaka on Monday to call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, joining a global strike in solidarity with Palestine. 

The student protesters skipped classes and rallied in different parts of the capital throughout the day, with the biggest crowd gathering at Dhaka University, Bangladesh’s largest and oldest tertiary institution.

“We are observing today’s strike as part of a global solidarity call with the people of Palestine,” Mostafa Mushfiq, an anthropology student at Dhaka University, told Arab News. 

“We want to demonstrate to everyone that all students and people from different professions and classes are united against the mass killing in Gaza.”

The call for a global strike for Gaza comes after Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian group Hamas on March 18, launching a wave of deadly airstrikes that have since killed more than 1,300 people. 

Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that at least 50,752 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 115,475 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023. The real toll is likely to be much higher as thousands of people are missing under the rubble.

Monday’s strike and protests were joined by students from various universities across Bangladesh, many with the support of their lecturers and college administrators. 

“Our protests and struggles will continue … We are feeling a new spirit now. Our teachers are completely on our side in this movement,” Mushfiq said. 

Bangladeshi students have previously led other rallies in solidarity with Palestine, demanding more action from the international community to stop Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza.

“As a Bangladeshi, as a Muslim, it is my duty to be here to tell the world what is really going on, to let the Gaza people know that we are here, we hear them, we are praying for them,” Arafat Hossain Siam, a student from the Shanto-Mariam University in Dhaka, told Arab News.

“Don’t lose hope. Allah is watching. God willing, they will be free.”

The students were joined by ordinary Bangladeshis as they waved Palestinian flags, carried posters and chanted slogans in solidarity with Gaza. Some demanded that the Bangladeshi government do more. 

“We demand a strong stance from the Bangladeshi government on the issue of ongoing mass killing in Gaza,” Tahmid Hossain, a master’s student in Dhaka University, told Arab News. 

“The Palestinians are being suppressed for a long time. For around 100 years, we have noticed that day by day, aggression continues on the Palestinian land and their land is occupied by the Israelis … The Israeli attack on Gaza people, which began over a year ago, has crossed all the limits now.” 


King Charles III arrives in Rome on state visit, first overseas trip since brief hospitalization

Updated 07 April 2025
Follow

King Charles III arrives in Rome on state visit, first overseas trip since brief hospitalization

  • Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch
  • A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia

ROME: King Charles III arrived in Rome on Monday for a state visit to Italy on his first overseas trip since being briefly hospitalized for side effects of cancer treatment.
Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch, visits with the Italian president and premier and a side trip to Ravenna to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Adriatic city’s liberation by Allied forces.
A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pontiff returned to the Vatican two weeks ago, and made a surprise appearance to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Charles, 76, was briefly hospitalized March 27 due to “temporary side effects” from treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer diagnosed more than a year ago. The king appeared the next day, waving to well-wishers in central London, and has since resumed scheduled engagements.
In Rome, Charles will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. The visit will include a joint flyover of Rome’s historic center by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.
The king and queen will attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945. The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers whose fields were devastated by floods that recently hit the area.