A group of six pro-Palestinian students from the University of Florida (UF) and three others from the University of South Florida (USF) who were arrested this Monday during protests on the university campus, appeared in court today.
The charges ranged from “failure to obey a lawful order and resisting without violence” to authority to “trespassing on property after a warning,” said Cynthia Roldán, spokeswoman for UF, located in Gainesville, in the north of the state.
Two of those arrested from UF remain in custody, the Tampa Bay Times reported today.
This afternoon six other young people were arrested at USF after law enforcement forces dispersed a protest that was declared “illegal” with tear gas.
Video footage from News Channel 8 showed a group of students forming shields with umbrellas and launching tear gas to disperse the rally.
The USF told this channel that, between 75 and 100 protesters, some students “showed up with wooden shields, umbrellas and tents“.
“Freedom of expression must remain peaceful and not violate the law or FSU policies. “The university has been clear that violence, threats, harassment and riots will not be tolerated,” a spokesperson for the academic institution told the channel.
As with other university protests in Florida and across the country in recent daysthe UF and USF student rallies are calling for both universities to break financial ties with corporations linked to Israel’s war effort in the Gaza Strip, and for those investments to be made public.
The protests in Gainesville, Alachua County, have been organized by the umbrella group UF Divest Coalition and have taken place in an area of the campus known as Plaza de las Americas.
For his part, UF spokesman Steve Orlando said in a statement that the protesters received “fair warning” (…) and that the academic institution “is not a daycare and we do not treat protesters like children.”
““They knew the rules, they violated them and they will face the consequences.”Orlando stated.
As protests escalate, Columbia University in New York warned the group of pro-Palestinian students who forcibly took over its iconic Hamilton Hall building early Tuesday and vandalized it, that they face expulsion for violating the internal rules of the educational center.
The Columbia protests join those that hundreds of students at dozens of other universities in the United States have been holding for days to protest the war in Gaza.
The demonstrations mainly have in common the rejection of US policy towards Israel and the request that educational centers break relations with the Israeli Government and the private sector.
Thus, hundreds of university students in the United States intensified protests against the Gaza war this Tuesday despite political pressure from Republicans and Democrats against them.
Legislators from both parties have condemned the protests and Joe Biden’s government has called certain of the students’ slogans and some of their strategies, such as occupying university buildings, “anti-Semitic and violent.”
The demonstrations, which have spread throughout the country, reject the unconditional support of the United States for Israel and ask their universities to break all types of relations and businesses with the Israeli Government.
Keep reading:
– Columbia, Harvard, Emory: How anti-Gaza war protests spread across major universities
– “We are afraid that the US will deport us for protesting at the university against the war in Gaza”
– Protests over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza spread to more universities