Student protesters disrupt University of Michigan graduation
Pro-Palestine demonstrators disrupted a graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan as protests over the war in Gaza continued to rock campuses across the US.
Draped in Palestinian scarves and flags while still wearing their graduation caps, dozens of students drew cheers and boos from the thousands of people at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor as they used the moment to voice support for Palestine.
The university had stepped up security in anticipation of unrest following demonstrations across university campuses.
More than 2,300 people have been arrested in the protests so far as students demand their institutions break with investors that support the Israeli government.
Campus police ushered the Michigan demonstrators away without making any arrests.
Elsewhere, 25 pro-Palestine demonstrators were arrested at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville as police in riot gear used pepper spray to disperse protesters from an encampment which they had set up last week.
In a letter to the university, Jim Ryan, the college president, said police had been called in after students defied instructions not to set up a camp and urged outsiders to join the protest.
“This repeated and intentional refusal to comply with reasonable rules intended to secure the safety, operations, and rights of the entire university community left us with no other choice than to uphold the neutral application and enforcement of those rules,” he wrote.
In Los Angeles police in riot gear mounted a pre-dawn raid to clear an encampment at the University of Southern California.
Students who refused to leave were threatened with arrest.
There are also fears that the violent clashes with counter-demonstrators which erupted at the University of California in Los Angeles could be repeated elsewhere.
Elan Carr, the chief executive of the Israeli-American Council, said Jewish students were mobilising elsewhere.
“We will take back our streets. We will take back our campuses from Columbia University to UCLA and everywhere in between.”
There was a counter-protest at the University of Pennsylvania last week as the council called on the college authorities to disband the pro-Palestine encampment.
In parts of the country college professors - some of whom are veterans of the Vietnam War protests - have joined the demonstrations.
Academic staff have been arrested at several colleges, including UCLA, Washington University in St Louis and Emory University in Atlanta.
