Barnard faculty decry 'inhumane' conditions of jailed protesters
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Sources told The Intercept that the NYPD denied student protesters who were detained food and water for 16 hours and kept them in mice-infested cells.
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New York officers stand by at the Columbia University campus on April 30. (AP)
Two faculty members at Columbia University's Barnard College who gathered information from students inside told The Intercept that students detained during last week's police crackdown on pro-Palestine rallies at New York City universities were refused water and food for 16 hours.
Other students said that officers assaulted them after being arrested, and they were sent to the hospital for treatment before being returned to central booking. The Intercept received photos of the injuries.
Police detained 282 demonstrators at Columbia University and City College of New York, and, according to the faculty members who were working to help the students, the conditions at the NYPD headquarters and the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse were "inhumane".
According to Barnard College lecturer Shayoni Mitra and a tenured staff member who requested anonymity, at least two of the students caught during the operation were placed in solitary confinement for three hours, with others reporting significantly longer stays.
Other students cited confinement with mice-infested cells, telling their professors they had not been given drink or food in 16 hours, with one student being left without shoes for the same amount of hours.
“The conditions we’re hearing about are inhumane,” according to Mitra. “They take away the dignity of every person in there.”
According to the New York Daily News, the Legal Aid Society, a public defense group in New York City, has asked the city's Department of Investigation to look into at least 46 incidents where demonstrators were "unlawfully jailed" for minor offenses.
The NYPD blocked access to campus during the raid for medics, legal observers, and media, which Mitra called a "clinical" attempt to prevent individuals from filming the raids.
“Nobody deserves to be arrested without legal observers, medical staff, and other media present. And that’s what happened,” Mitra stressed, adding that students imprisoned stated that information regarding their arrests has been slow.
Legal Aid stated in a letter issued to the city Department of Investigation on Monday that it supported City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' request that the agency look into the NYPD's use of official social media accounts to imply that demonstrations were tied to "terrorism".
The agency wrote that the office of Adams should investigate the NYPD's "improper use of their social media accounts...particularly their use of social media to discredit protesters and chill future protests by making speculative claims linking them to terrorism — a clear abuse of the NYPD’s authority.”
Police break up pro-Palestinian demos in Amsterdam, Berlin
On Tuesday, police broke up pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges in Amsterdam and Berlin with police reporting a "violent nature" of demonstrations, claiming that large stones were removed from the ground.
Counterprotesters with flares attacked the main protest on Monday evening, causing a short outbreak of violence.
Demonstrators blocked certain roads leading to the campus, and police broke up the protest to allow emergency services access.
According to authorities, several students threw stones and pyrotechnics at cops who broke up the demonstration, and more than 120 people were arrested.
Protesters have urged the institution to cut connections with "Israel" due to its war on Gaza.
The institution has issued a list of its relationships with the occupation, which mostly includes student exchanges and research initiatives with Israeli experts.
The college "will under no circumstances contribute to warfare in any way, and we also do not intend to participate in exchanges in the field of military-related education," according to its website.
The demonstrations in Amsterdam and Berlin came after similar activities at colleges throughout the world, most notably in the United States, where several institutions have canceled graduation ceremonies.
Students in Switzerland join Gaza protest wave
Pro-Palestine protesters occupied university facilities in Lausanne, Geneva, and Zurich on Tuesday, broadening the protest movement in the country.
In Lausanne, protesters are demanding "an academic boycott" of Israeli institutions and "an end to censorship at EPFL" in response to the suspension of the feminist association Polyquity. They also want a ceasefire in Gaza, financing for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and an end to "the occupation and apartheid."
Similar demands have been made by demonstrators occupying a building at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) campus since May 2.
In Zurich, scores of students filled the main entry hall of the Federal Technology Institute ETH Zurich.
According to Keystone-ATS, demonstrators screamed "Free Palestine" and displayed a placard on the floor stating "No Tech for Genocide" before being removed by police.
Protesters also took over a University of Geneva (UNIGE) hall, occupying tables, chairs, and sofas and adorning the building with Palestinian flags, as well as banners reading "Free Palestine, stop genocide," and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
In a letter, the Geneva students requested the UNIGE rectorate to promote Palestinian students to study in Geneva and for "an immediate end to links between the University of Geneva and Israeli universities."
