Key events
Our picture editors have put together a gallery of the most striking photos from the protests at some of the US’s most prestigious universities:
Nina Lakhani
Away from the campus turmoil, hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.
The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.
The seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.
The protesters called on Schumer – who is among a minority of Democrats to recently criticize the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – to stop arming Israel’s military, which relies heavily on US weapons, jet fuel and other military equipment.
Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and John Thune, his deputy, wrote to Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, and Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, calling demonstrators “antisemitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.
Twenty-five Republican senators led by McConnell wrote: “The Department of Education and federal law enforcement must act immediately to restore order, prosecute the mobs who have perpetuated [sic] violence and threats against Jewish students, revoke the visas of all foreign nationals (such as exchange students) who have taken part in promoting terrorism, and hold accountable school administrators who have stood by instead of protecting their students.”
The Missouri senator Josh Hawley and Arkansas senator Tom Cotton on Monday called for Joe Biden to send national guard troops on to campuses.
Columbia university extends deadline for talks to dismantle student protest camps
Columbia University has extended a deadline for talks on dismantling pro-Palestinian protest camps on campus by 48 hours as tension over the Unites States’ handling of the Israel-Gaza war grows.
The New York university has been in talks with student protest leaders to clear the encampment and had originally set a deadline of midnight on Tuesday. Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik warned on Tuesday that the university would “have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus” if discussions failed.
The deadline extension came after students agreed to dismantle a “significant number of tents”, according to the Washington Post. Student negotiators said in a statement that university leaders had threatened to call in the National Guard and NYPD if their demands were not met.
Shafik has faced criticism over her handling of the protests after more than 100 people were arrested at the university last week.
The arrests have since set off a chain of events, including the re-establishment of the encampment and solidarity protests on other US college campuses. Police arrested dozens of people at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale University in Connecticut and New York University in Manhattan on Monday.
The police crackdowns came after Columbia University canceled in-person classes on Monday in response to protesters setting up tent encampments at its New York City campus last week.
Hundreds of faculty members then held a mass walkout to protest against the school president’s decision to have police arrest students at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest last week.
We’ll bring you the latest news and reactions from the protests.