(NewsNation) — Sahar Tartak, a Jewish Yale University student who was attacked during a pro-Paalestinian rally on campus, told NewsNation she’s not surprised by such events occurring in the US.
“These rallies are not only influenced by but guided by terrorists across the sea. That’s where they’re getting a lot of their methods and a lot of their propaganda from,” she said.
Tartak shared incidents of students being thanked for their activism by a mosque and crowds cheering as students took down an American flag from a flagpole at a World War II memorial wall.
“The rallies are conducive to violence for a reason. The goal is to intimidate Jewish students and also to intimidate America and say, this is our turf, we’re owning it,” she said.
Nationwide protests
Pro-Palestinian protests continued at colleges around the country Thursday, as university officials attempt to defuse what they say is growing tension on their campuses.
On Monday, over 150 people were arrested in connection to demonstrations at New York University. NYPD officers stepped in, the department told PIX11, after the university had sent them a written request. An NYU spokesperson claimed that protesters behaved in a “disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing manner.”
Some faculty and university staff at NYU stood in front of demonstrators to safeguard them from police. That morning, a similar scene at Yale University in Connecticut took place, with 45 protesters arrested after three days of demonstrations.
Encampments were also seen throughout the week at the University of California, Berkeley; California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Michigan; Emerson College and Tufts University.
Some students have said they have concerns over the protests, arguing that some criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism. Protesters have said, though, that those being antisemitic do not represent them and pointed out that many Jewish students are joining them in their cause. Some student demonstrators held signs saying “Jews for Free Palestine” or “Jews for Palestine.”