Harvard University’s “encampment” is one of the last major pro-Palestinian (effectively, pro-Hamas) occupations still standing after police cleared demonstrators Friday from the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Pennsylvania.
According to The Tech, the MIT student newspaper, police arrived at the center of campus early Friday morning and began clearing the encampment and making arrests (original emphasis):
4:03 AM: A 15 minutes’ notice was issued to pro-Palestinian student demonstrators to vacate the premises.
Within minutes, encampment affiliates and other pro-Palestinian student demonstrators were escorted out of Kresge Oval and onto Mass Ave.
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7:38 AM: In a statement to the MIT community at 7:38 a.m., President Kornbluth detailed the events of this morning and presented a timeline of key events since the establishment of the encampment up to its removal. Kornbluth writes that she “had no choice but to remove such a high-risk flashpoint at the very center of our campus.”
Later in the day, pro-Palestinian protesters and their supporters held a rally on campus to protest the removal of the encampment. Some chanted, “Oink, oink, piggy, piggy / we’re going to make your life sh*tty,” The Tech reported.
Cambridge, MA – May 9: Pro-Palestinian protestors blocking garage exit at the Garvey Building on the MIT campus. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that 33 people were arrested at the Philadelphia campus, “including” students:
Penn Police officers in riot gear, with the assistance of Philadelphia Police, arrested 33 individuals at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at around 6 a.m. on Friday.
The arrests and clearing of tents took place on the 16th day of the encampment, which began on the afternoon of April 25. Up to 40 tents took up one square of College Green ufntil [sic] Tuesday, when at least eight tents were moved over as the encampment expanded east of the Ben Franklin statue. Penn Police officers completed arrests after about an hour, including by moving several individuals out of their tents.
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The spokesperson added that approximately 33 individuals were arrested “without incident” and cited for defiant trespass. They said that, after searching the encampment, Penn Police found “several long lengths (6-10 feet) of heavy gauge chains, as well as smaller chains with nuts and bolts attached that could be used as weapons.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian noted that “at least” seven of the 33 arrestees were students. Penn, formerly known as a heavily Jewish campus, has been a hotbed of antisemitic rhetoric and protests since the Hamas attack October 7.
Harvard has warned the dozens of protesters still occupying Harvard Yard to leave, and has placed them on what is called — in a typically Harvardian euphemism — “involuntary absence.” Graduation in the Yard will be held May 22.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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