New York: The police in the US city of New York arrested 34 pro-protesters who marched to the Brooklyn Museum on Friday afternoon, setting up tents in the lobby and unfurling a "Free Palestine" banner from the building's roof. New York police tackled and punched some protesters during the scuffles that broke out in the crowd outside the museum and some artwork damage and harassment of staff was also reported.
Some demonstrators hurled plastic bottles at officers and shouted insults, while others held banners, waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans on the steps of the grand Beaux Arts museum, which is the city’s second largest. Out of 34 detained, six were arrested and charged with crimes ranging from trespassing to assault, while 23 were released after receiving tickets or summonses for misdemeanours including trespassing, making graffiti, damaging property and resisting arrest.
The museum said it closed an hour early because of the disruption caused on Friday, including the scuffles between police and protesters that took place inside and outside the building. "There was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza," a museum spokesperson said in an email. "Protesters entered the building, and our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.
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Organisers, including the group Within Our Lifetime, called on supporters to “flood” and “de-occupy” the museum, saying they wanted to take over the building until officials “ disclose and divest ” from any investments linked to Israel’s actions in Gaza. A pro-Palestinian organisation named "Within Our Lifetime" urged demonstrators to "flood Brooklyn Museum for Gaza."
Widespread protests over the Israel-Hamas war have taken place in the United States, and the demonstrations at university campuses gained worldwide attention. On Saturday, hundreds of students and faculty walked out of the University of Chicago's graduation ceremony in protest over the war, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Continuing pro-Palestinian protests in US
At Columbia University in upper Manhattan, demonstrators on Friday set up an encampment on campus during an alumni reunion to show support for Palestinians. Video on social media showed campus security taking down the tents. As of Friday night, police were not involved, as they had been in taking down the camp and evicting or arresting protests twice before.
Meanwhile, academic workers staged a strike on campus late last month protesting UCLA's response to a mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters. The strikers are demanding amnesty for grad students and other academic workers who were arrested or face discipline for their involvement in the protests, which union leaders say were peaceful except when counter-demonstrators and other instigators were allowed to provoke unrest.
Unionised academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard as unfair labour practices in the university's handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organisers said. Union leaders said a major impetus for the strike was the arrest of 210 people, including campus-employed grad students, at the scene of a Palestinian solidarity protest camp torn down by police at UCLA on May 2.
About 24 hours earlier, on the night of April 30-May 1, masked assailants armed with sticks and clubs attacked the encampment and its occupants, sparking a bloody clash that went on for at least three hours before police moved in. The university has since reassigned the chief of the campus police department and opened an investigation into law enforcement's reaction to the violence.
(with inputs from agencies)
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