Students at UConn were the latest to protest over the Israel-Hamas war.
Scores of students gathered on the Storrs campus starting late Thursday afternoon. Police at the scene took down tents.
One person was arrested, but the protest was "was largely peaceful," a university spokesperson said. UConn Police received no reports of any injuries.
The protesters are calling on the university to divest from companies they say are playing a role in the war.
鈥淲e will not rest until you divest!鈥� students chanted.
A social media post from organizers said they were planning an 鈥渋ndefinite encampment.鈥�
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the country are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict.
Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus, partly prompting the calls for police intervention.
UConn students join growing nationwide protest movement
Officials at Columbia University and some other schools have been negotiating with student protesters who have rebuffed police and doubled down. Other schools have quickly turned to law enforcement to douse demonstrations before they can take hold.
UConn senior Muhammed Elsabbal said many of his fellow classmates support the protests, even after the police took down the tents.
"Clearly, it must be doing something 鈥� for the police to want to disperse us immediately," he said. "We will not disperse until we sit down on that table and get a written commitment from the university."
Elsabbal said he and other classmates want the university to make four changes.
"One is close and divest from occupation and genocide," he said. "Number two: To sever ties to the war industry." Other changes include stopping student-exchange programs to Israel and "to end the repression of the Palestinian students on campus, including pro-Palestinian activists," he said.
Elsabbal said his classmates, inspired by similar protests occurring at Yale University and at colleges around the country, will not stop until their demands are met.
"I don't think they understand the determination from our end that what we're going through is nothing compared to what people in Gaza are going through," Elsabbal said.
The UConn protest is one of many pro-Palestinian protests being held on college campuses across the country. Recent protests at Yale University led to the arrest of about 45 students on Monday. Other protests have been happening at Columbia in New York City, Emerson College in Boston and the University of Texas at Austin.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the U.S. Education Department has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation are many colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
This is a developing story. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
