More than 2,100 arrested at anti-Israel protests nationwide as police clear college encampments

Columbia University's embattled President Minouche Shafik on Friday called the last two weeks "among the most difficult in Columbia's history," as anti-Israel protests continue to rage on the New York City campus. 

Shafik, speaking publicly for the first time about the long-running demonstrations that have taken over the campus since police cleared an occupied campus building in a video message posted to the university’s social media, said the "turmoil, tension, division and disruption have impacted the entire community.

"She noted that the students have "paid an especially high price" by losing out on the final days of the year in classrooms and residence halls — "For those of you who are seniors, you’re finishing college the same way you started: online."

Shafik’s speech came days after police raided the university’s Hamilton Hall administration building after it was illegally occupied by protesters. 

"We tried very hard to resolve the issue of the encampment through dialogue," she said. "Many of the people who gathered there were largely peaceful and cared deeply about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza." 

This is an excerpt from Fox News Digital's Brie Stimson's report.

Pulling a page from the protesters’ guide to harassing Columbia University’s president, anti-Israel agitators have reportedly screamed outside the home of the New York University president.

They’re called “primal screams,” according to social media posts this week.

“Inspired by students at Columbia, students at NYU participated in a midnight primal scream outside NYU President Linda Mills’ apartment tonight,” Talia Jane tweeted. “This comes after NYU signed off on a 6am raid and sweep of their peaceful encampment protest calling on the university to divest from death.”

This happened two days after protesters gathered outside Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik’s home in New York City following arrests on the Ivy League campus.

Here’s that primal scream on Thursday.

The Federated University Police Officers Association (FUPOA) leader said Saturday that it was UCLA administrators to blame for a "lack of response" to anti-Israel protests on campus last week that resulted in violence, hundreds of arrests and turmoil on campus.

"UC administrators are solely responsible for the University’s response to campus protests, and they own all the fallout from those responses," FUPOA President Wade Stern said in a press release Saturday, according to Fox 11 in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters set up encampments Tuesday on UCLA's campus in Royce Quad, demanding, in-part, that the university divest from "companies and institutions that are complicit in the Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people."

Then, a hundred or so pro-Israel counter-protesters showed up and an ensuing skirmish took place between the two encampments. There was no law enforcement present for at least three and a half hours.

On Wednesday night, heading into Thursday morning, there was finally a large police presence. Local and state police ripped apart the pro-Palestinian encampment and arrested more than 200 people.

The FUPOA said an investigation will "undoubtedly uncover multiple failures to implement and adhere to UC’s own guidelines for response to campus protests."

"The UCLA administration has much to answer for in the upcoming probe, and their adherence to established guidelines should play a central part," the police union's statement read.

Fox 11 Los Angeles contributed to this report.

At least 25 anti-Israel protesters were arrested at the University of Virginia campus Saturday as authorities tried to clear an encampment, the school said. 

Campus police declared an “unlawful assembly” earlier in the day after UVA Police Chief Tim Longo gave a group of anti-Israel protesters near the University Chapel 10 minutes to leave the area.

At 8:15 a.m., officials tried to collect tents and were met with "agitation and chanting" from protesters, the school said in a news release. 

“Authorities were again met with agitation, chanting and violent gestures such as swinging of objects,” the school said. “Beginning at around 2:30 p.m., UPD gave the crowd three verbal warnings that an unlawful assembly would be declared if demonstrators refused to leave the area.”

The Virginia State Police responded to the campus to assist local authorities. The scene was declared “stable” around 4 p.m. 

The protesters have repeatedly refused to comply with university policies regarding protests over several days, school President Jim Ryan said Saturday in a message to students and staff.

"Unfortunately, a small group today made a choice to willingly break the rules after being given many opportunities to comply, and they then refused to leave the site voluntarily," Ryan said. "I sincerely wish it were otherwise, but this repeated and intentional refusal to comply with reasonable rules intended to secure the safety, operations, and rights of the entire university community left us with no other choice than to uphold the neutral application and enforcement of those rules."

At least 25 people were arrested on suspicion of trespassing and were taken to the Albemarle County Regional Jail. University officials were still waiting for confirmation on how many of those arrested were affiliated with the school. 

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A "woke-free" beer company that launched last year hoping to rival Bud Light will host an event Tuesday at a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill fraternity house to celebrate the actions of the students who defended the American flag from anti-Israel protesters on campus earlier this week.

Dubbed the "Frat Boy Summer Kickoff," the event will be held at the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity house and will be hosted by the Ultra Right Beer Company.

"We're trying to get this very organic, just a good old-fashioned, frat row, beer party," said Seth Weathers, CEO of Ultra Right Beer Company, told Fox News Digital. "I love what the kids did, obviously, protecting the flag."

"I love the idea of just continuing to encourage them about what they did so that that will encourage, you know, other kids in college and everywhere else to know they did the right thing," he added.

Ultra Right Beer Company will be giving away free beer to those in attendance for what Weathers believes will turn into a "really good event" that "multiple fraternities" and Old Row, a Barstool Sports subsidiary, are involved with.

"We're doing free beer," he said. "We're making it really simple — show up, you got free beer. We're bringing half a tractor trailer load of beer for this thing just in anticipation of the kind of crowd it sounds like we're going to have."

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One University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student went viral on TikTok after anti-Israel agitators blocked him from walking across campus twice, shortly before law enforcement broke up the encampment leaving the once-beautiful campus ridden with graffiti and trash. 

Milagro Jones, a senior at UCLA, joined "America's Newsroom" to discuss the encounter with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators and how he responded to the attempt to thwart him from accessing his campus library. 

"I was stopped by masked, anti-Israel protesters who mistook me for someone of Jewish background," Jones told hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on Friday. "They said I was an Israeli agitator. They physically assaulted me on Friday. The last time that I was on campus, they actually punched my brother in the head. They reached into their hoodie pocket and claimed that they had a weapon."

"I just wanted to free my campus from these people," he continued. "I wanted to give my other students an opportunity to be able to access the campus without segregation, without people telling us that we can't go to the library, and I just want to see a safe, beautiful campus where we can all learn, and we can all come together for positivity, for education."

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A coalition of anti-Israel agitators seeking to protest outside the Democratic National Convention in August are continuing to put pressure on the City of Chicago, alleging their First Amendment rights are being violated, while some Democrats fear unrest could disrupt the annual convention.

A series of lawsuits have been filed against the city in recent months by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Coalition, and Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois — some of which have voiced support for the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago.

In a Tuesday filing at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the coalition of protesters stated they want to "engage in peaceful political speech and seek to exercise their First Amendment rights at the Convention to deliver their political messages directly to… President Biden."

That effort is being stifled by the City of Chicago, which denied the groups "respective applications for parade permits within sight or sound of the Convention," according to the filing.

"Instead, the City, on information at the behest of the DNC, unilaterally decided to offer an alternative parade route approximately four (4) miles away buried on a tree lined street in an entirely other part of the City, clearly to protect President Biden and others from hearing the Plaintiffs’ political message," the coalition stated in the filing. "In doing so, the City failed to consider to least restrictive route narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government interest. Indeed, the City admitted it considered no other alternative than the one it seeks to force on Plaintiffs and failed to engage Plaintiffs to consider less restrictive options."

The 2024 Democratic convention, which is slated to be held this summer in Chicago at the United Center from August 19 - 22, will be attended by Democrats from all over the country. It will also be where the party announces its official nominee for the 2024 presidential election, which is expected to be a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

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Civil rights attorney and University of California-Los Angeles alumnus Leo Terrell called out his alma mater for its response to anti-Israel chaos on campus, adding that every other presidential administration save for Joe Biden's would have rightly protected Jewish students under Title VI.

"First of all, let me be very clear: Let's not use the First Amendment to describe the criminal anti-Semitic conduct that happened at UCLA, a school that I attended; law school," Terrell told "Life, Liberty & Levin," calling the university a "national embarrassment."

Terrell earned his juris doctor from UCLA's law school, while he received his undergraduate degree from California State University-Dominguez Hills.

Police required riot gear to break up protests and dismantle a tent city on the UCLA campus on Thursday, the same day Chancellor Gene Block wrote an open letter recognizing "deep pain" on campus, while promising an investigation into violence there. Block declared the tent city unlawful and a "breach of policy."

Terrell also faulted the Biden administration for inaction against the protests, citing previous federal actions to break up unlawful or dangerous protests.

"There is enough federal law and protection that is not being used by the Biden administration. Why? Because they are playing politics," said Terrell, who previously espoused the claim Biden and others fear Democratic voter revolt in key-swing-state Michigan in an election year. The Great Lakes State has a marked Arab population.

Authorities at the University of Virginia declared an unlawful assembly on campus Saturday.

The UVA Department of Safety and Security said the gathering of anti-Israel protesters was near the Rotunda and Chapel areas on campus in a social media post.

"Avoid the area," the campus safety department added.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the university, campus police and the Virginia State Police.

A group called UVA Encampment for Gaza posted a message on social media demanding the release of at least one person arrested.

“I am calling to demand the release of the one arrestee that has been in custody for over two hours and the immediate de-escalation of UPD, CPD, APD, and the Virginia State Troopers,” the message states. "I support our students, faculty, and community members. Tell the militarized forces to STAND DOWN NOW.” 

Just after 4 p.m. local time, UVA police said the incident was "stable."

"Police remain on scene," a UVA statement said.

The president of the University of Southern California said the school was taking steps to ensure students finish their finals “in a quiet, safe academic environment” amid days of anti-Israel protests on the Los Angeles campus.

USC President Carol Folt wrote the letter to students a day after the school announced plans for a "Trojan Family Graduate Celebration" at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum after the main commencement was canceled.

"Let me be absolutely clear," she wrote in the letter released Friday. “Free speech and assembly do not include the right to obstruct equal access to campus, damage property, or foment harassment, violence, and threats. Nor is anyone entitled to obstruct the normal functions of our university, including commencement.”

The main graduation ceremony was canceled amid security measures that would have taken too much time to implement for the event, which was expected to draw 65,000 people. The additional security came after days of anti-Israel protests on campus that resulted in dozens of arrests.

"The university is legally obligated to ensure that students, faculty, and staff can move freely throughout our campus while pursuing their studies, work, and research," Folt wrote. "Every part of our campuses, including Alumni Park, must be fully accessible and free from vandalism and harassment."

Student finals are expected to conclude Wednesday, the same day commencement ceremonies will begin

Anti-Israel agitators interrupted the University of Michigan's main commencement ceremony on Saturday.

Carlos Del Toro, the 78th US secretary of the Navy, was addressing the large crowd at the time when the protesters began displaying Palestinian flags and chanting at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

The protesters called for the university to divest from Israel and companies that do business with the Jewish state.

The group marched up the center aisle holding Palestinian flags and signs and were met with boos as police closed in, according to video footage.

No arrests were reported and the protest — comprised of about 50 people, many wearing traditional Arabic kaffiyeh along with their graduation caps — didn’t seriously interrupt the nearly two-hour event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people, The Associated Press reported.

The University of California, Los Angeles will move back to full operations on Monday, with a law enforcement presence, after days of anti-Israel protests. 

Classes will still be remote through the weekend and work events and research activities were encouraged to remain virtual during that period, the school said in a news release. 

"A law enforcement presence continues to be stationed around campus to help promote safety," the release said.

The school canceled classes on Wednesday and began virtual learning the next day as anti-Israel protesters clashed with authorities who were trying to disperse an encampment.

A judge in Arizona has denied a motion that would have lifted the suspension of twenty students arrested last week amid anti-Israel protests. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona denied the Arizona State University students' motion to have their college suspensions lifted on Friday, according to local outlet ABC 15.

The defendants filed the lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents on Tuesday, alleging that their suspension from ASU is causing "irreparable harm" due to their inability to enroll in classes.

The students, who are charged with trespassing, also alleged that the suspensions violate their First Amendment rights.

Approximately 72 individuals were arrested on Apr. 26 and taken into custody while continuing protests on the Arizona State University campus. 

Police officers cleared the Old Main lawn area overnight — those arrested included both students and faculty. 

Judge John Tuchi ruled that the students did not provide sufficient evidence that their First Amendment rights had been violated.

He also ruled that there was insufficient evidence that the university's suspension of students was causing "irreparable harm." The trespassing charges at the heart of the lawsuit have yet to be brought to court.

Students and faculty have demanded the university drop any charges against the protesters with ongoing demonstrations since the arrests.

Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this update.

Former NFL defensive end Marcellus Wiley said he is "disgusted" by the events taking place at Columbia University. 

Wiley, who played college football at Columbia, recently joined Dan Dakich on OutKick's "Don't @ Me" to address the ongoing protests at the Ivy League university. Similar demonstrations have been happening at college campuses across the U.S. in recent weeks.

"I'm disgusted," Wiley began. "I don't pick the political side… it doesn't matter what side you are politically on this one. You don't have the right to protest and be unruly. Now peacefully protest, go do it."

Wiley argued that protesting was not the "end all be all."

"I talk to these kids and I know my foundation, Project Transition, I'm always in the community and talking to these kids… half these kids don't even know why they out there protesting. It's unreal… like it's insane." Wiley told Dakich. "And the ones that do know also know that this is not the end all be all. There are other steps and measures you must take beyond protesting."

The former Buffalo Bills defender added that students' actions could impact their future.

"So I don't know why these kids are going to this extent… creating encampments, destroying their university, their property, their reputation, because when you leave people ask ‘Where did you go to school?’ and then their minds goes to two places. The positive, academic reputation, great curriculum…. and then awe Columbia… the place where all the protests, the place where all the kids can't even be controlled, the place where the leadership didn't step in fast enough, swift enough. So it damages your reputation, but we will rebound because we have to rebound."

Wiley then pointed to Stanford University's handling of student protests.

"I wish we would've handled it like Stanford. Saw some of the Texas schools, some of the Florida schools… Stanford wrote a letter, they said look before ya'll go outside let me just let you know the rules of engagement… you are allowed to protest these hours, these places, go ahead. That's what I wish Columbia would have did. And then after that if you want to violate these policies, there will be swift consequences." 

Fox News Digital's Chantz Martin contributed to this update.

A violent, outside agitator arrested at the anti-Israel Columbia University protest is reportedly the privileged heir of a multi-million dollar ad empire, according to New York Police.

The New York Post reported that James Carlson, aka Cody Carlson, aka Cody Tarlow is a "longtime anarchist" with no known ties to Columbia University who was arrested when police raided the encampment at Hamilton Hall on Tuesday. Carlson is being investigated as a "possible leader" of the group of agitators that broke into the building and occupied it unlawfully, NYPD and City Hall sources told the Post.

The report identified Carlson, 40, as one of three children of prominent advertising executives Richard "Dick" Tarlow and his wife, Sandy Carlson Tarlow. Dick Tarlow died in 2022 at age 81 with an estate worth at least $20 million, according to court records.

James Carlson is heir to that fortune and owns a 2,893-square-foot, three-story brownstone with four wood-burning fireplaces and a carriage house purchased in Park Slope in 2019 for $2.3 million, property records and online listings show. 

Carlson has a lengthy arrest record dating back to 2005, with charges including burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy and criminal trespassing, the Post reported.

"Real Time" host Bill Maher took aim at President Biden's latest student loan handout proposal, insisting his own tax dollars, by extension, will be funding the "Jew hating" on college campuses. 

During Friday night's panel discussion, while discussing the anti-Israel unrest occurring at top universities in recent weeks, Maher said he gets "so incensed" at how many of the students participating receive federal aid. 

"When I read about the college loans… 'Biden administration's student debt cancelation will cost a combined $870 billion to $1.4 trillion. That's a lot of debt forgiveness," Maher said. 

Maher continued, "Colleges constantly raise tuition, then the kids take out more loans, then the government comes by and pays those loans. Okay, so my tax dollars are supporting this Jew hating? I don't think so."

Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway said the student loan handout was unfair, telling Maher "You can't have plumbers and pipefitters playing for the student loans of doctors and lawyers."

"I'm all for the government trying to help people who need it, but he did that as a political play and everybody knows it. He's bleeding young people support." Conway added.

"And it hasn't worked," Bloomberg Businessweek correspondent Joshua Green chimed in. "If you look at issues that young people care about, Gaza is like 15th out of 16th. And the only thing that comes in lower than Gaza is student loan forgiveness. So it hasn't worked as a motivator for the youth vote, you know, half of which are out there chanting ‘Genocide Joe.’ So it's backfired not just in terms of public policy, but in terms of the politics, too."

Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this update.

The rise of outspoken antisemitism on college campuses may come as a shock to many around America, but Israel’s former special envoy to combat antisemitism said she’s "not surprised." 

Noa Tishby said on "The Brian Kilmeade Show" that the "hip social justice" trend of anti-Zionism has been brewing beneath the surface for a long time.

"I think this is a fortuitous time, as you said, for our book Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew to come out because it's probably the most uncomfortable time to be a Jew in recent modern history," Tishby said.

Co-author and former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho said the purpose of the book is to allow Americans to educate themselves, an act he argued is necessary as unrest continues to grow across the country. 

One freshman student at UCLA captured video of himself trying to attend class on campus when he was stopped by protesters. They questioned whether he was a Jew or a Zionist.

"Listen, this is Germany 1932," Tishby said in response to the video. "It's unbelievable that we're actually living through this again. And I think to the point of anti-Zionism being the new form of antisemitism, I think it's pretty clear right now that these things are intertwined."

Tishby explained that Zionism is a term referring to Jewish liberation and the belief that the State of Israel has a right to exist, a definition that she argued has been "hijacked."

"It was taken to mean something completely different. So Zionism was taken to mean that it's a movement that necessitates the genocide of Palestinians, and that is what people actually think and is not true," she said. 

Fox News Digital's Amy Nelson contributed to this update.

Conservatives at the University of Wisconsin-Madison distributed American flags, pocket Constitutions and patriotic popsicles Friday to counter the anti-Israel encampment set up on campus.

The school's "Young Americans for Freedom" chapter joined forces with College Republicans of UW-Madison to send a message to the student protesters at Library Mall, local news station WMTV reported.

"We just want to show the school and all of the protestors that are here doing it illegally, that there is a way to voice your opinion, there is a way to exercise your First Amendment, but within the laws," said Harrison Wells, chairman of Young Americans for Freedom. 

Wells told WMTV that protests should be done peacefully and legally.

“I don’t think anyone should be going to school where there’s violence where there’s outbreaks,” he said. "I think this could all be solved if these groups just followed the laws and follow the rules. I don’t think they would need to bring in police. Why would they if you’re following the laws?”

But anti-Israel protester Mia Kurzer said the disruptive encampment is justified.

“People weren’t really mad at people for saving Holocaust survivors when that was illegal and helping escaped slaves when that was illegal. So I think legality is just an interesting point," Kurzer told WMTV. 

Kurzer said the police presence at UW-Madison was unnecessary. 

“This is not an anti-Semitic protest and we were not causing any harm to anyone before the police came and brutalized people,” she said. 

But Wells told WMTV the school administration should have done more to shut down the protest.

“When they first came in on Wednesday, they cleared out some of the tents, the tents were back up within, I think an hour,” he said. “And then the school decided to negotiate. What precedent does that set for student groups in the future?”

Kurzer argued the protests would be legal if the university gave permission to set up the encampment.

“The law that is that people are referring to clearly states that people cannot camp without explicit permission,” she said. “They could just give us permission and then it would be legal. The chancellor has the power to give us permission to tent here, and she is actively choosing not to.”

University officials are in negotiations with protesters to end the encampment before finals begin on Sunday, WMTV reported.

Anti-Israel protesters who are concealing their identities behind coronavirus masks and other face coverings while wreaking havoc on American college campuses are "gutless" and symbolize the "opposite of courage," critics tell Fox News Digital. 

The cloth coverings that played a prominent role in the lives of Americans during the pandemic have recently been thrust back into the national spotlight as demonstrators around the country are using them to hide their faces while calling for an end to the war in Gaza. But protests involving masked demonstrators at campuses such as Columbia University and UCLA have led to property damage, violence and hundreds of arrests. 

"It is the opposite of courage to hide behind a mask and to intimidate and menace, let alone physically harass or assault people," Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, told Fox News Digital. "But when schools allow this, it can create not just vulnerability but real danger for the campus community." 

"If you show up for an event dressed like a bank robber, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to ask are you really there to exercise your constitutional right to freedom of assembly – you have something else in mind," he added. 

One student who was protesting at New York University told Fox News this week that she was wearing a mask to protect against the spread of coronavirus.  

Other students around the country that spoke to The New York Times said they were masking up over concerns about having their identities exposed by pro-Israel groups accusing them of antisemitism or being the subject of viral videos and online harassment. 

"They are doing it just to hide their identity," Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. "I feel like also they are probably paid – some of them are not university students and they are paid instigators, and so they are trying to hide that further." 

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this update.