Penn protester climbs Ben Franklin statue; encampment at Rutgers University ends peacefully

At the University of Pennsylvania’s iconic statue of its founder, Benjamin Franklin, police had dispersed a crowd of pro-Palestinian protesters Thursday, only to have a young man break through metal police barricades and rush the statue, scaling it and waving a Palestinian flag high above officers who moved in to stop him.

The 20-year-old Temple University student’s frantic dash prompted the return of around 60 pro-Palestinian protesters to the statue area, where verbal clashes played out between supporters and detractors of Israel’s war with Hamas as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Penn’s College Green entered its second week.

The calls for colleges to divest their financial holdings from issues that some find objectionable have been made for decades on college campuses.

The targets have differed: Tobacco, fossil fuels and most recently Israel and its military effort and government. Thousands of students across the country are staging encampments, holding protests and clashing with their campus administrations, largely in the name of divestment.

Police officer fired gun while clearing protesters from Columbia building, prosecutors say

A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesman for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed Thursday.

Student protesters agreed to dismantle their encampment late Thursday afternoon at Rutgers-New Brunswick campus, Chancellor Francine Conway said in a statement.

"We are pleased to report that these students have agreed to peacefully end their protest. They have committed to removing their tents and belongings, effectively clearing Voorhees Mall. This process began before the 4 p.m. deadline and is currently underway," Conway said.

After a day of chanting, dancing, and taking over the Ben Franklin statue, more than 100 people relaxed at College Green.

Across the encampment, five police officers observed them from a distance.

Officials at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus have ordered pro-Palestinian protesters to clear the encampment at the university.

Administrators met with protesters Thursday morning, and informed them that the encampment would need to be removed from Voorhees Mall by 4 p.m., NJ.com reports. If the encampment remains, protesters "will be considered to have trespassed," Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and Rutgers-New Brunswick chancellor Francine Conway said in a joint statement Thursday.

As the 20-year-old Temple University student made his way up the campus' Ben Franklin statue, he thought “No way they take the statue back.”

On Wednesday night, encampment members had placed a large "Divest" sign on the Franklin statue, but by morning, it had been cleared away.

With most Hey Day students dispersed from the College Green by 2 p.m., Penn's encampment for Gaza was left populated by its most strident supporters — and detractors.

In the absence of a large crowd, small spats and verbal skirmishes between Palestinian and Israeli supporters played out in the open areas surrounding the gated protest area, under the watchful eyes of a small group of campus police officers.

As the afternoon heat beat down at Penn, a young man with a Palestinian flag broke through the barricade protecting a Benjamin Franklin statue and climbed to the top.

As police attempted to bring him down, more protesters climbed through and joined him.

For Penn juniors, Hey Day is inseparable from the celebration that takes place each year on the College Green.

But on the procession down Locust Walk toward the central campus lawn - which has been home to the pro-Palestinian encampment for a week - some juniors were shocked to find that the tradition had been altered.

On the encampment's eighth day, both Israel supporters and encampment residents faced each other through a barricade with chants, drums, and the blow of a Shofar.

As Palestine and Israel flags wave on a hot spring day, the Jewish community called for the release of the Oct. 7 hostages, with occasional “U.S.A” chants coming from the crowd.

Minutes away from Penn students' encampment, at the university's hallowed Hey Day celebration, it was hard to tell whether a protest was happening at all.

Around 11 a.m., a crowd of young men, one of them wielding an acoustic guitar, belted out Billy Joel's "Piano Man" like it was closing time at the local dive bar.

President Joe Biden defended the right for demonstrators to protest Israel’s war in Gaza peacefully, but said those that break the law should be held accountable.

"We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said at the White House Thursday. "But neither are we a lawless country. We're a civil society. And order must prevail.”

Clad in cherry red T-shirts and brimmed hats, and clutching wooden canes, students at the University of Pennsylvania took part in hallowed "Hey Day" festivities taking place near the center of campus.

Hey Day is a moving-up celebration that commemorates juniors becoming seniors at the university. The tradition has been around in its current form since 1965, where juniors parade down Locust Walk.

About 60 Jewish Penn alumni, faculty and students gathered on the corner of 34th and Walnut Streets to deliver a petition asking the university to remove the encampment, signed by over 3,000 “concerned” Penn community members.

Benjamin Abella, a professor in the department of emergency medicine at the Penn School of Medicine, and senior Eyal Yakoby delivered the petition to senior university administrators as supporters stood outside College Hall singing “Am Israel chai,” meaning “The national of Israel endures.”

Speaking outside a Manhattan courtroom ahead of the 10th day of his hush money trial, former President Donald Trump called for a crackdown of all college protests across the country.

“These are radical left lunatics, and they got to be stopped now because it’s going to go on and on and it’s going to get worse and worse, and, you know, they take over countries, okay? “ Trump told reporters. “And we’re not letting them take over the U.S.A., we’re not letting the radical left morons take over this country.”

The substance that a man sprayed on tents at the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday was “a sulfur-based ‘stink’ spray,” according to a university spokesperson.

“No injuries were reported,” the spokesperson said. “The individual was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment.”

The Penn administration remains mum about its plans for handling the encampment, which has remained at about 60 members since last week, or whether it had set a deadline for the camp to come down, as interim President J. Larry Jameson had called for last week. The university spokesperson declined comment on those questions or whether the board of trustees was involved in the decision-making.

There have been petitions and calls from faculty groups to let the encampment stand and to remove the threat of discipline from student and faculty protesters; Penn said earlier this week that it had initiated disciplinary processes involving some protesters.

Police in New Hampshire said they made 90 arrests and took down tents at Dartmouth College Wednesday night.

In a statement, Police Chief Charles B. Dennis said protesters had been warned their tents were not permitted and were told they must disperse multiple times.

Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the UCLA campus after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after counter-protesters attacked a tent encampment on the campus.

The law enforcement action comes after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside of it in support.