2 US professors detained in pro-Palestinian protests

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - At least two professors at Emory University in Georgia were detained on Thursday at pro-Palestinian protests that have spread across US college campuses to demand a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Several dozen protesters including economics professor Caroline Fohlin and Noelle McAfee, the chair of the philosophy department, were arrested after an encampment was formed on the campus in Atlanta.

In video footage posted on X, McAfee, handcuffed behind her back, is seen telling someone: "Can you call the Philosophy Department office and tell them I've been arrested?...I'm Noelle McAfee, I'm Chair of the Philosophy Department."

According to social media footage, during the protest, Atlanta police officers used a taser on a handcuffed man.

Separately, police reportedly used rubber bullets and teargas to break up the university protest, according to reports.

Attending to the protest, Kate Rosenblatt, a professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Emory, said it’s "unconscionable" that the university called police on students.

Protests against Israel's onslaught against Gaza have spread across the US after more than 100 people were arrested at Columbia University in New York last week when police tried to clear an encampment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson faced boos and loud chants Wednesday from students as he delivered a speech during his visit to the school, where he called on the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, to resign.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 which Tel Aviv said killed around 1,200 people.

More than 34,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.