Professor remains hospitalized after being beaten by police during pro-Palestinian protest at US campus

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A professor remains hospitalized after being beaten by police on Saturday during a pro-Palestinian protest at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

"This professor is in the hospital due to his injuries. The only violence that happened on Saturday was by police at the behest of Washington University administration," Megan Green, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, said on X.

Steve Tamari, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was among those arrested at Washington University on Saturday at a protest calling for the university to divest from Boeing amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

His wife Sandra Tamari, who was also arrested at the Gaza encampment at the university, posted a video on her X account on Monday, saying that her 65-year-old husband was brutally beaten by police.

"Everything that occurred on Saturday is documented and clear for those who wish to see," Tamari said, indicating that the person who was wearing a yellow jacket is her husband.

Washington University in St. Louis used violence against its own students, faculty, staff and the community to maintain its "complicity in genocide," she said, adding: "We are undeterred and St Louis will continue to rise up for Palestine."

Tamari is in the hospital with multiple broken ribs and a broken hand, and one doctor reportedly told him he is lucky to be alive.

A total of 100 people were arrested on campus Saturday, according to media reports.

Protests are sweeping college campuses nationwide following a police attempt to clear a pro-Palestine encampment at New York's Columbia University, resulting in the arrest of over 100 students.

Hundreds of students have been arrested on campuses across the US with protests demanding universities divest from Israel and condemn its ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip, where over 34,400 people have been killed.

Students in several other countries including Canada, Australia, France and Egypt have organized demonstrations at their universities in solidarity with Palestine.