Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest,” he said.

“Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education,” Biden continued. “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos

Biden’s comments came shortly after police arrested at least 132 student protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), early on Thursday and cleared out an encampment.

Police clear encampment, arrest UCLA students amid US protests: All we know

The LAPD has arrested at least 50 pro-Palestine protesters and faculty at UCLA after a tense standoff a day after violence led by counter-protesters.

A tense standoff continued at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on Thursday night after police arrested at least 50 student and faculty protesters at a campus encampment, where they have been campaigning against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Despite the arrests, at least some students remained on campus, continuing their protest. Others started returning to the protest site, UCLA Radio reported

UCLA is among the dozens of US universities where students have set up camps over the past few weeks to demand an end to Israel’s war in Gaza. Many are also calling for their schools to divest from any firms complicit in Israeli abuses

The protests have been met with a fierce backlash from university administrators, as well as pro-Israel lawmakers and groups.

On Thursday, students and other observers quickly slammed Biden’s statement as failing to recognise that US colleges and universities have called heavily armed police forces onto their campuses to disperse non-violent demonstrations.

The recent arrests of students and faculty at UCLA and New York’s Columbia University, among other campuses, have drawn widespread condemnation

Greater than an encampment’: Why Gaza student protests strike a chord

Montreal, Canada – Sitting on a bench in the heart of the McGill University campus, Farrah says that she and her fellow student protesters want their school to listen.

Less than a week ago, students from McGill and other Montreal universities set up dozens of tents on McGill’s campus to denounce Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, and demand that their universities divest from any firms complicit in Israeli abuses

They are part of a growing student protest movement that catapulted to international attention last month after demonstrations in the United States last month. The movement shows little sign of slowing down, drawing international headlines as Israel’s Gaza offensive grinds on

Campuses from across Montreal have come together for this,” Farrah, who asked to use a pseudonym due to a fear of reprisals, told Al Jazeera.

About 75 tents have been erected on a field just a few steps from the university’s main gate in downtown Montreal, Canada’s second-largest city, and a steady stream of supporters arrived throughout the day with supplies and words of encouragement

Highly visible

Like those in the US, the encampment at McGill has struck a chord – both with the students and wider community members who support the protesters, and with the pro-Israel politicians and groups that have vehemently denounced them.

Some supporters say the encampments have stirred such strong reactions because they are highlighting stark inconsistencies: governments that say they promote human rights but provide unwavering support to Israel; universities that say they promote freedom of expression but send police to break up peaceful protests; right-wing politicians that denounce liberal “safe space” policies, but are now arguing that pro-Israel students feel unsafe.

Paris’s Sciences Po rejects protesters’ demand to review Israel ties.

Dozens of students start a sit-in at university to protest decision not to review partnerships with Israeli universities.

The Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) has rejected demands by protesters to review its relations with Israeli universities, its interim director Jean Basseres says, prompting some students to say they would start a hunger strike in protest.

The decision on Thursday was made after students at several French universities, including Sciences Po and Sorbonne University, blocked or occupied their institutions to protest against Israel’s war on Gaza following similar protests in the United States.

I clearly refused to set up a working group on our relations with Israeli universities and partner companies,” Basseres told reporters after a town hall meeting with students and staff.

Dozens of students promptly started a sit-in inside the university to protest Basseres’s decision.

The 150-old university has been the site of pro-Palestinian protests for several days. Some demonstrators blocked entrances to the university, and tents were set up on the central courtyard for a protest camp.

Last week, scuffles broke out after hundreds of students turned out and police moved in when about 50 pro-Israeli demonstrators arrived.

Aljazeera/News agencies