On Saturday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed its concern about the arrest of hundreds of students during demonstrations in support of Palestine at American universities.

Human Rights Commission spokesman Jeremy Lawrence said: “We are deeply concerned about the arrest of hundreds of students at American universities, and a number of cases that represent a very harsh response by the police to protests in support of Palestine.”

Emphasizing that the right to freedom of expression and assembly is fundamental, Lawrence said: “Every person has the right to peaceful protest, and it should not be prevented.”

He added that the Human Rights Commission is aware of reports of “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Islam” at the protests, stressing that they must also be condemned and stopped.

On April 18, students who rejected the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.

With the intervention of police forces and the arrest of dozens of students, the state of anger expanded and the demonstrations extended to dozens of universities in various parts of the United States, including leading universities such as Harvard, George Washington, New York, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and North Carolina.

Later, the unprecedented student movement in support of Palestine in the United States expanded to other universities in countries such as France, Britain, and Germany, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of those known to American universities, and demands to stop the war on Gaza and boycott the companies that supply Israel with weapons.