Police clear 100 protesters from pro-Palestinian encampment at Northeastern University - The Boston Globe

Northeastern activist group Huskies for a Free Palestine disputed the statements that the demonstrators had been yelling antisemitic slurs. In a statement, the group said counterprotesters yelled the phrase to mock them.

"After deploying campus police, city police, and state police on peaceful activist students, Northeastern Administration published an entirely false and fabricated narrative that members of our encampment engaged in hate speech early this morning," the student group said in a statement after the arrests.

"The conduct of Northeastern administration has been deplorable as they continue to defame their students and take away from the main cause of Huskies for a Free Palestine: to divest from Israeli Apartheid and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire."

The statement said the group was not "'infiltrated' in any way, shape or form by 'professional protestors', no one hired, it was comprised primarily of students."

The encampment at Northeastern is one of several that demonstrators set up at universities in the Boston area this week, part of a national wave of protests at college campuses as students call on administrators to condemn the climbing death toll in Gaza and divest from financial ties to Israel.

Mayor Michelle Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox made the decision that police would clear the Emerson encampment after police and city officials warned protesters that it created a safety hazard because it blocked a public way leading to a state transportation building. Video from protesters and onlookers showed officers tussling with screaming protesters, prompting criticism of police tactics.

Encampments remain at Harvard, MIT, and Tufts.

The Northeastern demonstrators, who set up the site Thursday, quickly faced opposition from administrators, who said protesters were violating the student code of conduct.

As they began clearing the camp Saturday morning, about a dozen Northeastern and State Police walked in a single file line from Shillman Hall, lining up around the other side of the circular pathway.

"Time to go home, guys," one officer said. The students responded that it was their lawn. "Private property," the officer said. "It's time to go home."

The crowd had grown to about 200 demonstrators at its peak late Friday night. Earlier in the day, the university cut off power to the common, where there are outlets that demonstrators were using to charge mobile devices as well as water heaters, speakers, and other items. Two academic buildings near the common were also closed with their doors locked.

Michael Armini, Northeastern's senior vice president of external affairs, said university officials had "tried to talk to students several times" but were not successful.

About 5:35 a.m. Saturday, police at Northeastern ushered about two dozen protesters down Leon Street, where they stood and continued to chant and film from a distance.

Ruben Galindo, Northeastern's deputy chief of police, walked around the encampment with a loudspeaker to warn demonstrators to leave the area. He told students they could leave with no disciplinary action, but none obliged. Instead, chants grew louder still.

"When the officers approach you, don't resist," Galindo told the demonstrators.

At 5:45 a.m., a large, black moving truck pulled up next to the encampment's border. Police and workers lifted metal blockades from inside, dragging them around the encampment to block people from entering.

One protester began shouting at the workers putting together the barricade fence.

"You're helping these police?" he called, holding his phone up to record video.

"We're just doing our job, brother," a man holding a barricade said.

Officers established barricades on either side of the encampment, blocking students off from the outside. One side of the barricades reached from Shillman Hall to Ryder Hall, the other between Ryder and Holmes halls.

By 5:55 a.m., the encampment was fully blocked off. At 6:08 a.m., police began dragging away Adirondack chairs and tossing tents aside, as the protesters still inside continued their chants. Other demonstrators sat on the ground with their arms linked.

One officer picked up a small Palestinian flag and walked to the perimeter of Centennial Common, where demonstrators stood outside the barriers. "Do you want this?" he said, offering the flag to the student. She took and it began waving it along to the chant, "Gaza sees you."

Meanwhile, a group of students gathered outside the barriers, screaming at officers and repeating chants being shouted from within the encampment. An officer motioned for backup, telling other officers to "cover" gaps between barriers and the encampment.

Two students within the encampment used homemade seat cushions, built from pool noodles and Styrofoam, as shields. Around 6:15 a.m., students in the encampment rose from a sitting position and stood, with their arms linked, chanting at the police.

Police approached the wall of protestors around 6:35 a.m. They appeared to speak with organizers, gesturing and pointing toward the outside of the barricades.

Before police reached campus, droves of State Police cruisers and unmarked vehicles filed into a parking lot behind the Ruggles MBTA station, a short distance from the common. Officers could be seen embracing and shaking hands, as others began to take equipment out of the vehicles.

The arrests began shortly after 7 a.m. as police placed some demonstrators' hands in zip ties and led them to Shillman Hall. The protesters were then taken from Shillman and placed into transport vans parked in an alley around 7:25 a.m., drawing cheers from a nearby crowd of more than a dozen onlookers standing behind a barricade.

"These are nonviolent students," one protester said to police from across the barricade.

On the common, students linked arms around the perimeter of the encampment, while an organizer stood in the center and spoke into a megaphone. "Please do not actively resist arrest, I know you want to, I want to as well. Do not engage, it's not worth it," the organizer said.

Some protesters tried to block police vehicles.

Encampments have sprung up at dozens of campuses nationwide since New York City police made more than 100 arrests as they attempted to break up a camp at Columbia University last week.

More than 34,300 people in Gaza have died, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, since Israel invaded the territory following Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

At Northeastern on Saturday night, dozens of people gathered by the Krentzman Quad for a Havdalah service marking the end of Shabbat. The arrests were a main topic, as speakers, including Jewish Northeastern students, criticized the university for calling in police to shut down the encampment.

Rachel, 21, a fourth-year student Northeastern student who is Jewish and asked that her last name not be published for fear of retaliation for speaking out, said she spent two days at the encampment, but was away early Saturday when the police action occurred. She said it was a peaceful and communal setting.

"It was the closest I've felt to any community," she said in an interview. "It was really sad to see what was such a beautiful liberation zone completely destroyed."

Alexa Coultoff can be reached at alexa.coultoff@globe.com. Follow her @alexacoultoff. Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers. Daniel Kool can be reached at daniel.kool@globe.com. Follow him @dekool01. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter. Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.