Emory University rips anti-Israel 'activists' disrupting campus; police use tear gas, zip-ties during arrests
Emory University condemned anti-Israel "activists" who are "not members of our community" for disrupting campus on Thursday, as police responded to a massive crowd swarming the quad.
"Several dozen protesters trespassed into Emory University’s campus early Thursday morning and set up tents on the Quad," Emory University said in a statement to Fox News. "These individuals are not members of our community. They are activists attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals. Emory does not tolerate vandalism or other criminal activity on campus. The Emory Police Department ordered the group to leave and contacted Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol for assistance."
Fox News crews on the ground estimated more than 100 protesters gathered on the Emory University quad. Protesters were seen holding signs that say "Emory: Cut all tires with Israel. End Gilee!"
Food, water, and other supplies have been set up at the protest site. A few protesters lead pro-Palestine chants, the crowds repeating them.
While authorities have not released numbers on how many people were detained or arrested during Thursday's protests on campus, video shows the tense moments where officials can be seen using zip ties to detain people, tear gas, tasers, and the sound of rubber bullets being used to disperse the crowd. It appeared to be a mix of both anti-Israel demonstrators and "Stop Cop City" supporters – a slogan used in an ongoing effort to stop Atlanta Police from building the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a training facility for police and first responders scheduled to open later this year.
The scene later de-esclated and the remaining group briefly marched, but the protest has since ended.
An opinion piece was published Thursday on the pro-Palestinian blog Mondoweiss titled, "We are occupying Emory University to demand immediate divestment from Israel and Cop City."
It claims, "The roots of Cop City can be traced to the Israeli Urban Warfare Training Center (UWTC), nicknamed ‘Mini Gaza,’ funded with $45 million from the U.S. These training centers are more than mere facilities; they are live testing grounds for strategies deployed against marginalized peoples, whether in occupied Palestine or predominantly Black, working-class, and undocumented communities in Atlanta."
The piece was authored by Narek Boyajian and Jadelynn Zhang. The Emory College of Arts and Sciences lists Zhang as a graduate student in the Department of Sociology on its website.
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Last year, Atlanta police identified more than two dozen "Cop City" demonstrators brought up on domestic terrorism charges, and the Georgia attorney general warned protesters seeking to disrupt construction that authorities "will not back down from violent extremists from Georgia, Maine, Oregon or elsewhere who seek to stop us."
In March, another two "Cop City" protesters climbed a construction crane in downtown Atlanta to hang a sign that read "Drop Cop City," though the pair was hit with trespassing charges, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Emory Police Department for comment about Thursday's demonstrations but did not immediately hear back.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo, Claudia Kelly-Bazan and Samantha Daigle contributed to this report.