They were arrested for just being there. This is absolute bullshit. In the 90s, there was a protest camp there against the Gulf War that was there 24/7. I know because I was in it sometimes, helping to cook food and do other things to keep it a place to live in.
In the 80s, there was a semi-permanent shantytown there to protest South African apartheid.
This is utter bullshit.
It’s a play on words purposefully used by the US media in order to frame the protests as a versus. “If it’s pro-palestine then it must be anti-israel.” I’ve seen Canadian articles that call them “Gaza protests”, which is far more accurate.