A wave of pro-Palestinian protests spread and intensified on Wednesday as students gathered on campuses across the country, in some cases confronting police, in an increasingly open confrontation extensively on campus speech and the war in Gaza.
University administrators from Texas to California have moved to disperse protesters and prevent encampments from taking place on their campuses as they did at Columbia University, deploying police during the protests. New tense confrontation led to dozens of arrests.
At the same time, new protests continue to erupt in places like Pittsburgh and San Antonio. The students expressed solidarity with their fellow students at Columbia, and with the pro-Palestinian movement that appeared to be fueled by protests on other campuses and the approaching end of the school year.
Protesters on several campuses said their demands include their universities divesting from companies linked to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, disclosing those investments and other investments as well as recognizing the right to continue protesting without punishment.
The protests also spread abroad, with students on campuses in Cairo, Paris and Sydney, Australia, gathering to speak out in support of the Palestinians and against the war.
As the protests first emerged, House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia’s New York campus, where university officials were gathering. seek to negotiate with protest leaders to end the encampment of about 80 tents still pitched on the campus’ central lawn.
Mr. Johnson said the school’s principal, Nemat Shafik, should resign if she cannot control the situation immediately, calling her a “poor leader” who failed to ensure the safety of Jewish students. .
The speaker said there may be an appropriate time to The National Guard was called inand Congress should consider withholding federal funding if universities cannot control the protests.
Republican lawmakers have accused university administrators for months of not doing enough to protect Jewish students on college campuses, seizing on an issue that is deeply divisive among Jacobinic.
Some of the campus protests that have taken place since the war began last year have included hate speech and expressions of support for Hamas, the Gaza-based armed group that has led the protests. Deadly attack on Israel on October 7 that sparked the war remains. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 34,000 people died in Gaza.
One of the largest new protests Wednesday was in Texas, where dozens of police officers, many of them in riot gear and some on horseback, blocked protesters at a university. the state’s flagship public institution, the University of Texas at Austin. According to a state police spokesman, at least 20 people were arrested after refusing to disperse.
Gov. Greg Abbott said arrests there would continue until protesters dispersed. “These protesters should be in jail,” he wrote on X. “Students who participate in anti-Semitic, hate-filled protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”
Hours earlier, at the University of Texas’ Dallas campus, a large group of student protesters quickly staged a sit-in near the university president’s office, demanding divestment. The students left after the principal agreed to meet with them.
At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, police moved in just before lunch to disperse an encampment of about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters in the center of campus. As protesters chanted “Shame,” officers tackled at least one protester and put that person in a police vehicle on campus, but the protester was later released.
Claudia Galliani, 26, a master’s student in public policy at USC, said she was protesting “to show solidarity with Columbia students and other schools across the United States who are suffering from the brutality.” violence due to their support for Palestine”. She said protesters were ostracized and accused of anti-Semitism.
Many USC students were angry cancel the starting address by valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a Muslim, after complaints from campus groups citing her social media support for Palestinians.
“I think universities don’t want what’s happening on the East Coast,” said Maga Miranda, a doctoral student in ethnic studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, who participated in the protest at USC. spread to the West Bank.”
Protesters returned later in the day, but for now at least, the university prevented the establishment of a permanent camp, as tents were forcibly removed in the morning not rebuilt.
At Brown University in Rhode Island, many students set up tents on the campus’ Main Green on Wednesday. Organizers said their thoughts were with the children and students in Gaza, not authorities’ warnings that the new camp violated university policy. They promised to stay until they were forced to leave.
“What we are putting at risk is very small compared to what the people of Gaza are doing,” said Niyanta Nepal, a senior from Concord, NH, and student body president-elect. have to go through”. “This is the least we can do, as young people in privileged circumstances, to take control of the situation.”
She said the emergence of a national student movement on college campuses has galvanized Brown students. “I think people are ready to act and national momentum is what we need,” she said. Rafi Ash, a sophomore from Amherst, Mass., and a member of the Jewish group at Brown University that supports Ceasefire Now, said the student protesters have been in it for a long time. “We will be here until they divest or until we are forced out,” he said.
Administrators at Harvard University sought to prevent a similar situation by closing Harvard Yard, a central gathering place on campus. Still, students flooded the courtyard’s lawns on Wednesday, quickly setting up tents as part of an “emergency protest” against the suspension of a pro-Palestinian group on campus.
At Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California, administrators said they would close the campus over the weekend out of concern that protesters occupying two buildings could spread to others.
Late Tuesday, two students were arrested at Ohio State University, during an on-campus protest that has since dispersed, school officials said.
The protests at the University of Texas at Austin were among the first in a Republican-led state in the South, taking place within walking distance of the governor’s mansion. Like other Republican political leaders, Gov. Greg Abbott has been outspoken in his support of Israel and last month he vowed to combat any anti-Semitism on campuses.
University leaders said Tuesday they had revoked the protest permit and warned those who might seek to gather by any means.
“The University of Texas at Austin will not allow this campus to be ‘occupied,’” two administrators from the Office of the Dean of Students wrote in a letter to the Palestine Solidarity Committee.
State police spokeswoman Ericka Miller said state police were deployed to campus Wednesday at the university’s request and at Abbott’s direction, “to prevent any gatherings.” any illegal practice”.
When protesters began gathering despite warnings, the response was swift. Dozens of officers stood in lines controlling the crowd, some holding batons. After ordering protesters to disperse, several officers rushed into the crowd and dragged some people away before returning to look for others.
“Let them go!” several people shouted as the crowd grew.
At one point, hundreds of students and their supporters gathered on the south campus mall, with some gathering in a large circle and chanting: “The pigs go home.” !” Soon after, the police rushed in again, pushed through the crowd and made more arrests.
Miller said the majority of those arrested were charged with criminal trespassing.
In a statement, the university’s Office of Student Affairs said the university would not tolerate disruptions “as we have seen on other campuses” and would take action to allow students to complete classes and final exams “without interruption.”
Anna Betts And Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs in New York, Edgar Sandoval in San Antonio and Jose Quezada in Arcata, California, contributed reporting.
