A protester is arrested by University of Texas police at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas on April 24, 2024, in Austin, Texas.
| Photo Credit: AP
More than 100 people were arrested on Wednesday at two universities in California and Texas, officials said, after pro-Palestinian protests erupted across U.S. campuses this week.
Demonstrations flared at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Los Angeles campus, where 93 people were arrested for trespassing, and at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, where 34 were arrested, according to authorities.
The tense standoffs were among the latest on-campus confrontations between law enforcement, including police in riot gear, and banner-wielding students outraged at the mounting death toll in Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
USC said on social media site X at around midnight that the protest had ended and the campus would remain “closed until further notice.”
“Students, faculty, staff, and people with business on campus may enter with proper identification,” the university said.
Los Angeles police officers went to the campus on Wednesday afternoon and “assisted the university in effecting trespass arrests” when protesters refused to leave, Captain Kelly Muniz told reporters.
The LAPD said there were no reports of injuries and patrols would remain in the area on Thursday.
Free speech
The spreading pro-Palestinian protests began at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell a protest encampment that some Jewish students said was threatening and anti-Semitic.
Demonstrators, including a number of Jewish students, have disavowed instances of anti-Semitism and criticised officials equating it with opposition to Israel.
As students and other demonstrators have camped out on school quads, occupied university buildings and disrupted campus activities, universities this week have affirmed their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.
But pro-Israel supporters and others worried about campus safety have also pointed to anti-Semitic incidents and allege that campuses are encouraging intimidation and hate speech.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at Columbia on Wednesday that the demonstrations “place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States,” adding that the National Guard could be brought in if the protests were not contained soon.
On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden denounced “blatant anti-Semitism” that has “no place on college campuses.”
But the White House has also said that the president supports freedom of expression on US campuses.
Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,305, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and are calling on universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
U.S. ally Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
