Attempts to stop student-led protests at US universities unprecedented, professor says
Rebecca Karl, a professor of history at New York University (NYU), says previous protests at Columbia University in the past were “quite confrontational”, but were still “nothing like this”. New York City police arrested dozens of student protesters on NYU’s campus earlier this week, who were demonstrating in support of Palestinians.
Karl was a student at Columbia University, and says she has been a faculty member with NYU for many years.
Protests against Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza have taken place at several US universities, most notably at New York City’s Columbia University, where more than 100 students who gathered at the school’s campus have been arrested.
“There have been a number of protests, there have been a number of confrontations that have been dealt with by universities in ways that stress that we are not a violent institution,” she told Al Jazeera.
“But I’m personally very concerned,” she said.
Texas deploys police as pro-Palestine student protests spread
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas have been in a tense standoff with mounted state troopers, the latest in a series of confrontations rocking campuses across the United States.
As students at the university staged a walkout chanting “down with occupation,” state troopers on horseback were making their way through campus – while elsewhere police in riot gear were pushing back protesters, AFP reported, referencing social media footage.
At least two people had been arrested, the student newspaper The Daily Texan reported.
The standoff in Austin comes as ongoing protests at New York’s Columbia University amid Israel’s war on Gaza have sparked intense attention from media and politicians – and similar demonstrations across the country.
How the UK reports it
Riot police arrest students as Palestine protests spread to colleges in Texas and California
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/palestine-protests-college-campuses-texas-california-b2534219.html
Riot police are arresting students at campuses across the US as protests over the Israel-Hamas war continue to grow.
On Wednesday afternoon, police on horseback arrived at University of Texas at Austin’s campus and began arresting students, according to The Texas Tribune. At least 20 people participating in the protest, organised by the university’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee, were detained.
Students and community members clash with USC Public Safety Officers during a Gaza solidarity occupation on campus to advocate for Palestine in Los Angeles, California, USA, 24 April 2024
The students were demanding that the institution divest from manufacturers supplying Israel weapons in attacks against Palestine, a call that’s been echoed on campuses nationwide. The students gathered at a gym with plans to march through the university and hold a sit-in. By 12pm CT, 200 students had banded together.
Up to 100 state troopers were called in to stop the demonstrations. The UT Division of Student Affairs issued a statement saying that the protests are not supported by the university.
“UT Austin does not tolerate disruptions of campus activities or operations like we have seen at other campuses”, the statement read. “This is an important time in our semester with students finishing classes and studying for finals and we will act first and foremost to allow those critical functions to proceed without interruption”.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott called on the protestors to be arrested in a statement posted to X. “Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses”, he wrote. “Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled”.
Similar scenes broke out at the University of Southern California as police there arrested a Palestinian student organiser who was later released. More than 100 students at the college placed tents, banners and signs in the centre of the campus.
A peaceful protest on Wednesday was disrupted by officers with USC’s Department of Public Safety. Officials have now called in the Los Angeles Police Department for backup as tensions escalate. About 300 people are now protesting on school grounds and police have closed the campus to anyone without a university-issued ID.
Other encampments have been established at Brown University, the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California State Polytechnic, Humboldt.
Additional arrests were seen at universities this week, including Ohio State and Columbia University. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson called for Columbia’s President Dr Nemat Shafik to resign before his scheduled visit to speak with the school’s Jewish students.
“It’s unconscionable”, Mr Johnson said on The Hugh Hewitt Show of the protests. “This president has shown to be very weak, inept leader. They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students. They’re expected to run for their lives and stay home from class. It’s just maddening”. The speaker continued his comments by calling on authorities to revoke the visas of international student protestors.
Mr Johnson spoke to drowning chants of “We can’t hear you” as he delivered remarks from the steps of Columbia on Wednesday afternoon, calling for student protestors to be arrested. Jewish students told the speaker that they feel unsafe on campus, Mr Johnson said.
This has nothing to do with Jewish students. Many Jewish students are among the protestors.
It's a UK newspaper, look how they end the article:
The Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October 2024 after the group went into the country and killed at least 250 people and injured 1,500. Officials called it one of the deadliest attacks in the nation’s history.
Nothing about the ongoing destruction and genocide in Gaza. Plus they can't even get the numbers right "The final death toll from the attack is now thought to be 695 Israeli civilians, including 36 children, as well as 373 security forces and 71 foreigners, giving a total of 1,139."
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231215-israel-social-security-data-reveals-true-picture-of-oct-7-deaths
‘Not like other Passovers’: hundreds of Jewish demonstrators arrested after New York protest seder
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/not-like-other-passovers-hundreds-of-jewish-demonstrators-arrested-after-new-york-protest-seder
About 300 people were detained near Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn home.
Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators have been arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.
The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.
The protesters called on Schumer – who is among a minority of Democrats to recently criticize the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – to stop arming Israel’s military, which relies heavily on US weapons, jet fuel and other military equipment.
“We as American Jews will not be used, we will not be complicit and we will not be silent. Judaism is a beautiful, thousands-year-old tradition, and Israel is a 76-year-old colonial apartheid state,” Morgan Bassichis, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, told the crowd.
“This is the Passover that we take our exodus from Zionism. Not in our name. Let Gaza live.”
