Pro-Palestinian demonstrations are getting hotter. Student protests once morest the death toll in the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on US campuses Wednesday, sparking tensions with police in Texas and California.
At Columbia University in New York, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said if the demonstrations were not contained quickly it would be “high time for the National Guard.”
This is a provocative threat made on US campuses. Students at Columbia have been reminded of a 1970 demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio that saw the National Guard open fire on a crowd protesting the Vietnam war, killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others.
Police have confronted students since protests began in Columbia last week, with hundreds arrested in recent days.
Johnson spoke to media across from the courtyard where Columbia students first set up their protest camp last week.
He said he intended to demand US President Joe Biden “take action,” and warned the demonstrations “target Jewish students in the United States.”
Also read: US Students Take to the Streets to Support Palestine
“Enjoy your freedom of speech,” he said, mocking the students.
Previously, Biden’s spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, said he supported freedom of speech on US campuses.
“The president believes freedom of speech, debate and non-discrimination on campus are important,” he told reporters.
Also read: Hundreds of students demonstrate because democracy is not going well
US ally Israel launched war on Gaza following an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
The student protesters said they were expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has so far reached 34,200, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and called on Colombia and other universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
The demonstrators – including a number of Jewish students – said they denied the existence of anti-Semitism.
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But pro-Israel advocates, and others concerned regarding campus safety, point to anti-Semitic incidents and argue that campuses encourage intimidation and hate speech.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also commented on social media, saying the protests were “not only anti-Semitic, but also inciting terrorism.”
Destroy the occupation
Johnson’s visit to Colombia came as Texas deployed police in riot gear and deployed state troopers on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin following hundreds of protesters there broke out into a noisy walkout, chanting “stop the occupation.”
The Texas Tribune said at least 17 people were detained.
Police were also called in following at least 100 students began what they called an occupation of the campus of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and media reported the demonstration was largely peaceful.
Students also staged protests at several other schools, including Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Brown.
Images on social media showed an encampment taking shape at Harvard University near Boston.
Classes were moved online and other on-campus activities were canceled at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, following protesters barricaded themselves in campus buildings.
More than 130 people were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at New York University Monday night.
And police at the University of Minnesota reportedly arrested nine people at a pro-Palestinian encampment.
NBC reports that the FBI is coordinating with the university regarding anti-Semitic threats and possible violence in connection with the ongoing wave of protests.
Colombia deadline extended
Before Johnson’s visit to Colombia, there had been an uneasy truce between students and officials, following the deadline to forcibly disband their protest encampment had expired.
Tensions at the school reached a peak last week, when more than 100 people were arrested following university president Minouche Shafik called the police.
University officials had set a deadline of midnight Tuesday to resolve the unrest, but as more people joined overnight protests, the school extended the deadline by 48 hours Wednesday morning, students said on social media.
They agreed to ongoing negotiations following the school promised not to call in police or the National Guard, Columbia University Apartheid Divest organizers said, calling the concession a “landmark victory.”
“We are concerned that Columbia risks a second massacre at Jackson State or Kent State,” the group said in a social media post.
Eleven days following the Kent State shooting, Jackson State in Mississippi also saw police confront student protesters in 1970 and open fire, killing two and wounding 12. (AFP/Z-3)
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