Dozens arrested in California and Texas as campus administrators move to shut down protests – as it happened

LAPD has arrested at least 15 protesters on the USC campus, according to a Los Angeles Times reporter on the scene.

The arrests came after law enforcement and university leadership told protesters to disperse. Protesters began to clash with law enforcement, some of whom shoved students, video shows.

The number of people arrested as part of the University of Texas protests on Wednesday is at least 54, according to a reporter for local news publication the Austin American-Statesman.

The number comes from the Austin Lawyers Guild, a leftist group that provides protest legal defense. The Guardian has reached out to the group for more details.

Some USC protesters dispersed after the arrival of LAPD officers on campus, but dozens who remained are now facing off with law enforcement.

In a statement posted on X at 5.50pm PST, the university said anyone remaining at the center of campus would be arrested.

Los Angeles police officers are moving onto the USC campus to arrest protesters for trespassing, as they believe many demonstrators are not students, they said.

In an announcement made via helicopter, LAPD officers told the protesters “Your time is up. Leave the area or you will be arrested for trespassing.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel prime minister, said on Wednesday that student protests against the war in Gaza were “horrific”, characterizing protesters as “antisemitic mobs”.

While there have been reports of antisemitism on campuses in recent weeks, protest organizers have blamed such incidents on outside agitators, insisting that their movements are peaceful. A group of professors at New York University released an open letter denying that any NYU-affiliated protesters had engaged in antisemitism or intimidation of others.

Many Jewish-led groups protesting the war in Gaza have also pushed back against such allegations. As protests aligned with the Jewish Passover holiday this week, encampments at Yale and Columbia held Passover seders on Monday.

When asked this week whether he condemned “the antisemitic protests”, President Joe Biden said he did. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” he said.

Local news station Fox 7 Austin has confirmed that one of its photographers was arrested on campus during the protests Wednesday.

A video shows the photographer being pulled backwards to the ground by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. The station says he was then detained and taken to jail.

Members of the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin have condemned what they call a “militarized response” to pro-Palestine protests on campus Wednesday.

The statement said the peaceful, planned action was disrupted by police and state troopers, who responded violently and “made our entire community unsafe”.

“We have witnessed police punching a female student, knocking over a legal observer, dragging a student over a chain-link fence, and violently arresting students for simply standing at the front of the crowd,” the statement said.

In response, the faculty members stated that on Thursday there would be “no business as usual”, suspending classes, grading and homework. They called for a gathering on campus at 12.15pm on Thursday.

Many of the protesters at the University of Texas have dispersed, but others have returned to the south lawn as the large police presence has waned. The department of public safety confirmed in a public statement that there were 20 arrests as a result of protests today.

As protests continue at the University of Texas in Austin, police have encouraged occupants to disperse via an audio announcement that could be heard across campus. From local news reporter Ryan Chandler:

Here are photos from Austin where police, including some on horses and holding batons, blocked the main lawn at the University of Texas and pulled several students to the ground to stop demonstrators from marching through campus.

Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university on the far northern coast of California, where pro-Palestinian students are occupying a campus building, said on Wednesday that it would remain closed through the weekend.

Protesters have barricaded themselves in Siemens Hall since Monday evening despite a large showing of local law enforcement who unsuccessfully attempted to force them out. Police have arrested three protesters.

Students are reportedly also holding a sit-in in another campus building.

The university said it is considering keeping the campus closed beyond the weekend, and accused students of stealing items and breaking “numerous laws”.

Aside from the confrontation with police, media outlets report the mood on campus has been festive. Students there told the Sacramento Bee they felt compelled to take action.

“I think the solution is to get involved, because at least I can feel like I’m doing my part. Even if it’s not enough, I’m doing the best I can to make something of it. I find peace in that,” one student said.

A crowd has gathered on the Low Steps of Columbia University, where the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to deliver remarks at a press conference after meeting with Jewish students today.

In a radio interview this morning, Johnson said he would call on the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, to resign after failing to crack down on the protests.

There is “significant activity” at the University of Southern California’s university park campus in Los Angeles, the school said in an update this afternoon.

As we reported earlier, videos posted to social media show students taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations being forcibly arrested by police.

As Columbia’s administration faces growing backlash following president Minouche Shafik’s decision last week to authorize police to dismantle Palestinian solidarity encampments and arrest students, a page on the university’s website has been garnering some attention online.

The page reflects on the 1968 protests that swept through Columbia as students demonstrated against the Vietnam war and the construction of a segregated gym in Morningside Park.

It says:

Columbia is a far different place today than it was in the spring of 1968 when protesters took over University buildings amid discontent about the Vietnam War, racism and the University’s proposed expansion into Morningside Park. After a weeklong standoff, New York City Police stormed the campus and arrested more than 700 people. The fallout dogged Columbia for years.

It took decades for the University to recover from those turbulent times. Columbia now has one of the most socio-economically diverse student bodies among its peer institutions.”

As students are arrested across the country over demonstrations and encampments held in solidarity with Palestine, New York University – which describes itself on its website as “a campus without walls” – has set up plywood walls.

The walls come after New York police arrested multiple protesters following demonstrations on Monday during which students and faculty called for the university to divest from Israel.

Here are some images surfacing online from NYU:

The Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement about the crackdown on students at the University of Texas, Austin following their anti-war protests and calls for the university to “divest from death” in Israel.

In a statement on X, the ACLU chapter wrote:

“The freedom to protest is integral to our democracy.

UT Austin students have a First Amendment right to freely express their political opinions - without threats of arrest and violence.

If you or someone you know needs legal support, call the Austin Lawyers Guild: 512-817-4254.”

Here are more images and videos surfacing online from the University of Texas, Austin where state troopers have marched on to campus as anti-war students protest Israel’s war on Gaza:

Columbia University student protesters said the university has provided a “written commitment and concession not to call the NYPD or the National Guard” to break up the encampments.

A statement from Columbia students for justice in Palestine reads:

The university’s previous threats of an imminent sweep by the NYPD or the National Guard had severed negotiations. The administration’s threats backfired when student negotiators refused to stay at the table.

“Thousands of peaceful students flooded the lawns in support of their peers” in response to the failed negotiations, it said.

Student protestors on Columbia’s campus – the majority of whom are Palestinian, Black, brown, and Jewish students from marginalized backgrounds – stood by each other for hours last night, awaiting the outcome of Columbia’s disturbing threat of military or police violence.

Anti-war student protesters at France’s most prestigious politics school, Sciences Po, have begun pitching tents on the university’s campus.

Bilge Kotan, a student and journalist at Sciences Po, said about 70 people would camp at the university’s Saint-Thomas campus, demanding the institution cut ties with Israeli universities and stop “repression” of pro-Palestinian voices.

Throughout the afternoon on Tuesday, loudspeakers blared speeches given by UC Berkeley professors and students in support of the sit-in, as a few dozen people stood and listened.

But campus life otherwise carried on. University clubs recruited from behind tables lining the plaza, students streamed by on their way to class, while others worked from laptops in the courtyard.

There is minimal police or security presence on site, but the students are bracing for that to change. They have been vocal about their determination to stay even if the university tries to have them forcibly removed.

The “Free Palestine Camp,” is one of many actions that have been taken at UC Berkeley in opposition to the recent violent escalation in Gaza that’s left tens of thousands of civilians dead, and the encampment was designed in solidarity with protests at Columbia University. It also follows decades of demonstrations in support of Palestinians at the school.

The Harvard University encampment comes after the university suspended the Harvard undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee on Monday and ordered the group to “cease all organizational activities for the remainder of the Spring 2024 term” or risk permanent expulsion.

The group, which describes itself as a “Harvard student group in pursuit of liberation through justice for Palestine,” said it would continue to advocate for Palestine regardless of Harvard’s decision. A statement from the group said:

You can suspend our organization and threaten our students, but you will never silence our calls for Divestment from apartheid, occupation and genocide.

Joe Biden praised legislation he signed today that rushes in foreign aid including more than $26bn to Israel as a bipartisan legislative victory on a “good day for world peace”.

The president, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the legislation, said:

It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer.

The bill includes about $1bn in humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.

In remarks delivered from the White House, Biden urged Israel to ensure the humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the bill reaches Gaza “without delay”.

Cameron Jones first learned about fossil fuel divestment as a 15-year-old climate organizer. When he enrolled at Columbia University in 2022, he joined the campus’s chapter of the youth-led climate justice group the Sunrise Movement and began pushing the school in New York to sever financial ties with coal, oil and gas companies.

Today, 19-year-old Jones, like many other student protesters and campus organizers, is just as focused on pushing the school to divest from another group of businesses: those profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza. He and others see the issues as firmly connected, with activists learning from tactics used in both of the often overlapping movements.

On Monday, Jones, speaking from the student encampment of demonstrators on Columbia’s campus who are protesting against the war and the university’s ties to Israel, said:

Once we see large institutions like universities taking the steps to sever ties with harmful institutions, we will then hopefully see corporations and countries and cities follow suit.

In particular, students are demanding the university drop its direct investments in companies doing business in or with Israel, including Amazon and Google, which are part of a $1.2bn cloud-computing contract with the state’s government; Microsoft, whose services are used by Israel’s ministry of defense and Israeli civil administration; and defense contractors profiting from the war such as Lockheed Martin, which on Tuesday reported its earnings were up 14%.

Read the full story: How divestment became a ‘clarion call’ in anti-fossil fuel and pro-ceasefire protests

Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university on California’s northern coast, remained closed on Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves in a campus building for a sit-in.

Law enforcement and students clashed on Monday as police tried to clear Siemens Hall. Video posted by a student activist group showed students chanting “we are not afraid of you” before officers in riot gear attempted to take them into custody. Police could be seen swinging batons at demonstrators as the group pushed them back. The officers reportedly left after an hours-long standoff.

Three protesters were arrested on Monday evening after the confrontation with law enforcement, the university said in a statement. Dozens of students remain inside the building and have barricaded entrances with furniture, according to the university, while others occupied another nearby building.

The campus is closed through Wednesday and classes are being held remotely.

The encampment at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles this morning comes days after the university controversially cancelled the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student.

The Los Angeles university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, said last week that it took the unprecedented step of canceling valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech because of the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.

The university’s decision was met with outrage from the Council of American Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and free speech groups. Students and faculty marched across campus last Thursday in silent protest of the university’s decision.

Tabassum described herself as “shocked … and profoundly disappointed” after being informed that she would be barred from addressing her fellow graduates at their 10 May commencement.

The university later decided to cancel the keynote speech by film-maker Jon M Chu, citing the “highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main-stage commencement program”.

Demonstrators have set up an encampment and protest at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The encampment began this morning at Alumni Park, according to the USC Divest from Death coalition. The group’s statement reads:

We, the USC Divest from Death Coalition, establish our occupation most fundamentally in solidarity with the people of Palestine as they resist genocide and continue in their struggle for liberation.

It lists six demands of the university: “End War Profiteering and Investment in Genocide”; “Complete Academic Boycott of Israel”; “Protect free speech on campus and provide full amnesty”; “Stop the Displacement, from South Central to Palestine”; “No Policing on Campus”; and “End the Silence on the Genocide in Palestine”.

The New York University Palestine solidarity coalition has issued a statement slamming the university’s authorization of the arrest of more than 140 protesters on Monday night.

School officials asked the New York police department for help clearing a plaza on NYU’s Manhattan campus, police said. Students, faculty and others were arrested that night.

In a statement, the university’s Palestine solidarity coalition accused the university of “acting in bad faith, stalling negotiations, and refusing to communicate decisions”. It said:

We will not let the NYU administration twist our words and actions, words and actions that are in favor of liberation. We will not let NYU administration weaponize Judaism to stifle free speech, muzzle the Palestinian fight for freedom, and get away with supporting a genocide that has been going on for 200 days.

The Senate yesterday voted resoundingly an aid package that includes more than $26bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza.

The final vote was 79 to 18 for the package that also included aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Tuesday night near at Grand Army Plaza in New York, on the doorstep of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, calling on him to stop arming Israel’s military, which relies heavily on US weapons, jet fuel and other military equipment.

Joe Biden praised congressional leaders and lawmakers after the Senate vote for what he called an effort “to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point”.

About 90 Brown University students set up an encampment and protest this morning, according to the university.

A university spokesperson said encampment on the university’s “historic and residential greens is a violation of university policy”, adding that students participating were informed that will be subject to “conduct proceedings”. The statement continued:

Protest is an acceptable means of expression at Brown, but it becomes unacceptable when it violates university policies that are intended to ensure the safety of members of the Brown community and that there is no interference in the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university.

A statement by Brown Divest Coalition called on the university to “end their ongoing repression of student protesters advocating for a liberated Palestine”.

From NBC10’s Allegra Zamore:

Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York.

Protesters shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end military aid to Israel, close to his Brooklyn home.

About 300 arrests took place at Grand Army Plaza, 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 seder came just before the Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

Nine students were arrested at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, a university spokesperson said today.

The student coalition set up tents in front of the Walter Library and university police began “harassing” the encampment, protesters said. Students gathered outside the Coffman Memorial union on Tuesday night with plans to sleep in tents, but the encampment was cleared overnight, CBS news reported.

“The group was asked to disperse by 7am and told they would be arrested if they chose to stay past that time,” a school spokesperson said.

They added that the University of Minnesota “supports and respects free speech through lawful protest”, but that “tents are not allowed on any University property for any purpose without a permit”, adding:

I want to be clear that protests where groups express diverse views and opinions occur regularly on our campus and typically occur without arrests. The choice to establish and remain in a prohibited encampment led to this morning’s arrests.

Team Biden, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be overly concerned yet by any potential impact the campus protests could have on his electoral chances.

Politico reports this morning that campaign officials believe the student vote and the youth vote are not one and the same. One official is quoted as saying: “It’s not going to be for the vast majority of young voters the thing that’s going to determine whether they vote or how they vote.”

A recent Harvard Youth poll, quoted by Politico, says economic issues rather than the war in Gaza is at the forefront of young Americans’ minds. However, Harvard polling guru John Della Volpe was quotes as saying: “How this evolves, who knows? … Hopefully things improve. But I would not be willing to write [the protests] off right now.”

On Tuesday, the Georgia chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine criticized Morehouse College’s decision to go ahead with Biden’s commencement speech.

In a statement, the group called on Morehouse leaders to rescind the invitation and said students and faculty members were not consulted, warning the decision “would do lasting harm to everyone associated with the college”.

Quoting former college president Benjamin E Mays, who said Morehouse graduates must work to correct wrongs and injustices in the world, the statement also added: “President Biden has not demonstrated sensitivity to wrongs sufferings and injustices. And as the one person on the planet who has the power to stop an active genocide, he has not accepted responsibility for correcting the ills.”

Our picture editors have put together a gallery of the most striking photos from the protests at some of the US’s most prestigious universities:

Away from the campus turmoil, hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were 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 seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

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.