Pro-Palestinian Protests Spread Across Campuses Over Israel-Gaza War

Student-led protests of the Israel-Gaza war continued to spread on Wednesday, breaking out at dozens of campuses across the country, from Ivy League institutions on the East Coast, to large public schools in the Midwest and South and at universities up and down California.

The demonstrations come after months of unrest at American colleges but have reached a crescendo in recent days, as administrators have cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests and hundreds of students have been arrested.

At the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday, state troopers clad in riot gear took several protesters into custody, according to local reports, after hundreds of students walked out of class to demand the school divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Ahead of the demonstration in Austin, administrators warned organizers to cancel the protest, saying that “refusal to comply may result in arrest.”

Meanwhile, at the University of Southern California, officers struggled with protesters as they sought to break up an on-campus tent encampment. Videos posted to social media showed scenes of increasing tension as campus police pushed their way through a growing crowd.

And at Columbia University, the campus that sparked the latest round of demonstrations, school officials on Wednesday extended by 48 hours a deadline for talks on dismantling pro-Palestinian protesters’ encampments on the campus grounds, after a midnight deadline issued the night before raised the prospect of further turmoil at the Ivy League institution.

The university has been in talks with student organizers to clear an encampment on the West Lawn of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.

If the discussions are not successful, Columbia President Minouche Shafik warned Tuesday in a statement, Columbia “will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus.”

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student who is part of the negotiations with the administration, said he was not aware of any police presence on the campus after the initial deadline at midnight Tuesday expired.

In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Columbia said it was extending the deadline by 48 hours in light of “important progress” that had been made with the organizers.

The student protesters agreed to dismantle and remove a “significant number” of tents; committed to ensuring that only Columbia students will participate in the demonstrations; and have taken steps to ensure no discriminatory or harassing language is used at the encampment, according to the statement.

Shortly after midnight, Columbia student negotiators had released a statement alleging that the university administration had threatened to call the National Guard and the New York police if its demands were not met. The university did not comment on the allegations.

The protests continue to garner attention nationally as incidents spread across the country.

On Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will visit the Columbia campus and call on Shafik to resign, he said in an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show Wednesday morning. He added that he would also meet with Jewish students and a rabbi on campus.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Tuesday that she had no plans to call in the National Guard in response to the campus protesters, according to local media. Her office did not immediately respond to queries about whether Columbia had made such a request.

Columbia University ramped up security measures on April 23 after anti-war protests. (Video: The Washington Post)

More than 100 people protesting the war in Gaza were arrested and charged with trespassing at Columbia last week after Shafik summoned police to the campus, in what she described as “an extraordinary step” to keep the campus safe. The move to call the police and suspend protesting students was criticized by student leaders and human rights groups.

Tensions over the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month, have swept across American campuses as universities struggle to balance the right to protest and freedom of speech with campus rules and safety. Pro-Palestinian protests at colleges have demanded that their universities divest from corporations they say are profiting off the war in Gaza. At Columbia, protesters have also asked the university to end a dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University.

The arrests and suspensions at Columbia spurred similar protests at institutions such as New York University, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley.

University administrators have also faced intense scrutiny from Congress. The Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce has grilled Shafik and the leaders of other universities over actions taken to combat antisemitism on campus.

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