Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses. At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC), the Guardian reports. The arrests come amid a wave of demonstrations at campuses across the US, which began last week after students at New York’s Columbia University set up encampments calling for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers with ties to Israel. The protests have led to mass suspensions and arrests of hundreds students in New York and other cities. In California, protests swelled at UC Berkeley and USC. Further north at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, protesters barricaded themselves in a university building using furniture, tents, chains and zip-ties, prompting a campus shutdown. Students at Harvard University set up an encampment in Harvard Yard on Wednesday morning to protest against the suspension of the university’s undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee and demand the university divest from Israel over its war in Gaza.
House speaker, Mike Johnson, jumped into the fray on Wednesday with a visit to Columbia’s campus, where he faced jeers from the pro-Palestinian protesters and called for the resignation of the university’s president.
Flanked by a number of Republican members of Congress, Johnson denounced the demonstrations as “mob rule” and condemned what he called a “virus of antisemitism” at colleges nationwide. “And it’s detestable, as Columbia has allowed these lawless agitators and radicals to take over,” he said. “If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the national guard.” Johnson’s speech drew boos from the crowd, as he also called for the resignation of Minouche Shafik, Columbia’s president, who he accused of failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests that led to the arrest of dozens of people there last week. As temperatures rose, Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York, called Johnson’s trip “divisive”, while the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez assailed authorities for the “reckless and dangerous act” of calling police to non-violent demonstrations.