Austin, Texas –
With graduations around the corner, student protesters on Thursday redoubled their discontent with the war between Israel and Hamas on campuses across the country, with multiple arrests at universities in Massachusetts and California as colleges rushed to call the police to end the demonstrations and make arrests.
At Emerson College in Boston, 108 people were arrested and four police officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries at an encampment, Boston police said Thursday. Those arrested were expected to appear in Boston Municipal Court.
Another 93 people were arrested Wednesday night during a protest at the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Police Department said. There were no reports of injuries.
As they battle growing protests from coast to coast, schools have the added pressure of graduation ceremonies in May. At Columbia University in New York, students defiantly set up camp where many will graduate in front of their families in just a few weeks.
Columbia continued negotiating with students after several failed attempts (and more than 100 arrests) to clear the encampment, but several universities expelled protesters on Wednesday and quickly turned to authorities when protests erupted on their campuses.
Earlier Wednesday, officers at the University of Texas at Austin aggressively detained dozens in the latest clashes between law enforcement and those protesting the war between Israel and Hamas on campuses across the country.
Tensions were already high at USC after the university canceled a planned commencement speech by the school’s pro-Palestinian valedictorian, citing security concerns. After clashes with police early Wednesday, a few dozen protesters standing in a circle with arms linked were detained one by one without incident later that night.
Officers surrounded the dwindling seated group, defying an earlier warning to disperse or be arrested. Beyond the police line, hundreds of spectators watched as helicopters flew overhead. The school closed the campus.
In Texas, hundreds of local and state police, including some on horseback and with batons, bulldozed protesters, at one point some of them falling into the street. Officers pushed through the crowd and made 34 arrests at the behest of the university and the governor of Texas. Gregg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A photographer covering the rally for Fox 7 Austin was in the tug-of-war when an officer knocked him back to the ground, the video shows. The station confirmed that the photographer was detained. A veteran Texas journalist was run over in the chaos and could be seen bleeding before police helped him reach emergency medical personnel.
Dane Urquhart, a junior from Texas, called the police presence and arrests an “overreaction,” adding that the protest “would have remained peaceful” if officers had not come in force.
“Because of all the arrests, I think there will be a lot more (demonstrations),” Urquhart said.
Police retreated after hours of crowd control efforts, and about 300 protesters returned to sit on the grass and sing under the school’s iconic clock tower.
In a statement Wednesday night, university President Jay Hartzell said, “Our rules matter and will be enforced. Our university will not be occupied.”
North of USC, students at California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt, were barricaded inside a building for a third day, and the school closed the campus over the weekend and made classes virtual.
Harvard University in Massachusetts had tried to get ahead of this week’s protests by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables. That didn’t stop protesters from setting up a 14-tent camp Wednesday after a demonstration against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestinian Solidarity Committee.
Students protesting the war between Israel and Hamas are demanding that schools cut their financial ties to Israel and divest from companies that enabled their months-long conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have descended into anti-Semitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus as graduation approaches, sometimes prompting a heavier hand from universities.
This week at New York University, police said 133 protesters were detained, while more than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
Columbia University avoided another confrontation between students and police Wednesday morning. University President Minouche Shafik had set a midnight Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement on clearing the camp, but the school extended negotiations for another 48 hours.
On a campus visit Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Shafik to resign “if he cannot bring order to this chaos.”
“If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidations are not stopped, the time is right for the National Guard,” he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. “Our goal is to restore order, and if we can achieve that through dialogue, we will,” said Ben Chang, vice president of communications at Columbia.
Columbia graduate student Omer Lubaton Granot, who posted photographs of Israeli hostages near the camp, said he wanted to remind people that Hamas was still holding more than 100 hostages.
“I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights,” he said. “I don’t think they have a word to say about the fact that people their age were kidnapped from their homes or at a music festival in Israel. , are in the hands of a terrorist organization.”
Tala Alfoqaha, a Harvard law student and Palestinian, said she and other protesters want more transparency from the university.
“My hope is that the Harvard administration will listen to what its students have been asking for all year, which is divestment, disclosure, and the dropping of any kind of charges against the students,” he said.
On Wednesday, about 60 tents remained at the Columbia camp, which appeared quiet. Security was kept tight around the campus, identification was required and police set up metal barricades.
Columbia said it had agreed with protest representatives that only students would remain at the camp and that they would make it welcoming, prohibiting discriminatory or harassing language.
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Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire. Associated Press journalists at various locations contributed to this report, including Joey Cappelletti, Will Weissert, Larry Lage, Steve LeBlanc, Dave Collins, Jim Salter, Haven Daley, Jesse Bedayn, John Antczak, Julie Walker and Joseph Krauss.