The expansion of the movement in American universities to reject the war on Gaza, and Netanyahu calls for confronting it

American police arrested about 140 students from two universities during protests in support of Gaza and demanding an end to the Israeli war, amid clashes between police and student demonstrators following the expansion of the pro-Palestine student movement after it began at Columbia University.

The Los Angeles Police reported arresting 93 people during a pro-Gaza protest at the University of Southern California. In contrast, police arrested about 50 students during a rally on the University of Texas campus in Austin.

The New York Times quoted the University of Southern California police as saying, “Any student protester present on the university campus is at risk of being suspended or expelled.”

While USC reported the university’s main campus was closed due to ongoing protests, the Los Angeles Police said its officers are on campus at the request of the university administration.

Solidarity without violence

The American network “NBC” quoted the faculty of the University of Texas as confirming that the solidarity event with Gaza did not include any threat of violence or disruption of studies.

The faculty added that members of the body will not carry out their work today due to the military response to the student event, its violent dispersal, and the arrest of some of the students who protested against the continued American support for Israel in its war on Gaza.

However, the University of Texas president said that the university punished demonstrators who ignored calls for “restraint and dispersal of the assembly,” considering that the university imposed the rules while protecting freedom of expression.

Impose control

Meanwhile, students at Columbia University in New York have continued their open sit-in for eight days in protest against what they consider to be genocide of the Palestinian people.

Students at the university said they would not back down from the sit-in for a liberated Palestine until the university exposed and divested all companies and institutions benefiting from the genocide and provided amnesty to all students and faculty who faced disciplinary action or were arrested.

The university administration gave the protesting students 48 hours to end their sit-in on campus.

For his part, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson called on Columbia University President Nemat Shafik to resign unless she controls what he described as “anti-Semitic activities.”

The Islamic Public Affairs Council of the United States called on Columbia University faculty and leadership to oppose threats to deploy the National Guard against the Gaza solidarity sit-in.

Movement in other universities

Students from Harvard University also continue their open sit-in on campus to protest the continuation of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The students protesting inside the university campus demanded an end to American support for Israel in this war. They denounced what they described as a war of extermination against the people of Gaza. The university administration closed the campus and refused the media access to the sit-in square.

The American ABC network reported that pro-Palestine students at Harvard University set up a protest camp in one of the university’s courtyards, accusing the university of suppressing voices that speak out against Israeli practices.

Meanwhile, MIT students continued an open sit-in to protest what they consider to be the genocide of the Palestinian people.

The students raised a petition with their demands, including stopping cooperation between the university and the Israeli army, stressing that 70% of the university’s students agreed to this demand according to a referendum conducted in this regard.