Protesters clash with police in Texas

NEW YORK (AP) — Protesters and police clashed yesterday at the University of Texas in an incident that resulted in dozens of arrests.

Just yesterday, universities in various cities in the United States begged students to urgently vacate their anti-war camps in Gaza, as final exams approached.

For its part, Columbia University reported that it had begun suspending students who defied an ultimatum to withdraw.

From coast to coast, protesters argue over the war between Israel and Hamas and its rising death toll, and the arrest toll at universities across the country approaches 1,000 as the final days of classes conclude.

The protest is forcing universities to consider their financial ties to Israel and their support for free speech.

The protests have even spread to Europe, where French police yesterday expelled dozens of students from Sorbonne University after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the main courtyard.

In Canada, student protest camps emerged at the universities of Ottawa, McGill in Montreal and British Columbia universities in Vancouver, “The Canadian Press” reported.

Texas

At the University of Texas at Austin, a lawyer said at least 40 students were arrested yesterday, some of them by officers in riot gear who surrounded about 100 seated protesters, dragging or removing them one by one amid shouts.

Another group of protesters blocked the police and an official van full of detainees between university buildings, creating chaos that prompted officers to use pepper spray and explosive devices to disperse the crowd.

The confrontation was an escalation on the campus of 50,000 students in the Texas capital.

On social media, Gov. Greg Abbott reposted video of state police arriving and said, “No camping will be allowed.”

At Columbia University, students yesterday defied a 2 p.m. deadline to abandon an encampment of about 120 tents on the school’s Manhattan campus.

Hundreds of protesters marched around the quad, clapping, singing and weaving around piles of removable flooring and green carpets destined for graduation ceremonies that are supposed to begin next week.

A handful of counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and one held a sign that read: “Where are the anti-Hamas chants?”

Suspensions

The university did not call police to remove the protesters, but three hours after the deadline, school spokesman Ben Chang said Columbia had begun suspending students.

He did not indicate how many were involved.

He also did not say how suspensions would be carried out or whether suspended students would be expelled from campus.

Chang noted that while the university appreciated students’ right to free speech, the camp was a “noisy distraction” that interfered with teaching and preparation for final exams.

The protests also deeply upset some Jewish students, he added.

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Violations

The United States concluded that five battalions of the Israeli Army committed human rights violations in operations that occurred before October 7 in the occupied West Bank, the State Department reported yesterday. Four of them took measures to “remedy” this situation.