US Campus Protests Heat Up As Palestine Agitators Arrested At Texas Varsity, Students Suspended In Columbia

US Campus Protests: Several pro-Palestine protestors were suspended in Columbia University while around 50 students were arrested from University of Texas.

Pro-Palestine protestors were suspended by Columbia University on Monday

Source : Getty

US campus protests heated up on Monday as Columbia University began suspending pro-Palestine protestors. The suspensions were issued after the protestors defied a university order to dismantle a tent encampment on its New York City campus. Several protestors at Texas University were also arrested and were charged with misdemeanour trespassing.

"We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus," said Ben Chang, a spokesperson at Columbia University, at a briefing on Monday evening, as per a Reuters report. 

"The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams," Chang said.

On Monday morning, Columbia sent a letter warning that students who did not vacate the encampment by 2 pm EST and sign a form promising to abide by the policies of the university would face suspension and become ineligible to complete their semester in good standing. 

• Despite the deadline passing, activists at Columbia continued their protests, with chants and drumming echoing from the encampment, housing over 300 people. 
• The university did not call the police but started issuing suspensions to the students three hours after the deadline passed, Chang said. 
• He did not delve into any other details as to how many students were involved or whether suspended students would be ousted from the campus, as per an AP report. 
• Meanwhile, students at the Manhattan campus vowed to keep their encampment until Columbia met their three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.
• "These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians. We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or we are moved by force," leaders of the Columbia Student Apartheid Divest coalition said in a statement read at a news conference following the deadline.
• A few counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags as one sign read: "Where are the Anti-Hamas chants?"

• The crackdown at Columbia, at the centre of Gaza-related protests across university campuses in the US, came as police arrested dozens of students at the University of Texas. 
• The security forces raided the protest site on Monday afternoon as the armed state police in riot gear entered the campus, arresting approximately 50 students, according to an Al-Jazeera report. 
• All the arrested students were charged with misdemeanour trespassing, though the charges were later dropped as a result of insufficient evidence.