Memo to Met: This is how Texas tackles Gaza protests
HUNDREDS of state troopers – including many on horseback – clashed with pro- Palestinian students at the University of Texas last night.
In the latest round of demonstrations gripping US campuses, activists said they would walk out before occupying the main campus lawn in austin.
But unlike the more conciliatory approach taken by east coast universities, Texan authorities said they would ‘not tolerate disruption’.
Sending in hundreds of armoured state troopers, police and mounted officers, state governor Greg abbott said those at what he described as ‘ hate-filled, anti- Semitic protests’ belonged in jail.
More than 50 students were arrested in scenes reminiscent of Vietnam-era unrest.
University of Texas president Jay Hartzell said peaceful protests were acceptable but that breaking the rules and disrupting others’ ability to learn was not allowed. ‘ Our rules matter, and they will be enforced,’ he said. ‘Our university will not be occupied.’
The Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group which organised the demonstration, said: ‘UT administration has called on state troopers in an attempt to scare us into silence.’
The university’s academic staff appeared to be standing behind the students. Professor Pavithra Vasudevan told the austin american-Statesman newspaper the arrests lay at the feet of the university’s administrators.
She added: ‘The president and university administration chose to militarise our campus in response… to students gathering to express themselves.’
Pro-Palestine activists have clashed with police and Jewish counter-protesters at Harvard, Berkeley, Brown and New york University.
Officials and police have been trying to clear an encampment at Columbia University in New york.