‘Call out the guards’ on Israel protests
NEW YORK: Pro-Palestinian protests that are rocking universities across the US have spread to more campuses, triggering suggestions from a senior Republican that the National Guard could be brought in.
The comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson are likely to evoke strong emotions in a country where the 1970 killing by National Guardsmen of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War lives on in folk memory.
Demonstrations erupted at the University of Southern California on Wednesday, and in Texas, where a standoff developed between students and police, with more than 20 detained.
It was the latest confrontation between law enforcement and students angry at the death toll in Israel’s war against Hamas.
The movement began at Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell an occupation that Jewish students said was threatening and antiSemitic.
Mr Johnson said if the demonstrations were not contained quickly it would be “an appropriate time for the National Guard”. He said he intended to demand US President Joe Biden “take action,” and warned that the demonstrations “place a target on the backs of Jewish students”.
Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,200, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and are calling on Columbia and other universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.