Dozens arrested in California and Texas as campus administrators move to shut down protests – as it happened

Pictures and videos on social media show Texas state troops in riot gear at the University of Texas at Austin campus during a pro-Palestinian protest.

An Instagram reel posted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee in Austin said the university administration officials called on state troops “in an attempt to scare us into silence”.

In a post on X, the Daily Texan said about 50 state troopers were at the campus, some on horseback, and that arrests were under way.

Throughout the afternoon on Tuesday, loudspeakers blared speeches given by UC Berkeley professors and students in support of the sit-in, as a few dozen people stood and listened.

But campus life otherwise carried on. University clubs recruited from behind tables lining the plaza, students streamed by on their way to class, while others worked from laptops in the courtyard.

There is minimal police or security presence on site, but the students are bracing for that to change. They have been vocal about their determination to stay even if the university tries to have them forcibly removed.

The “Free Palestine Camp,” is one of many actions that have been taken at UC Berkeley in opposition to the recent violent escalation in Gaza that’s left tens of thousands of civilians dead, and the encampment was designed in solidarity with protests at Columbia University. It also follows decades of demonstrations in support of Palestinians at the school.

Two Ohio State University students were arrested on Tuesday and charged with criminal trespassing during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on the university campus, school officials said.

The protest was organized by several groups, including the Palestinian liberation movement and Ohio youth for climate justice, the Lantern reported.

Isabella Guinigundo, a spokesperson for Ohio youth for climate justice, told the student newspaper that the protesters were told by the police that they were being too loud before officers approached the crowd, pulling them out and arresting them.

In a statement, OSU spokesperson Benjamin Johnson said:

When yesterday’s demonstration became disruptive to the students, faculty and staff in Meiling Hall, the university issued multiple warnings. When the disruptive activity continued, two individuals were arrested. Ohio State has an unwavering commitment to freedom of speech and took this action in alignment with our space use rules to provide for the orderly conduct of university business.

Now in its third day, the protest encampment at UC Berkeley has steadily grown.

Rows of tents were added to the cluster set up on the steps of Sproul Hall at the center of campus. Draped overhead, a banner reads “An injury to Gaza is an injury to all,” one of many signs posted through the protest outlining the students’ objectives: they have committed to camping here until their school agrees to add a sever its financial connections to BlackRock and other asset managers they see as complicit for financing genocide in Gaza.

UC Berkeley holds a $427m investment in a BlackRock portfolio and school officials have commented that a change in their investment strategy is not on the table.

But the protesters are also calling for an academic boycott, which would end collaborations with Israeli universities and the establishment of a new Palestinian Studies program.

The Harvard University encampment comes after the university suspended the Harvard undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee on Monday and ordered the group to “cease all organizational activities for the remainder of the Spring 2024 term” or risk permanent expulsion.

The group, which describes itself as a “Harvard student group in pursuit of liberation through justice for Palestine,” said it would continue to advocate for Palestine regardless of Harvard’s decision. A statement from the group said:

You can suspend our organization and threaten our students, but you will never silence our calls for Divestment from apartheid, occupation and genocide.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters launched an encampment at Harvard University’s Harvard Yard this morning to protest against the suspension of the university’s undergraduate Palestine solidarity committee and demand the university divest from Israel’s war in Gaza.

The encampment marks the largest protest on Harvard’s campus since former university president Claudine Gay’s resignation earlier this year, the Harvard Crimson reports.

The student newspaper said the university was restricting access to Harvard Yard to only university ID holders until Friday.

Harvard interim president Alan Garber told the paper on Monday that he would not rule out a police response to protests, but said it would require a “very high bar”.

Joe Biden does not plan to visit Columbia University when he visits New York on Friday, White House and campaign officials told CNN.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said yesterday that the White House was monitoring “closely” the protests on college campuses and that the president takes seriously the conversations he has had with community leaders about the current “painful moment”. Bates told reporters:

But as I said, when we witness calls for violence, physical intimidation, hateful, antisemitic rhetoric, those are unacceptable. We will denounce them. The president knows that silence is complicity and that’s why he uses the platforms he has to try and ensure that our fellow Americans are safe.

Joe Biden praised legislation he signed today that rushes in foreign aid including more than $26bn to Israel as a bipartisan legislative victory on a “good day for world peace”.

The president, in remarks delivered from the White House, shortly after signing the legislation, said:

It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer.

The bill includes about $1bn in humanitarian relief for Palestinians in Gaza.

In remarks delivered from the White House, Biden urged Israel to ensure the humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the bill reaches Gaza “without delay”.

Cameron Jones first learned about fossil fuel divestment as a 15-year-old climate organizer. When he enrolled at Columbia University in 2022, he joined the campus’s chapter of the youth-led climate justice group the Sunrise Movement and began pushing the school in New York to sever financial ties with coal, oil and gas companies.

Today, 19-year-old Jones, like many other student protesters and campus organizers, is just as focused on pushing the school to divest from another group of businesses: those profiting from Israel’s war in Gaza. He and others see the issues as firmly connected, with activists learning from tactics used in both of the often overlapping movements.

On Monday, Jones, speaking from the student encampment of demonstrators on Columbia’s campus who are protesting against the war and the university’s ties to Israel, said:

Once we see large institutions like universities taking the steps to sever ties with harmful institutions, we will then hopefully see corporations and countries and cities follow suit.

In particular, students are demanding the university drop its direct investments in companies doing business in or with Israel, including Amazon and Google, which are part of a $1.2bn cloud-computing contract with the state’s government; Microsoft, whose services are used by Israel’s ministry of defense and Israeli civil administration; and defense contractors profiting from the war such as Lockheed Martin, which on Tuesday reported its earnings were up 14%.

Read the full story: How divestment became a ‘clarion call’ in anti-fossil fuel and pro-ceasefire protests

24 Apr 202412.05 EDT

Dani Anguiano

Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university on California’s northern coast, remained closed on Wednesday after pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves in a campus building for a sit-in.

Law enforcement and students clashed on Monday as police tried to clear Siemens Hall. Video posted by a student activist group showed students chanting “we are not afraid of you” before officers in riot gear attempted to take them into custody. Police could be seen swinging batons at demonstrators as the group pushed them back. The officers reportedly left after an hours-long standoff.

Three protesters were arrested on Monday evening after the confrontation with law enforcement, the university said in a statement. Dozens of students remain inside the building and have barricaded entrances with furniture, according to the university, while others occupied another nearby building.

The campus is closed through Wednesday and classes are being held remotely.