Students at several Texas universities gathered Monday to protest the Israel-Palestine conflict, including UT Austin, Texas A&M and North Texas State, leading to some violence and making Jewish students fearful to be on campus.
The students are calling on boards of trustees to sever fi-nancial ties with companies and institutions that support Israel.
At UT Austin last week, hundreds of students walked out of class in support of Palestine. According to Jay Hartzell, people not affiliated with the university joined the protest and ignored officials’ pleas to disperse. After refusing to disperse, state troopers arrested more than 50 people on Wednesday, though most charges were dropped.
On Monday, law enforcement moved in to dismantle a protest encampment at UT Texas that had been set up on the South Lawn, which included a barricade of tables secure by chains, strategically placed tools, tents and rocks.
University staff and law enforcement were met with resistance after repeated directives to remove the encampment and were attacked both physically and verbally. According to the university, institutional rules prohibit encampments on campus.
At the Texas A&M in College Station, hundreds of students and supporters gathered, also demanding the university break ties with Israelibacked business investment.
The protest lasted about eight hours, ending with a march around campus.
The eight-hour long protest was a peaceful demonstration, ending with a march around campus.
Students at the University of North Texas walked out of class Tuesday to take part in an anti-Israel demonstration, echoing the same demands as other protestors across Texas. The local chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Committee planned the event.
Some protesters in Texas have also directly confronted Jewish students on and near campus, at times using antisemitic rhetoric, calling for “Zionists” to be excluded from campus communities. The concerning actions coming out of university encampments further marginalizes Jewish students already facing a disturbing level of antisemitism.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (TX) said the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Department of Education should act.
“What is happening at our universities is disgraceful. This vicious antisemitism is utterly unacceptable. We’re seeing it at Columbia, NYU, Yale, sadly we’re seeing it in Texas at the University of Texas. We’re seeing radical activists who are pro-Hamas who are chanting in favor of the Hamas terrorists that butchered 1200 people on Oct. 7, that raped women and little girls.”
As arrests are being made, free speech experts and advocates say students can generally peacefully protest, though colleges and authorities may still enforce some restrictions and criminal laws to maintain peace and order if they’re applied neutrally.
According to Tom Leatherbury, director of the First Amendment Clinic at the SMU Dedman School of Law. “On many of the campuses, what’s happening is the protesters are being arrested for violation of state or local statutes or ordinances and not really for violations of campus speech codes.”
Possible violations in Texas may be deemed “disorderly conduct” or could include obstruction of a public passageway, participation in a riot, trespassing and/or camping in public places Many of these possible violations are considered misdemeanors under Texas law.
In some cases, authorities or plaintiffs have pursued action against protest organizers not directly involved in unlawful conduct when such conduct has developed in a protest, Leatherbury said.