Police arrest protesters in California and Texas as college protests expand to other states

Local police departments have arrested protesters at colleges in Texas and California on Wednesday, as pro-Palestine demonstrations expand beyond New York.

Protests at Columbia University have been going on for one week, and began after the university’s president testified about antisemitism on the college campus at a Congressional hearing last week. Protests have since emerged at universities in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

The protesters are calling for their schools to cut financial ties with Israel, and divest from companies that have helped Israel amid its ongoing conflict with the terrorist organization Hamas, per the Associated Press.

Dozens of state troopers and local police officers arrested students that participated in a pro-Palestine rally at the University of Texas at Austin. More than 200 students began protesting around noon, and those arrested are expected to be charged with criminal trespassing, according to the Texas Tribune. The arrests come after students at UT Dallas staged their own sit-in on Tuesday.

Protests at the University of Southern California have forced the school to close its gates, after hundreds of students started an “occupation” at USC’s Alumni Park, according to NBC Los Angeles. The protesters set up encampments with tents in the park, prompting police officers to clash with some students when attempting to take them down. Some students have been detained, but a clear number has not been reported.

"Anyone coming to campus should be prepared to show an ID at the gates for class or for business," USC said in an alert. "Please continue to avoid the center of campus unless you have a class." 

Students at Harvard University also gathered on Wednesday, to protest the suspension of a student group called the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, and the war in Israel. The university closed access to the school’s Harvard Yard over the weekend, so only students and faculty could access the area. They are also requiring students to get permission before putting tents and tables in the yard, but protesters put up 14 tents on Wednesday anyways. 

Protests have also broken out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Brown University, the University of Michigan, California State Polytechnic at Humboldt, and New York University, among others.