Student Spring: Texas students face police violence in pro-Palestine rally

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas have engaged in a tense standoff with mounted state troopers, the latest in a series of Student Spring protests and confrontations rocking academic campuses across the United States.

As students at the university staged a walkout on Wednesday chanting "down with occupation," state troopers on horseback were making their way through campus — while elsewhere, police in riot gear were pushing back protesters, according to videos on social media.

There have been many arrests, according to initial media reports. Troopers used megaphones to announce that people who remained protesting on the public school’s grounds would be arrested under criminal trespass charges.

Meanwhile, the predominantly peaceful crowd chanted in support of Palestinians.

Texas police and public safety officials did not immediately confirm the number of people arrested.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said arrests are being made right now and will continue until the crowd disperses.

"These protesters belong in jail. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period," he wrote on X, adding "Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled."

The standoff in Austin comes as ongoing protests at New York's Columbia University amid Israel's relentless carnage in besieged Gaza have sparked intense attention from media and politicians — and similar demonstrations across the country.

An uneasy truce was in place between students and officials at Columbia on Wednesday after a deadline to forcibly disperse their protest encampment expired.

Protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and calling on Columbia to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Surge in protests

In what is becoming a pattern across campuses, students have also launched protests at several other schools, including Columbia, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Brown.

At least 100 students began what they called an "occupation" on Wednesday at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

At the University of Southern California, police removed several tents, then got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters before falling back.

Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables.

But that didn't stop protesters from setting up a camp with scores of tents on Wednesday, which came after a rally against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Classes were moved online, and other on-campus activities were cancelled at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt after protesters barricaded themselves in a campus building Tuesday.

More than 130 people were arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest at New York University Monday night.

And police at the University of Minnesota reportedly arrested nine people at a pro-Palestinian encampment Tuesday.

Despite the crackdown by the police on students, campus protests are still spreading, nevertheless.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on US college campuses in a video statement released on Wednesday, saying the response of several university presidents has been "shameful" and calling on state, local, and federal officials to intervene.