Austin police arrested 79 pro-Palestinian protesters who set up camp at the University of Texas, in stark contrast to New York City, where Columbia protesters were allowed to take over parts of the campus.
Austin law enforcement moved to the encampment on the university’s south lawn before deploying stun grenades and pepper spray to disperse those who had gathered Monday.
On Tuesday, the Travis County Jail confirmed that 79 people were arrested in the protests.
78 of them had been charged with trespassing, while one person was charged with interfering with public duties.
Officers in riot gear surrounded the approximately 100 seated protesters before they began dragging them away.
While police in Texas quickly dealt with the protest, protests at Columbia University continued and now protesters have taken over a building on campus.
Law enforcement moved to the encampment on the university’s south lawn before implementing measures to disperse those who had gathered Monday.
On Tuesday, the Travis County Jail confirmed that 79 people were arrested in the protests.
A state police officer pepper sprays pro-Palestinian protesters after Monday’s demonstration.
Monday’s protest was an escalation on the state capital’s 53,000-student campus, where more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.
The university said in a statement that many protesters were not affiliated with the school and that encampments are prohibited on campus.
The school also said some protesters became “physically and verbally combative” with university staff.
In Columbia, protesters broke into and occupied Hamilton Hall on the Manhattan university’s main campus after breaking into the school.
The occupation came nearly 12 hours after a 2pm Monday deadline for protesters to leave their protest camp or face suspension.
Due to the takeover, the school issued a stay-away notice to staff members telling them to avoid the Morningside campus Tuesday morning.
Since then, they have limited access to students residing in residential buildings on campus and only essential employees.
According to the Columbia Spectator, the group that managed to get inside threw their belongings inside before beginning to barricade themselves inside.
Colombian Spectatorthe group that managed to enter threw their belongings aside before beginning to barricade themselves inside.
Outdoor furniture and ropes secure the main entrance to Hamilton Hall, which student protesters blocked
Protesters begin building a barricade inside Hamilton Hall.
University president Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade protesters to remove dozens of tents set up to express their opposition to Israel’s war in Loop.
The students broke into the building on the south lawn, which has been the site of the university’s anti-Israel camp for more than a week.
Furniture inside Hamilton Hall was stacked on top of each other in the students’ barricading efforts.
Images of the mass demonstration show sleeping bags, coats, backpacks and blankets scattered on the ground and piled up in front of the doors.
The students broke into the building on the south lawn, which has been the site of the university’s anti-Israel camp for more than a week.
They quickly ascended the stairs, dragging tables and chairs from the classrooms which they then used to block the doors from the inside.
The building was locked down in less than five minutes, according to the student publication, and protesters did not allow anyone to enter.
Protesters blocked security cameras inside the building with black trash bags and duct tape, and according to a source inside the building, at least three facility workers remained inside until 1 a.m.
Ben Chang, a university spokesman, said in a statement: “Early this morning, a group of protesters occupied Hamilton Hall on Columbia University’s Morningside campus.
“Campus access has been limited to students residing in residential buildings on campus and employees who provide essential services to campus buildings.”
The building was locked down in less than five minutes, according to the student publication, and protesters did not allow anyone to enter.
The crackdown in Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests that have shaken college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, came as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students and sprayed them with gas pepper at a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
Students used wooden beams to block the doors inside Hamilton Hall.
Hundreds of protesters, many wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves, marched around the perimeter of the camp shouting: ‘Disclose! Strip away! We will not stop, we will not rest’
Student protesters sit and watch outside Hamilton Hall Tuesday morning.
Four masked protesters lowered a banner reading “Hind’s Hall” from a window overlooking the crowd that cheered its collapse, according to a clip posted on X.
The apparent renaming of the building was in honor of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was massacred in Gaza along with two Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics who tried to rescue her in January.
The girl was inside the vehicle that had allegedly been the target of several Israeli shots.
Images from inside Hamilton Hall show how angry protesters stacked two metal tables that had originally been placed outside Hartley Hall on top of each other and tied them to the doors with ropes and zip ties.
At around 1.28am, protesters hung a Palestinian flag from a window on the third floor of the building before using newspapers to cover windows and doors.
A banner was then dropped from the left side of Hamilton Hall reading “Gaza calls Columbia Falls.”
Protesters have vowed to keep their camp on campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their participation in the protests.
