What's the latest on pro-Palestine campus protests in the US

Police in the United States are deploying an increasingly aggressive force against the pro-Palestine student protests who have pitched tents and staged sit-ins at major universities against Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.

Number of nationwide arrests has steadily shot up with state governors and security officials doubling down against the protestors despite concern that such action is undermining freedom of expression.

In a few cases, the authorities have even announced that they will use harsher measures to disperse the students.

The Texas outpouring

As authorities crack down, protests have morphed into a mass student-led movement expanding to several universities in the US, Europe and elsewhere.

In the US, such protests were first limited to private universities where donor funding comes to dictate a lot of policies as seen in the case of Columbia University.

Pro-Israel businessmen and investors have threatened to pull back their funding if Columbia doesn’t clamp down against the anti-war protests.

In this sense, it was unusual to see police on horseback trying to disperse a crowd at the public UT Austin campus where a large crowd of students wanted to set up an encampment.

At least 34 people were taken into custody, as reported by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"The protesters belong in jail," said Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas. During the protests, a FOX 7 Austin photojournalist was also arrested.

Video footage showed the photojournalist recording as police pushed back the protest line, causing a collision with an officer. He was then detained by a trooper, according to FOX 7 Austin's report.

Social media users commended the UT Austin students for taking a firm stance on Palestine, noting that Texas, with its predominantly conservative White population, is not accustomed to witnessing such protests.

UT Austin President Jay Hartzell faced criticism from the faculty for his decision to call city police and state troopers to the campus.

Faculty arrests

In recent days, faculty members, who showed up to express support for the students, have also been arrested.

Noelle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department, at Atlanta’s Emory University, is among them.

In a video doing rounds on social media, she can be seen asking a student to contact the philosophy department and inform them of her arrest, as a balaclava-clad Atlanta police officer drags her.

CNN captured the dramatic moment when Caroline Fohlin, an Economics Professor at Emory, screams at police, asking them to explain why they were pinning down a student. She was herself thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

On Thursday, Emory’s administration issued a statement confirming that they had been notified of the arrest of 28 individuals, including 20 members of the Emory community.

It has also been reported that police officers deployed tear gas and tasers against protesting Emory students.

Intimidation against students

On Thursday, unease spread among students at Ohio State University and Indiana University Bloomington after some of them shared pictures on social media, claiming they had spotted police snipers on rooftops.

A Ohio university spokesperson later admitted that people on the rooftop were “state troopers in a watching position” but insisted they were not snipers.

In another instance of what many saw as psychological intimidation, the NYU administration had on Tuesday erected a plywood wall, guarded by several police officers, to block students from reaching the Stern School of Business, one of the campus's main buildings.

The wall quickly became a target of ridicule among students, many of whom dubbed it the "wall of shame", drawing parallels with Israel’s illegal separation wall in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In another case, UCLA students exposed a pro-Israel counter protestor who tried to infiltrate the peaceful demonstration.

The infiltrator reportedly got into the Gaza solidarity encampment and physically harassed students, primarily women, in an attempt to provoke commotion.