GOP leader threatens to use National Guard against Student Spring protests

President Joe Biden supports freedom of expression on US campuses, the White House has said, as more university students and staff joined protests against Israel's carnage in besieged Gaza and urged their universities to snap ties with firms and academic institutions that support Tel Aviv's genocidal aims.

"The president believes that free speech, debate and nondiscrimination on college campuses are important," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing on Wednesday, even as Biden signed a bill approving nearly $27 billion in military package to ally Israel.

"We believe in people being able to express themselves in a peaceful manner. But when we're talking about hateful rhetoric, when we're talking about violence, we have to call it out."

Ongoing protests at New York's Columbia University have sparked intense attention from media and politicians — and similar demonstrations across the country. Protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

But pro-Israel supporters and others worried about campus safety claim they have faced harassment and intimidation.

At Columbia, meanwhile, Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson decried "the virus of anti-Semitism," calling for the university's president to resign.

Students intermittently booed and shouted at Johnson and his colleagues, chanting slogans such as "Free Palestine," "Stop the genocide" and "From the river to the sea," according to The Washington Post.

At one point, a student shouted, "Get off our campus!" while another exclaimed, "Mike, you suck!" as the Republican lawmaker concluded his speech.

"If this is not contained quickly, and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard," Johnson warned.

In a high-profile incident in 1970, the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio fired on students during anti-Vietnam War protests, killing four.

Police violence against Texas students

As pro-Palestinian protests have spread, hundreds of demonstrators at the University of Texas were in a tense standoff with mounted state troopers, while elsewhere on campus, police in riot gear were pushing back protesters, according to videos on social media.

Dozens of students have been arrested across many campuses, most recently at the University of Texas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott encouraged police violence and called for punishments against the protesting students. "These protesters belong in jail," he wrote on social media.

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

Nine were arrested at Minnesota University, and dozens of others were arrested at Columbia and Yale Universities.

Amid growing anger at the death toll in Gaza — especially among younger Americans — Washington has tried to walk a tightrope on supporting Israel as Biden runs for reelection in November.

The White House demanded "answers" on Wednesday from Israeli authorities after mass graves were discovered in Gaza — while Biden, the same day, also approved more than $26 billion in military package to its key Middle Eastern ally.

Student protesters say they are expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where the death toll has topped 34,200, 70% of them babies, children and women, and are calling on their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

The demonstrators — including a number of Jewish students — have disavowed instances of anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, police were on scene in Los Angeles after hundreds of students began what they called an occupation on the campus of the University of Southern California.

Students chanted "Free free Palestine" as well as the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which some falsely interpret as calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

"We’re all just trying to advocate for our brothers and sisters in Palestine who just don’t have voice right now," biology student Yaseen El-Magharbel told the AFP news agency.

The university said it was closing the campus to outside visitors, though classes and other activities would continue.

Students have also launched protests at schools including Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Brown.

Social media images showed an encampment taking shape at Harvard University.

Classes were moved online and other on-campus activities canceled at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, after protesters barricaded themselves in a campus building. And police at the University of Minnesota reportedly detained nine people at an encampment.

Uneasy truce at Columbia

Before Johnson's visit to Columbia an uneasy truce was in place between students and officials.

The university had set a deadline of midnight Tuesday to disperse, but as more people joined the protest the school gave a 48-our extension, students said on social media.

They agreed to the ongoing talks after the school promised not to call the police or National Guard, organisers with Columbia University Apartheid Divest said.

"We fear that Columbia is risking a second Jackson State or Kent State massacre," the group said in the social media post.

In 1970, demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio were met with deadly force from the National Guard, who fired into a crowd, killing four unarmed students and wounding nine.

Eleven days later, Jackson State in Mississippi also saw police confront student protesters and open fire, killing two and wounding 12.