More than 120 detained at US universities for pro-Palestinian protests

The Angels. More than 120 people were arrested this Wednesday at two universities in the states of California and Texas, officials said, after pro-Palestinian protests broke out this week in rejection of President Joe Biden’s complicity with Israel in its war against the Gaza Strip. Gaza on American educational center campuses.

GALLERY: Police detain students in Texas and California in wave of protests against war in Gaza

Those involved are from the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles (west), where 93 people were arrested for trespassing, and from the University of Texas (UT) in Austin (south), where 34 They were detained, according to authorities.

The tense incidents are part of the latest clashes on university campuses between law enforcement, including police in riot gear, and students marching with signs outraged by the rising civilian death toll in Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

USC indicated on its X social media account around midnight that the protest had ended and that the campus would remain “closed until further notice.”

“Students, faculty, staff and individuals with campus activities may enter with proper identification,” the university said.

Los Angeles police officers went to campus Wednesday afternoon and “helped the university make trespassing arrests” when protesters refused to leave, Capt. Kelly Muniz told reporters.

Authorities said there were no reports of injuries and that patrols would remain in the area Thursday.

The growing pro-Palestinian protests began at the prestigious Columbia University in New York, where dozens of arrests were made last week after university officials called in police to quell a protest camp that Jewish students said was threatening and anti-semitic

Protesters, including several Jewish students, have repudiated cases of anti-Semitism and criticized officials who equate it with criticism and opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

As students and other protesters camped in schoolyards, occupied university buildings and disrupted campus activities, universities this week reaffirmed their rights to free speech and peaceful protest.