Campus war protests domino from East to West Coast drawing arrests and violence

Attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia and other colleges in recent weeks have instead lit a fuse nationwide, as students at public universities from Austin to Los Angeles have set up tents, defied police orders to vacate and even occupied academic buildings as they protest Israel’s war in Gaza.

The response grew violent at UCLA early Wednesday morning, as counter-protesters beat pro-Palestinian activists with sticks and launched fireworks into their encampment. The episode was so egregious that it forced Gov. Gavin Newsom to sharply criticize the counter-protesters and deploy state police to the scene — adding him to a list of governors who’ve been pushed to counteract increasingly fractious demonstrations in their states.

“I condemn the violence at UCLA last night,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday. “The law is clear: The right to free speech does not extend to inciting violence, vandalism, or lawlessness on campus. Those who engage in illegal behavior must be held accountable for their actions — including through criminal prosecution, suspension, or expulsion.”

In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers told a local news station that “at some point in time, the encampments have to end,” and that the state will “take action if we have to.”

Campus unrest over the war, which has been simmering for months, has exploded at the end of the academic year after viral images of law enforcement’s forceful responses and students’ resistance circulated on social media, inspiring activists to make a final push for their universities to divest from Israel before the fall term.

The escalating demonstrations have pushed elected officials and college leaders into the fraught position of publicly engaging on such a divisive topic. They’ve also prompted the cancellation of graduation ceremonies, shifts to remote instruction and fury toward college leaders — increasingly upending the final weeks of the academic year across the country.

Efforts to restore pre-Oct. 7 normalcy by breaking up protests have often backfired.

“Personally, I’ve been emboldened seeing what the NYPD did to Columbia, and what the president, Minouche Shafik, did to Columbia students,” said Matthew Smith, a Fordham University freshman who was leading chants at a pro-Palestinian protest Monday.

Social media has accelerated demonstrations in a way not seen during international conflicts in decades past. Campus activists have described their organizing efforts to POLITICO as mainly grassroots and local, but they’ve acknowledged that mediums such as X, formerly known as Twitter, have enabled them to communicate with peers across state borders more rapidly and frequently than would have been previously possible.

“Students across the country have been talking to each other,” said Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum, a leftist activism center in Manhattan. “You see it on Twitter, the level of conversation and sharing of experiences. And I think each campus has had its independence to choose the pace at which it wants to go, the topics they want to choose, again, without any outside interference.”

Pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan, Columbia and University of California system are bound together by a demand that universities divest from Israel.

But those efforts have been largely unsuccessful. The University of Michigan rebuffed such calls last month. At the University of California — where students have for years campaigned for the ten-campus system to cede its holdings in Israeli companies as well as its U.S. weapons suppliers — leadership threw more cold water on the proposal last week.

“While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses,” the system said in a statement.

Elsewhere, at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Wednesday, students chanted, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” Their school has not complied, either.

“This isn't about Columbia or CUNY students,” said a pro-Palestinian protester at Fordham, granted anonymity over fear of backlash for speaking publicly. “This is about what’s happening in Gaza. This is about the genocide, and we’re bringing awareness to the fact that universities are profiting off of the genocide.”

Not all protesters are students. Of 32 people who were arrested for occupying two academic buildings at Cal Poly Humboldt, 13 were students, one was a faculty member and 18 were other non-students, according to the Washington Post. The University of Texas reported that in one recent round of arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters, 26 of 55 were unaffiliated with the university.

Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have been vocal in denouncing demonstrations and have sent law enforcement onto campuses. Abbott deployed the Department of Public Safety to UT Austin, saying “these protesters belong in jail.” He added that students joining “antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Monday said he would also kick students out of universities over protest chants supportive of Hamas.

“If you’re standing with these terrorist groups — it’s time to get your head examined,” Stitt said.

Another Republican, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, has also defended law enforcement, which made dozens of arrests. He said protesters should “play by the rules like everybody else has to or they will be administered and enforced.”

“We can peacefully protest and you can express your emotionally charged opinion but you’re not going to infringe on other people’s rights,” Holcomb said.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, praised Washington University in St. Louis for cracking down on campus demonstrations by using law enforcement to arrest protesters.

"I think Wash U did an excellent job trying to take care of the problem, looked like to me," Parson said. “My hat's off to them for taking care of the problem and making sure classes go on and people get educated.”

Democrats in Los Angeles and in the state writ large have stridently criticized what transpired at UCLA Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said “the limited and delayed campus law enforcement response” was “unacceptable.” Videos and news reports show attackers stomping on pro-Palestinian activists and using what appears to be pepper spray.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called for an investigation of the “absolutely detestable violence” that occurred. UC system President Michael V. Drake has ordered an external investigation, and said in a letter to the system's governing board that at least 15 people were injured in the incident, according to the Los Angeles Times.

On Tuesday, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block was called to the Hill by the Republican-led House Education Committee for questioning on campus antisemitism. Then Wednesday, the CFT — a union of educators that also represents campus employees, called on him to resign over his handling of the incident.

“We also condemn the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), UCLA PD, and UCLA-hired private security for standing by without meaningful public safety intervention for hours while counter-protesters assaulted students with pepper spray, baseball bats, and fireworks,” said the union, which is a state-level arm of the American Federation of Teachers.

Against that backdrop, the two pro-Israel candidates for the open Senate seat in California have framed broader unrest in drastically different terms. Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey recently referred to pro-Palestinian demonstrators as “terrorists,” while Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff condemned “repeated targeting and intimidation of Jewish students” in a statement Wednesday.

“Over the past weeks, from Columbia University to UCLA and far too many campuses in between, many of those demonstrations have turned violent, and created unsafe and wholly unsustainable learning environments for all students,” Schiff said.