By Ahmad Dagher
AUSTIN, TEXAS––This Wednesday, April 24, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called in state troopers to arrest over 50 students involved in a pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin.
The police made an appearance in riot gear at the unsancitoned yet nonviolent demonstration meant to remove the estimated $52.5 million the university endowment has invested into arms manufacturers.
The university had forbade the students from holding the protest, but by noon, they had already gathered and were in full swing. The Texas Public Radio said they were chanting slogans such as “Free, free Palestine. Killing children is a crime.”
The Jews on campus had differing opinions regarding the protest. Some saw it as offensive: the Jewish student union, Texas Hillel, identified the protest as “hateful,” given that it happened on the second day of Passover.
But Jeremi Suri, Jewish professor of history at UT Austin, disagreed. “They’re not shouting anything antisemitic, they’re not harassing anyone. They’re standing on the green lawn, expressing themselves,” he said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
“The appropriate response would be to ask them to be contained in an area, let them stay on the grass and let them shout until they have no voices left.”
Travis County Attorney Delia Garza’s office seemed to agree, announcing that the demonstrators would not be charged with trespassing.
Abbott’s decision this Wednesday seemed to echo his recent executive order this March, which guided universities to properly punish antisemitic speech––a category that included this Wednesday’s protest, and criticism of the war in Gaza in general.
But many of his peers, who had agreed with his previous campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs (which he had declared as anti-free speech), stood against him on this issue.
Will Creeley, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, noted shortly after the arrest, “Sending in a phalanx of law enforcement threatens protected speech where it should be at its most free: a public university like UT Austin.”
But Abbott committed on an X post Wednesday, calling the protests antisemitic and uring for the students’ expulsion. “These protestors belong in jail,” he said.
The event this Wednesday does not exist alone, with similar trends of protests followed by arress tin universities occurring across the country. One can only wonder what will happen next as both sides stand in staunch support of their actions.
