Dozens arrested in California and Texas as campus administrators move to shut down protests – as it happened

The encampment at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles this morning comes days after the university controversially cancelled the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student.

The Los Angeles university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, said last week that it took the unprecedented step of canceling valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech because of the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.

The university’s decision was met with outrage from the Council of American Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and free speech groups. Students and faculty marched across campus last Thursday in silent protest of the university’s decision.

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Tabassum described herself as “shocked … and profoundly disappointed” after being informed that she would be barred from addressing her fellow graduates at their 10 May commencement.

The university later decided to cancel the keynote speech by film-maker Jon M Chu, citing the “highly publicized circumstances surrounding our main-stage commencement program”.

Joe Biden has signed into law legislation that rushes $95bn in foreign aid more than $26bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza.

The legislation includes $60.8bn to replenish Ukraine’s war chest as it seeks to repel Russia from its territory; $26.3bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza; and $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific region to bolster its defenses against China.

Demonstrators have set up an encampment and protest at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The encampment began this morning at Alumni Park, according to the USC Divest from Death coalition. The group’s statement reads:

We, the USC Divest from Death Coalition, establish our occupation most fundamentally in solidarity with the people of Palestine as they resist genocide and continue in their struggle for liberation.

It lists six demands of the university: “End War Profiteering and Investment in Genocide”; “Complete Academic Boycott of Israel”; “Protect free speech on campus and provide full amnesty”; “Stop the Displacement, from South Central to Palestine”; “No Policing on Campus”; and “End the Silence on the Genocide in Palestine”.

Mike Johnson said he will call on the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, to resign when he joins Jewish students at the university later today.

The House speaker, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt this morning, accused Shafik of being “a very weak, inept leader”, adding:

They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? They are expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s maddening.

He continued:

What we are seeing on these college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable and every leader in this country, every political official, every citizen of good conscience has to speak out and say that ‘this is not who we are in America.’ And we got to have accountability and that is what my colleagues and I will be working on.

The New York University Palestine solidarity coalition has issued a statement slamming the university’s authorization of the arrest of more than 140 protesters on Monday night.

School officials asked the New York police department for help clearing a plaza on NYU’s Manhattan campus, police said. Students, faculty and others were arrested that night.

In a statement, the university’s Palestine solidarity coalition accused the university of “acting in bad faith, stalling negotiations, and refusing to communicate decisions”. It said:

We will not let the NYU administration twist our words and actions, words and actions that are in favor of liberation. We will not let NYU administration weaponize Judaism to stifle free speech, muzzle the Palestinian fight for freedom, and get away with supporting a genocide that has been going on for 200 days.

The Senate yesterday voted resoundingly an aid package that includes more than $26bn for Israel and humanitarian relief for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza.

The final vote was 79 to 18 for the package that also included aid for Ukraine and Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Tuesday night near at Grand Army Plaza in New York, on the doorstep of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, calling on him to stop arming Israel’s military, which relies heavily on US weapons, jet fuel and other military equipment.

Joe Biden praised congressional leaders and lawmakers after the Senate vote for what he called an effort “to answer history’s call at this critical inflection point”.

About 90 Brown University students set up an encampment and protest this morning, according to the university.

A university spokesperson said encampment on the university’s “historic and residential greens is a violation of university policy”, adding that students participating were informed that will be subject to “conduct proceedings”. The statement continued:

Protest is an acceptable means of expression at Brown, but it becomes unacceptable when it violates university policies that are intended to ensure the safety of members of the Brown community and that there is no interference in the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university.

A statement by Brown Divest Coalition called on the university to “end their ongoing repression of student protesters advocating for a liberated Palestine”.

From NBC10’s Allegra Zamore:

Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York.

Protesters shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end military aid to Israel, close to his Brooklyn home.

About 300 arrests took place at Grand Army Plaza, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.

The seder came just before the Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticized the decision by Columbia University to call the police on pro-Palestinian protesters at its New York City campus.

Posting to X, the New York congresswoman wrote:

Calling in police enforcement on nonviolent demonstrations of young students on campus is an escalatory, reckless, and dangerous act.

It represents a heinous failure of leadership that puts people’s lives at risk. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

Nine students were arrested at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, a university spokesperson said today.

The student coalition set up tents in front of the Walter Library and university police began “harassing” the encampment, protesters said. Students gathered outside the Coffman Memorial union on Tuesday night with plans to sleep in tents, but the encampment was cleared overnight, CBS news reported.

“The group was asked to disperse by 7am and told they would be arrested if they chose to stay past that time,” a school spokesperson said.

They added that the University of Minnesota “supports and respects free speech through lawful protest”, but that “tents are not allowed on any University property for any purpose without a permit”, adding:

I want to be clear that protests where groups express diverse views and opinions occur regularly on our campus and typically occur without arrests. The choice to establish and remain in a prohibited encampment led to this morning’s arrests.