More than a dozen arrested at anti-Israel protest at University of Texas at Austin

Peloni:  Texas answers the call for justice.

Police storm pro-Palestinian Arab protest at University of Texas at Austin, arrest at least 20, including a local news photographer.

INN    April 25,2024

Anti-Israel protest at University of Texas     Reuters/USA TODAY NETWORK

Police on Wednesday arrested over a dozen people, including a local news photographer, at a pro-Palestinian Arab protest at the University of Texas at Austin, The Associated Press reported.

Hundreds of local and state police – including some on horseback and holding batons – shoved into protesters to get them off the main campus lawn, at one point sending some tumbling into the street, according to the report. Officers pushed their way into the crowd to make arrests with zip ties.

A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was in the push-and-pull when an officer yanked him backward to the ground, video from the scene showed. The station confirmed that the photographer was arrested. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff.

At least 20 demonstrators were taken into custody at the request of university officials and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Police left after hours of efforts to control the crowd, and about 300 demonstrators moved back in to sit on the grass and chant under the school’s iconic clock tower, according to The Associated Press.

The protests at the University of Texas are the latest in a series of violent anti-Israel protests at campuses across the US.

On Monday, at least 45 pro-Palestinian Arab protesters were arrested at Yale University after police in riot gear stormed the campus during a protest.

On Saturday night, as the protest was ongoing, a Jewish Yale student journalist was stabbed in the eye with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.

Last Thursday, more than 100 people were arrested by New York Police Department officers on a preliminary charge of criminal trespass, as police entered Columbia University to disperse a pro-Palestinian Arab protest that began a day earlier.

Two nights later, the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University and a group of Jewish students were forced to leave the university campus for their own safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video in English on Wednesday in which he condemned the anti-Israel and antisemitic rallies currently being held in universities in the United States.

“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally. But that’s not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful,” the Prime Minister stated.

Netanyahu added, “Now, what is important now is for all of us, all of us who are interested and cherish our values and our civilization, to stand up together and to say enough is enough. We have to stop antisemitism because antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. It always precedes larger conflagrations that engulf the entire world.”

“So I ask all of you, Jews and non-Jews alike, who are concerned with our common future and our common values to do one thing: stand up, speak up, be counted. Stop antisemitism now,” he concluded.