Texas arrests 30+ students and threatens expulsion over ‘antisemitism’

Austin, Texas – Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) supported the arrest of
dozens of student protestors and issued threats of expulsion from Texan
Universities on Wednesday, over what he called acts of “antisemitism.”

The shocking, constitutionally fraught police action would come amid mass
arrests and violence at several American colleges, aimed at cracking down
on pro-Palestine rhetoric now found coast to coast.

“Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses,”
proclaimed Abbott on X, formerly Twitter. “These protesters belong in
jail.”

“Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in
hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in
Texas should be expelled,” the post continued.

The post was in reply to a shocking video depicting armored members of the
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) physically removing throngs of
peaceful protestors from an outdoor common area of the University of Texas
in Austin. According to reports, the clashes between pro-Palestine
demonstrators and police would culminate in over 30 arrests.

Painted as a “tense standoff,” the highly televised event also saw the
concerning use of police on horseback, rounding up American citizens for
merely expressing political views contrary to the state of Israel.
Nationally, over 100 would be arrested.

The protest at UT Austin was said to have been organized by the Palestinian
Solidarity Committee, which directed students to “occupy” the South Lawn in
order to raise awareness of the ongoing Palestinian genocide. In response,
the University had sent a letter urging organizers to cancel the event,
prior to the hostilities on Wednesday.

“Simply put, the University of Texas at Austin will not allow this campus
to be ‘taken’ and protestors to derail our mission in ways that groups
affiliated with your national organization have accomplished elsewhere,”
the letter read. 

Online commentators were quick to point out Governor Abbott’s apparent
hypocrisy. In 2019, the long-time supporter of Israel once signed a law
designed specifically to “protect free speech on campus.” This stunning
policy reversal led many to see Abbott as merely a tool of international
Zionism, attacking him for a perceived “America last” position.

“Incredibly disturbing footage out of Texas where authorities appear to be
barring any pro-Palestinian protest at all in open outdoor areas of
campus,” read a post by First Amendment attorney Alex Morey on X/Twitter.
“…This appears to be a blatant violation not just of the First Amendment
but S.B. 18, which requires these spaces be open to protest.”

“Who can curtail Americans’ speech most aggressively for Israel? Winner
gets an all-expense paid trip to the Western Wall and a special
commemorative Yarmulke,” said Journalist Michael Tracy, also to X/Twitter.

Others, however, pointed to the grim reality of Abbott’s military-style
crackdown on free expression. Political podcaster and anti-Zionist Mike
Peinovich said the move was made specifically to arrest and identify
pro-Palestine leftists in order to politically gatekeep them from future
positions of prestige.

“(Jews) want, and in some cases have succeeded, in getting the cops to go
in and bust heads. They then want to dox and ruin the future of anyone
involved, as well as impose legal costs on the Universities for mental
health damage to Jewish students…” read a post to X/Twitter.

“Ultimately, their goal is to make pro-Palestine activism so personally and
institutionally costly and to create such a stigma associated with it that
University communities police themselves for it and the internal cultures
shift to make Palestine out of bounds like Nazism is,” read another.

Abbott, the Republican governor who has so far done little to stem the flow
of thousands of foreign migrants from entering the United States illegally,
has often signaled support for the regime in Tel Aviv. In March, Abbott
personally signed Executive Order No. GA-44, a brutal hate speech policy
designed to “address(ing) acts of antisemitism in institutions of higher
education.”

The law was panned as a blatant “attack” on the First Amendment, made to
protect Jews from criticism as the war on Gaza continues into 2024.

Abbott’s decision to send in “shock troops” to disperse peaceful student
protestors fell in line with international calls to deal with anti-Zionist
rhetoric on American campuses. In a publicized address, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called for a heavy-handed crackdown,
handwaving protestors as merely “antisemitic mobs” in support of “genocidal
terrorists.”

“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” said the Israeli
leader to an audience on Wednesday. “They call for the annihilation of
Israel…They say not only death to Israel, death to the Jews, but death to
America.”

“This tells us there is an antisemitic urge that has terrible
consequences,” he continued.

Abbott has found allies in many mainstream GOP politicians seeking to court
the Israel lobby. On Tuesday, one day before the political repression at U
of T, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton bizarrely referred to pro-Palestine
protests at New York’s Columbia University as a “nascent pogrom,” and even
urged President Joe Biden to send in the National Guard to suppress
criticism of Israel by force.

“The nascent pogroms at Columbia have to stop TODAY, before our Jewish
brethren sit for Passover Seder tonight,” said Cotton in a breathless
tweet. “If Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the
National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these
mobs.”

Cotton previously drew controversy for his rabidly pro-Zionist rhetoric
when he urged American drivers to “take matters into their own hands” when
dealing with pro-Palestine protestors who block traffic. The tweet, which
earned millions of views on social media, appeared to call for vigilante
justice against Israel’s critics, up to and including throwing them from
bridges.

Meanwhile, support for Israel continues to decline rapidly as it
increasingly stands face-to-face with the consequences of its own horrific
actions in the region. In early March, Israeli warplanes bombed a home in
the southern Gazan city of Rafah, killing over 14, many of them children.
So far, more than 30,320 Palestinians have been killed, with an additional
71,533 wounded since the events of October 7th.

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