Police move in on University of Texas at Dallas protesters

Student protest leaders from Columbia University and the City University of New York (CUNY) held a joint press conference on Wednesday evening, addressing the "violent" arrests made on Tuesday night at the schools.

"Columbia and the cops collaborated to brutalise my classmates in the dark for standing up for what is right," one student said.

They also criticised Columbia University for "bad faith negotiations" with the protesters.

"The university gave us nothing more than bureaucracy, nothing more than proposals, nothing more than speculation that one day soon, maybe they would consider divesting," another said.

A CUNY alumnus said that the protests would continue.

"As students of CUNY, we recognise that our role is to pressure our administration by any means necessary until they meet our demands, because our tuition is blood money, our tax dollars are blood money."

Four people were arrested at the University of Arizona on Wednesday, after a heated conflict between protesters and law enforcement erupted, school officials said in a statement.

Two of those arrested were students.

There were no reported injuries.

"Law enforcement members were assaulted with projectiles. In addition, hundreds of protestors and counter-protestors gathered... creating a volatile environment," President Robert Robbins said.

"As officers attempted to move protestors off Park Avenue, many physically resisted and additional projectiles were once again thrown at close range at officers.

"Due to the dangerous actions of the protestors, law enforcement had little choice but to take significant measures, including the wearing of tactical safety gear and a minimal use of pepper balls and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd and to protect themselves and others while clearing the area."

After several protesters were arrested following the brief occupation of a building on Fordham’s campus in New York, the feeling for some is one of relief.“After seeing what happened last night at other universities in the city, I’m just relieved nobody was hurt,” one Fordham sophomore who preferred to remain anonymous said.

“Things were mostly peaceful anyway - but the protest here wrapped up pretty quickly once the police moved in.”There are still barricades and NYPD officers hanging around nearly the whole block where the protesters had assembled earlier - but only a few students with protest signs have remained in the area.

I'm just off the phone with Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student who has been among the leading negotiators with the university.

He was suspended yesterday.

Today, however, Khalil received a surprising message: it was abruptly reversed.

"[They said] that after reviewing the evidence, they don't have any evidence to suspend," he said.

"It shows how random the suspension was. They sent similar emails to a couple of other people as well."

Khalil, a Palestinian international student who was born in raised in Syria, said that the thought of suspension had "been stressful", given that his visa in the US is dependent on his status as a student.

"They did that randomly, and without due process," he added.

Asked where he thinks the Columbia protest movement will go now, Khalil predicted that "there will be more actions, and more students joining the movement."

"We have two weeks until the end of the semester," he said. "Students will use these two weeks to continue that activism, protesting the war in Gaza and Columbia's involvement....suspensions and probation have not stopped anyone. I don't see how bringing in the police will stop the movement."

BBC News/ Tom BatemanCopyright: BBC News/ Tom Bateman

The protesters have now gathered outside of one of the main university buildings, where they've resumed a rally with chants of "free Palestine". They're clearly defiant.

Officials are trying to urge demonstrators not to get arrested.

Dov Waxman, a professor of Israel studies at UCLA, was sickened by the scenes on his campus last night - when a violent pro-Israeli group attacked a pro-Palestinian protest camp with no apparent police intervention.

"I couldn't imagine that things would have gotten that bad, to extend to the kind of anarchy we saw, but I wasn't entirely shocked by it," he says.

Like others, Waxman does not believe the perpetrators were from the UCLA community. Outside agitators, he says, are making it even harder for college administrators to navigate their response to what's happening on their campuses.

But as a long-time scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he also worries that the current moment is further alienating people like him who seek to promote dialogue and understanding between the two sides.

Organisations involved in planning these protests have celebrated Hamas' violence against Israel and their demands often go far beyond an anti-war protest, he warns, effectively "exploiting the sympathy that many students rightly feel for the suffering of Palestinians".

"We need to be promoting dialogue and civil conversations, and educating students in a way that actually helps deepen their understanding of the history of the conflict and of Israel," he said.

"Right now, on both sides of the issue, many students are in distress and feeling beleaguered. We need to be doing that now on our campus because this conflict is spilling over now all around the world."

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has released a statement following the violent clash on campus overnight.

The college said the confrontation resulted in multiple injuries. Over 30 people were arrested.

"I want to express my sincere sympathy to those who were injured last night, and to all those who have been harmed or have feared for their safety in recent days," Chancellor Gene Block said. "No-one at this university should have to encounter such violence."

"I also want to acknowledge the trauma and heartache this has brought to our full campus.

"We are still gathering information about the attack on the encampment last night, and I can assure you that we will conduct a thorough investigation that may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals."

The US House of Representatives has just passed an antisemitism bill, called the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

It seeks to require the US Department of Education to define antisemitism based on the definition used by the International Holocaust Rememembrance alliance, and cuts off funding to schools found to allow antisemitic behaviors.

This includes "rhetorical and physical manifestations” of antisemitism, like calling for the killing or harming of Jews, as well as holding Jews at-large responsible for the state of Israel's actions.

However, the definition has drawn criticism from First Amendment supporters.

The bill’s chances of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate remain unclear.

Police have begun arresting protesters occupying a building at Fordham University, according to reports.

New York media on Wednesday evening showed pictures of heavily armoured police in riot gear pushing through barricades to access the campus in the Bronx.

Protesters did not resist arrest, according to the New York Times.

NYPD officials told NBC News that they were there at the request of the university.

It is unclear how many protesters have been arrested.

The press conference from Columbia officials has now ended.

Stay with us for more updates.

Tuesday's turn of events filled members of the university community, including Columbia president Minouche Shafik, with "deep sadness", Chang said during the presser.

"These are acts of destruction, not political speech," Chang said of the occupation of Hamilton Hall.

Ben Chang, vice-president for Columbia University's office of public affairs, is now briefing the press.

Hamilton Hall continues to be an active crime scene being investigated by the NYPD.

Chang says campus was calm today.

Columbia officials will address media after more than 100 arrests on Tuesday night on campus.

We'll be bringing you their comments.

BBCCopyright: BBC

We're here in Dallas at the University of Texas at a peaceful protest where about 150 to 200 protesters were chanting, singing and waving flags.

The university administration then handed out a notice telling protesters the tent and the encampment they had created had to be removed immediately because they're in breach of university protocol.

We then saw state troopers armed with batons, with zip ties and in riot gear, who then began to move in on this encampment in waves.

They forced down the barricades that protesters had put up and they're ripping down gazebos and tents at the moment.

Some protesters were then forcibly taken down by the state authorities.

The effect of the state troopers has utterly changed the mood. There's a lot of anger now and chants of "shame of you", "where were you in Uvalde" and "why are you in riot gear" are now echoing in Dallas.

We're on the ground in Dallas and will keep you updated.

Fordham University has informed student protesters that they will receive an “interim suspension” following “serious violations” of the university’s policies, according to NBC News.

The New York Times reports that there is a police presence at the scene of the college in New York.

Fliers were distributed telling protesters to leave the property immediately.

The university said it was also immediately suspending students from on-campus housing, classes, final exams and all events, including senior week and commencement, according to NBC News.

The interim suspension will take effect “between the date of this letter and the final resolution of your case”.

BBC News has reached out to Fordham University for comment.

Dozens of college campuses across the US have been taken over by students protesting against the war in Gaza.

At many universities, students are demanding that their schools financially divest -- or cut financial ties -- from Israel.

Some student activists say that companies doing business in Israel or with Israeli organisations are complicit in its ongoing war in Gaza. Thus, they argue that colleges become complicit to the war when they invest in those same companies.

Here at the University of Texas at Dallas, protesters have just been handed a notice by the university administration telling them “tents and structures must be removed immediately”.

There are around 200 protesters gathered among around a dozen tents and gazebos.

The notice has been read out by a demonstrator on a loudspeaker, leading to a big up-swell in chants and the raising of Palestinian flags - the protesters appear defiant.

None of the tents are being removed.

“It’s a right to rebel - admin go to hell,” they are chanting.

A large firetruck and several police vehicles are nearby.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been scathing about President Biden and the Democratic Party establishment's handling of the war in Gaza, but that does not mean they have a friend in Donald Trump.

The former president praised the action of New York police officers in clearing an occupied building on the Columbia campus – and he called university leadership “so weak”.

Today, the Republican nominee returned to the campaign trail for major rallies for the first time since his hush-money trial in New York began.

Speaking an event centre outside Milwaukee, he accused protesters of being radical supporters of Hamas, and claimed that support for the protests was artificial.

Most of his supporters seem to share Trump’s disgust at what’s happening on college campuses.

“I’d shut them down,” said James Cowles, 50, who lives nearby.

“They are illegal, and they just need to stop them from happening.”