AUSTIN, Texas — Pro-Palestinian protests continued at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday, but with a much different atmosphere than the previous day's event.
There was a noticeably smaller law enforcement presence on campus while hundreds hundreds of students, faculty and supporters from the community rallied together to condemn the actions the university took at Wednesday’s protest.
Organizers said that the rally was always intended to be peaceful.
“Yesterday would have been more peaceful and maybe even more utopic, in a sense. We would have been sitting on the lawn, having snacks, study breaks, educating each other, making posters. This was the plan,” Hadi, a UT student, said.
Hadi is a member of the student group Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) and didn’t share his last name due to safety concerns.
He said the protest was peaceful until law enforcement was called in.
“The police decided to escalate and bring the state troop[ers] and bring riot gear and bring batons and mace,” Hadi said.
Ahead of the protest, university officials said that the rally organizers lacked the proper permits for the event.
Raneem, a leader of PSC who also opted not to provide her last name, said the organizers cooperated with police. She said one of the PSC's members got protesters to disperse.
“Almost half of our protesters had left and gone to class. When he was expressing that, the cops just just grabbed him and arrested him,” Raneem said. “They kept escalating and escalating and escalating, until more and more students were put under extreme harm and danger.”
UT faculty members supporting the students' cause said the university's reaction wasn't right.
“I'm outraged, yeah. It really flies in the face of everything we stand for everyday in the classroom in terms of teaching the free exchange of ideas. That's what the class room is supposed to do,” Kit Belgum, a Germanic professor who's taught for 30 years, said.
Pavithra Vasudevan, an associate professor of African Diaspora Studies, was one of the organizers leading the rally and said the university met their attempt at a peaceful gathering with violence and took away their First Amendment rights.
“We are not allowed on this campus to express any sentiment or emotion about an ongoing genocide, and that is a repression that we can no longer tolerate,” Vasudevan said.
The PSC said because of the violence that happened, it has demands for the university.
“The resignation of [UT President] Jay Hartzell, who has administered and brought these violent forces onto our campus and repressed our student voice and our first amendment to speak,” Raneem said.
Other demands the PSC asked for were for all charges of those arrested to be dropped, for the university to cut ties with businesses that support Israel and to give amnesty to their group.
That’s because they maintain that things were always supposed to be peaceful.
“Police presence is no problem,” Hadi said. “There's a police presence here today, but they did not come in with the cavalry. They did not come in with riot gear, with mace. Look how peaceful everybody is. [...} There’s even counter-protesters, and there was no escalation between us. This is our goal, is peace. Our goal is love.”
UT said in a statement that there was significant participation from non-university groups that looked to cause disruption. Over half of those arrested Wednesday were from outside groups. UT said several pro-Palestine protests have happened on campus without incident.
Below is the university's full statement:
“Wednesday’s protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee sought to follow the playbook of the national campaign to paralyze the operations of universities across the country. Like at each of those universities, and confirming our serious concern, there was significant participation by outside groups present on our campus yesterday. This outside group presence is what we’ve seen from the affiliated national organization’s efforts to disrupt and create disorder. Roughly half (26) of the 55 people who violated Institutional Rules and were ultimately arrested were unaffiliated with The University of Texas. Thirteen pro-Palestinian free speech events have taken place at the University largely without incident since October. In contrast, this one in particular expressed an intent to disrupt the campus and directed participants to break Institutional Rules and occupy the University, consistent with national patterns.”
Organizers said on Monday, they will hold a silent vigil to speak out against the mass-firing of 60 UT faculty members associated with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices. They say the vigil will be held at the UT Tower at noon.