Speaker Mike Johnson calls for resignation of Columbia president
In remarks outside of the Low Library at Columbia University, Speaker Mike Johnson and his colleagues from the House called for university President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik to resign over her handling of the dayslong protests at the Ivy League school and her inability to protect Jewish students on campus.
Johnson, R-La., said he is “calling on President Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”
The announcement came moments after Johnson and fellow members of Congress met with Jewish students at Columbia, who recalled recent "heinous acts of bigotry" and instances of antisemitism on campus, the lawmakers said.
When Johnson took the podium outside the library, he was met with a chorus of boos from protesters gathered nearby. Throughout his speech, the protesters chanted, "We can't hear you," among other sentiments, to continually disrupt his remarks.
Johnson acknowledged the inalienable rights students in America have, but he called out the need to keep all students safe and said, "Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested."
He said Congress "will not be silent" as Jewish students are "expected to run for their lives" and forced to stay home from class and attend virtually to ensure their safety.
Asked what he has to say to the students in the encampment at Columbia, Johnson said, "Go back to class and stop the madness," adding that they "can't intimidate fellow students and make them stay home from class."
Earlier today, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she didn't see the benefit of Johnson's visit to Columbia.
"I think politicizing this and bringing the entourage to put a spotlight on this is only adding to the division,” Hochul said. "A speaker worth the title should really be trying to heal people and not divide them, so I don’t think it adds to anything."
Indian traditional dances performed inside Columbia encampment
South Asian students in Columbia University's encampment are using traditional dance from the subcontinent to show solidarity with the protesters. Viral videos show Punjabi students performing bhangra in the middle of the tents, which have been set up at the campus for days, even following controversial mass arrests.
Columbia's renowned bhangra team has a 20-year history on campus. Other students at the protest performed bharatnatyam, a dance style native to South India.
The video went viral, reached Indian Americans across the country.
"This made me cry," a comment said. "My grandmother lived through the British occupation of India. She was classically trained in bharatnatyam dance and Carnatic music."
Campus police raiding USC encampment protest
Police responded to the encampment protest and were seen taking down tents at the University of Southern California this afternoon — hours after student activists started their demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Video shared by the activist group People’s City Council — Los Angeles showed USC Public Safety officers dismantling a tent on the Los Angeles campus.
Other video shared by a local ABC affiliate reporter showed a group of police officers pushing back protesters and one officer running after a protester and pinning him against a tree, as demonstrators clamored, “Let go of him!”
The USC Department of Public Safety issued an alert saying, “There is significant activity at the center of the UPC campus due to a demonstration.”
Netanyahu denounces U.S. college protests
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the college protests taking place across the U.S., saying in a speech today: “What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific.”
Netanyahu described the pro-Palestinian encampments and protests expressing solidarity with the plight of the people in Gaza as “antisemitic mobs” taking over “leading universities.”
“It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally. But that’s not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful,” Netanyahu said.
Many of the protests on campuses have been peaceful, though there have been reports of unruly behavior by outside parties on the periphery of such demonstrations.
Some Jewish students who joined protests at elite universities expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause say their own stories of being Jewish anti-Zionists are being ignored.
Police respond to protest on UT Austin campus
Police are responding to a divestment rally in solidarity with Palestinians unfolding at the University of Texas at Austin campus this afternoon, school police said.
Several students have been arrested, NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin reported.
The school paper, The Daily Texan, wrote on X that state troopers were trying to block protesters from moving north with batons, and it reported that at least two people had been arrested, one of them related to the university.
Uniformed troopers, some with horses, marched through the demonstration area as hordes of students and protesters chanted, “Off our campus!”
The Palestine Solidarity Committee of Austin shared a photo of dozens of troopers dressed in riot gear with vests, shin guards and helmets and holding batons standing on the Speedway Mall of campus.
About 200 students who had gathered for the afternoon rally were immediately met with heavy police and trooper presence that dispersed the crowds, KXAN reported.
Columbia University vows not to call NYPD, National Guard on protesters, student group says
Columbia University's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine says the university has issued a “written commitment and concession not to call the NYPD or the National Guard” on protesters — a move hailed as “an important victory for students.”
The group said that the administration had previously warned of law enforcement sweeps and “threatened violence” against pupils, causing negotiations to fail and prompting “thousands of peaceful students” to flood the lawns “in support of their peers” last night.
“Student protesters on Columbia’s campus — the majority of whom are Palestinian, Black, brown, and Jewish students from marginalized backgrounds — stood by each other for hours last night, awaiting the outcome of Columbia’s disturbing threat of military or police violence,” the group said. Columbia extended its deadline for students to vacate the lawn multiple times last night.
“We fear that Columbia is risking a second Jackson State or Kent State massacre, referring to two instances in which universities called the National Guard on student protesters to have them violently beaten and killed,” the group said.
Rudy Giuliani heckled at Columbia University protest
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stopped near a Columbia University protest yesterday, where he spoke to some people through his car window, and was heckled.
Giuliani, who served as part of Donald Trump's legal team when he was in office, remained in a black SUV, donning an American-flag themed shirt.
"Lock him up! Lock him up!" a heckler was heard yelling. "Rudy Giuliani! Go to jail! New York hates you! The Yankees hate you!"
Jewish peace activist calls for 'exodus from Zionism'
Peace and environmental activist Naomi Klein, who is Jewish, joined hundreds of antiwar demonstrators outside New York Sen. Chuck Schumer's home Tuesday night for an "emergency" Seder.
Addressing the crowd, Klein said Zionism has become a "false idol" and said calling for an end to the war in Gaza is not antisemitic. Read the full text of her speech here.
Here's an excerpt:
"Our Judaism cannot be contained by an ethnostate, for our Judaism is internationalist by nature.
Our Judaism cannot be protected by the rampaging military of that state, for all that military does is sow sorrow and reap hatred — including against us as Jews.
Our Judaism is not threatened by people raising their voices in solidarity with Palestine across lines of race, ethnicity, physical ability, gender identity and generations.
Our Judaism is one of those voices and knows that in that chorus lies both our safety and our collective liberation."
House Speaker will call for Columbia University's president to resign
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R- La., said he’ll call for Columbia University’s President Minouche Shafik to resign when he visits campus today.
“This president, Shafik, has shown to be a very weak, inept leader. They cannot even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? They’re expected to run for their lives and stay home from class? It’s just, it’s maddening. What we’re seeing on these college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable,” Johnson said in a morning interview with conservative political commentator and radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Columbia's campus has seen encampment protests since last week and controversial mass arrests.
Johnson is set to meet with Jewish students a 3 p.m. and hold a news conference at 3:45 p.m. today.
University of Southern California launches encampment protest
The University of Southern California in Los Angeles was the latest school to start a solidarity encampment protest today.
A statement shared online from the USC Divest from Death Coalition, comprising students, faculty and Los Angeles community members, said “Our choice of ‘occupation’ draws attention to the complicity of USC in the Israeli occupation, USC’s displacement of the South Central community, and USC being an occupying force on the unneeded land of the Tongva people.”
The group said it was joining the nationwide call by students for universities to disclose their finances, "divest from Israeli violence" and "defend Palestinians."