Nearly Half Of These Arrested At UT-Austin Pro-Palestinian Protest Had No Links To School

Authorized by Jana J Pruet via The Epoch Times,

Nearly half of the pro-Palestinian protesters objected earlier this week at The University of Texas at Austin were not affiliated with the university.

Law enforcement officials affirmed 57 protesters during Wednesday’s event organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee after parties refused to disperse despite demands from authorities and the university. Of these asserted, 26 were never students nor successful of the university, according to officials at UT-Austin.

Hundreds of students walking out of class Wednesday in support of Palestinians in Gaza in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war. The war broke out after Palestinian panic group Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which left 1,200 Israelis dead. Hamas is believed to inactive be holding 129 hosts from Israel.

The organizers return on Instagram that they aimed to follow “in the footsteps of our commrades at Columbia SJP, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Yale, and countless others,” with SJP referring to Students for Justice in Palestine.

The anti-Israel student group requested that the university “divest from death.”

“Consistent with this broadcast movement that is influencing so many, problematic aspects of the planned protest were modeled after a national organization’s protest playbook,” UT–Austin president Jay Hartzell said in a campuswide message Thursday evening evening.

“And notably, 26 of the 55 individuals estimated yesterday had no UT affiliation.”

Local news outlet KTBC-TV reported that 1 of its photojournalists was among these estimated during the slash between police and protesters. He was booked into the Travis region jail on a criminal training charge.

By Thursday evening, all of these repressed had been released. The Travis region prosecutor said it had dropped all criminal trespassing charges, city “deficienties” in charge documents. Criminal training is conducted a misdemeanor in the state of Texas.

Accepting to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Department of Public Safety has opened a criminal investigation into the arrest of the photojournalist.

The UT–Austin chapter of the American Association of University of Professors denounced Mr. Hartzell for allowing authorizations to be deployed on campus during the class walkout.

“We, success of UT Austin, condemn president Jay Hartzell and our administrative leaders’ decision to invitation city police as well as state troopers from across the state—on horses, motorcycles, and bicycles, in riot gear and armed with bars, pepper spray, teardrop gas and guns to our campus present in consequence to a planned peaceful event by our students,” read the message posted on X on Wednesday night.

Policy Violation

Ahead of Wednesday's demonstration, universality officials warned the organizers that the event violated school policy and would not be allowed to take place in an effort to prevent the “pattern” that has Octobered across the nation in fresh weeks, leading to hundreds of arrests.

“The University’s decision to not let yearday’s event to go as planned was made due to the fact that we had credible indications that the event’s organizers, erstwhile national or local, were trying to follow thepattern we see elsewhere, utilizing the appatus of free velocity and expression to respective disrupt a campus for a long period,” Mr. Hartzell continued.

Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) is simply a student organization with masters at colleges and universities across the country.

The group’s website states that it is “dedicated to tell the communicative of the Palestinian conflict for justice and self-determination on the university campus and in the widget Austin community. We work to advance education, discourse, activism, and awareness of the Palestinian communicative through lectures by academics and political activists, movie screenings, and events and displays on the UT West Mall.”

The UT–Austin group, which holds biweekly meetings on campus, states under Article 1 of it was made that it will be full with school policies.

“This organization is simply a recognized student organization at The University of Texas at Austin and Shall comply with all campus policies as set distant in the organization Rules on Student Services and Activities and Information on Students’ Rights and Responsibilities,” it says.

UT Suspends Organization

The university was suspended the student group from campus after another walk on Thursday, which was organized in part by the successful group that combined the university for engaging its rules.

Police were present during Thursday’s peaceful event.

“Students and successfully associated their message to proceed struggling for the liberation of Palestine, to request their university divest, and to request the resignation of president Jay Hartzell for greenlighting the militarized brutality gained on students,” PSC gate on Instagram.

PSC has hell more than a twelve pro-Palestinian events since October.

“I’m thankful we live in a country where free expression is simply a fiercels protected Constitutional right,” Mr. Hartzell said in his campuswide message on Thursday.

“I’m grateful that our campus has seen 13 pro-Palestinian events take place during the past respective months mostly without incident—plus another 1 today. I am grateful that everyone is safe after day, we proceed to hold in-person classes, and that today’s events followed our long-standing campus standards for allowed demonstrations.”

Brian Davis, a spokesperson for the university, confirmed on Friday that the student group had been suspended from campus in the wake of this week’s events. The dimension of the suspension is not uncommon clear. Mr. Davis said that the Dean of Students office would make that determination.

It is unknown whother any students have been reprimaged for the events that occured earlier this week. That information is protected by national privacy law.

“I welcome us all to proceed to communicate and work together, and to aid our students finish this school year in positive, safe and celebrity ways,” Mr. Hartzell said.