Pro-Palestinian protests have happened at UT before. How are the new ones different?

At the University of Texas, pro-Palestinian protesters have joined demonstrators at universities across the nation in calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and for their schools to divest from Israel. Two of these protests at UT have resulted in 136 individuals being arrested.

But from the demonstration on April 24, when 57 people were arrested, to another five days later, when 79 were jailed, the protests have dramatically shifted in tone, crowd, attention and severity. Compared with the initial protests, which at times broke university rules, multiple people interviewed by the American-Statesman described the more recent demonstrations as an escalation — pointing to heightened police presence, more arrests, outside groups influencing the events and a shift in language that some say is antisemitic.

Almost 20 pro-Palestinian events at UT since Oct. 7 — including several sit-ins on the campus lawn over the past week and a protest led by faculty members supportive of the student-registered Palestine Solidarity Committee on April 25 — happened without police interference. Police were called in for the April 24 and Monday protests due to safety concerns, the university has said. Both protests were unauthorized by UT and broke university rules, school officials said.

Protesters have blamed the escalation in intensity in the demonstrations to an increased police presence, but UT places blame on “outside” groups and a national pattern of similar protests disturbing university operations.

What happened at the UT protests?

On April 24, the Palestine Solidarity Committee planned to march from Gregory Gym to the South Mall, where protesters would "occupy the lawn" in solidarity with other universities such as Columbia University and Yale University where students formed encampments and faced arrest.

For the UT protesters, their demands are not new . In a walkout Nov. 9, also held with other chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, students demanded a cease-fire in Gaza and for the university divest from Israel. More than 30,000 people have been reportedly killed as Israel continues bombarding Gaza in response to a deadly Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group.

“We were just as peaceful as we were, we were asking for the same things, we were doing the same things, except now there's a huge police response,” said Mia Cisco, a UT junior who was arrested after the April 24 protest and spoke to the Statesman outside the Travis County Jail on Tuesday.

What was new was the intent to "occupy the lawn." The term "encampment" was notably absent from the initial post about the April 24 protest, and protesters had said they had hoped to hold educational events on the lawn as a "popular university for Gaza."

"Our university will not be occupied," UT President Jay Hartzell said in an April 24 email to campus after that protest, saying the university enforced its rules as it had said it would.

UT spokesperson Mike Rosen told the Statesman that 11 institutional rules were broken at the April 24 and Monday protests, including people erecting tents to establish an encampment; shoving staff; bringing items for "use as weapons;" failing to comply with city and state laws, such as criminal trespass or obstructing a roadway; wearing face coverings; and not complying with directives.

Dispersal orders — which UT issued during the April 24 and Monday protests after officials determined university rules had been broken and which preceded arrests at both demonstrations — were not given at other rallies on campus, Rosen said.

All charges for those arrested April 24 were dropped . It remains unclear how those arrested Monday will fare.

Cisco said she observed another "escalation" in police response Monday, after dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters formed a surprise encampment made of several tents barricaded by tables after several days of quiet sit-ins on the lawn. After police arrested all those in the encampment, protester confrontations with officers broke out nearby at 22nd and Guadalupe streets — the Statesman witnessed a protester slash a police car’s tires, and separately officers used pepper spray, though the Statesman did not see what prompted the pepper spray's use.

On Tuesday evening, UT said in a statement that weapons were confiscated from protesters Monday, including guns, rocks and bricks. Rosen said weapons were not found at other demonstrations on campus, and he declined to clarify where, when and on whom the guns were found. On Friday, UT told the Statesman that its police department plans to file "at least one" felony charge for gun possession in relation to a Monday's protest.

Alex Blum, a Jewish UT alum who runs a startup in Austin and has been involved in activism in the city since 2012 with a variety of movements, said he has become an organizer for protests after Monday's demonstration. He said the university's response misconstrued what happened.

"We had objects to hold down pamphlets, flyers and tarps, so those are the strategically placed rocks," Blum said of the weapons UT said it found on campus, adding that some of the supplies the university mentioned were used to erect tents and not intended for violence.

"The most recent statement from the University of Texas was completely miscast," Blum said.

Contrary to other pro-Palestinian protests on campus, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, which UT has placed on an interim suspension after the April 24 protest for allegedly violating university rules, did not organize Monday's demonstration. An anonymous news release was distributed to some media outlets Monday that said protesters had renamed the university lawn as the "UT Liberated Zone." No group claimed to be the event's organizer, and the media contact on the news release did not respond to Statesman questions or requests for clarity.

Rosen said 45 of the 79 people arrested Monday were not UT students. Similarly, about half of those arrested April 24 were not UT students.

Blum said the movement is "formless and shapeless and leaderless," which he said models other movements and will help them succeed.

"The narrative that this is being directed by shadowy forces is a harmful one," Blum said, adding that the movement is persisting despite the suspension of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee. "This is an organic movement."

Concerns of antisemitism at UT?

Since the Israel-Hamas war ignited Oct. 7, both Jewish and Palestinian students have raised safety concerns on campus . But for some Jewish community members, the recent pro-Palestinian protests have intensified safety fears as they say the language being used in the demonstrations is causing harm.

"There's been other protests and events on campus, but we have not seen this level of harmful violent language and symbols being used," said Barri Seitz, a Jewish first-year UT student who is vice president of Longhorn Students for Israel, a student group that launched in April.

Seitz said she has been cyberbullied online and has seen threatening signs on campus.

On Monday, protesters chanted "Intifada Revolution" and "Long Live the Intifada," around the time police surrounded the encampment, recalling periods of violence against Israeli and Jewish people, Seitz said. There have also been chants of "From the river to the sea," which Seitz said is a call for the removal of Jewish people from Israel.

Blum, who said intifada comes from the Arabic word for uprising, said the chant "From the river to the sea," which he's heard in videos at some national protests (and the Statesman heard at Monday's protest at UT), is more complicated.

"The only thing that's clearly racist that I've heard is 'From the river to the sea,'" Blum said. "I have grace for ignorant students who don't really know what they're saying."

Blum said he has faced discrimination for being Jewish, but not at these protests. But to him, protesting for Palestine is living out his Jewish values of healing and justice.

The April 24 and Monday protests also happened over Passover, a major Jewish holiday commemorating when Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Stephanie Max, executive director and a rabbi for Texas Hillel, said she and many in the Jewish community are exhausted.

“The intensity of this moment definitely feels different than the earlier part of the year,” Max said. “The loudest voices are getting a lot of attention. They are not representative of the broader campus community, but when those voices are amplified, it's scary for Jewish students and the Jewish community.”

'Less scared of the repercussions'

Max said the UT protests are different from national responses because the university is not letting protesters break rules.

“We have an administration that is standing up for its students and is working hard to keep them safe,” Max said. “We don’t want to be a stumbling block for the university as they work to keep our students and our whole university safe.”

But Cisco said she thinks more people are taking a stand, and that the pro-Palestinian movement seems to be following patterns from the 2020 social justice protests.

“I think more people are less scared of the repercussions because it matters that we take a stand, and it doesn't really matter what the repercussions are anymore,” Cisco said.

A planned pro-Palestinian demonstration at UT, which was scheduled for last Wednesday, has been rescheduled to Sunday, but smaller sit-in rallies on the campus lawn have been held, Blum said.

UT has said it will continue to enforce its rules, but undeterred pro-Palestinian protesters have said their fight is not over.

"Whether or not we can solve the war overseas, we can put pressure on our universities to stop investing in that war," Blum said. "And so I think it's a realistic goal."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Pro-Palestinian protests have happened at UT before. How are the new ones different?