Roughly 50 state troopers in riot gear arrived on the scene, seven of which were on horseback, to block the students’ path to the lawn, according to the college’s student newspaper. The Palestine Solidarity Committee, an organization “dedicated to organizing for Palestinian liberation and right to return,” with a location in Austin, posted its plans to establish “the Popular University” at the UT Austin campus on Wednesday. The protest came days after Abbott posted on Twitter about the protests at Ivy League universities like Columbia, saying, “Ivy League universities are showing that their time has passed. They are little more than monuments of our past. Now they are accomplices of the chaos they helped to sow.” Protests have been occurring on college campuses since Israel launched its war in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack, which killed about 1,200 people and left about 250 others taken hostage. Since then, Israel has killed at least 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, the Associated Press has reported, citing local health officials.
Texas State Troopers Block Student Protest Against Israel at UT Austin
