During a heated campus tour, House Speaker Mike Johnson was heckled by demonstrators

During a heated campus tour, House Speaker Mike Johnson was heckled by demonstrators

A heated visit to Columbia University resulted in heckling of the head of the US House of Representatives, as demonstrations against the Gaza War continue to grow on US college campuses.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said that Columbia authorities were no longer in charge of the situation.

He demanded that Nemat Shafik, the university president, resign.

Police engaged in combat with pro-Palestinian student demonstrators in Texas and California, resulting in arrests in Austin.

Pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia also demanded that Ms. Shafik resign due to the police response to the demonstrations.

Following a short discussion with Ms. Shafik, Mr. Johnson and several Republican legislators attended a press conference at Columbia on Wednesday afternoon.

The Speaker of the House rejected claims that the demonstrations qualified as free expression under the law. He said that despite worries about antisemitism on and around campus, Columbia had done nothing to safeguard Jewish students and to bring order back to the school.

"This poses a risk," said Mr. Johnson. "We respect free speech, we welcome diversity of ideas, but there is an occasion to do that in a lawful manner and that's not what this is."

"My message to those pupils inside the encampment is go out to class and stop the nonsense," he said.

Throughout his speech, the demonstrators, some of whom were standing behind a metal barrier a few feet away from the platform, chanted, jeered, and cried, "We can't hear you."

Additionally, Mr. Johnson brought up the potential of calling in National Guard troops—a move that Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul of New York stated she had no intention of doing.

A week ago, students at an Ivy League institution in Manhattan established a protest campsite.

When the university requested that New York City police remove the camp on April 18, authorities made around 100 arrests.

Later thereafter, protestors made their way back to the area with additional signs and tents.

Negotiations on the size of the camp are now underway between protest organizers and university authorities, with plans to go on until Thursday.

Concerns about safety have also given students the option to take lessons online.

Columbia demonstrators promise to stay until their demands are satisfied.

Columbia political science professor Page Fortna told the BBC that she had seen many "highly objectionable" actions during the demonstrations, such as the tearing of an Israeli flag from a student's hand and "extremely problematic" remarks.

Ms. Fortna said, however, that she had not seen any acts of physical violence against Jewish students on campus as well as Mr. Johnson and other Republican politicians had "exaggerated" claims of pervasive antisemitism."There's a real difference in the tone of the conversation without the gates, and what's truly taking place on campus," she said.

During this week's interviews, several protestors said that instances of harassment directed at Jewish students were few and exaggerated by those who were against their requests.

Authorities from New York City police and schools have also said that "outside agitators" started the demonstrations.

On Wednesday, a masked demonstrator shouted insults and derogatory remarks at students while standing on a street corner outside the university.His comments "cheapened" their efforts, many protest camp supporters promptly challenged him. A Baltimore resident who traveled to New York to support the demonstrators, Caroline Daisy, stated, "This is really detrimental to the movement."

"This is not an antisemitic ideology but outside protesters are a different story sometimes."

A number of Jewish students voiced their worries about a dangerous campus climate on Wednesday.

Israeli Columbia student Guy Sela, a former Israel Defense Forces soldier, told the BBC that he thought "every Israeli Jewish student" has experienced "at least one antisemitic act" at the school since the demonstration started, whether it be verbal or violent.

"I've been threatened here, called names like murderer, butcher as well as rapist, just because I was born in Israel," added the man.

A 27-year-old New Jersey master's student named Jonathan Swill informed the BBC that he had declined a spot in Columbia University's PhD program and would be relocating to Israel after graduation. He said, "I just can't stay here anymore." I don't feel comfortable here. I hate getting up and having to go to college every morning. I have no idea when I'm going to be hit by stuff."

Following the police encampment at Columbia, protests against Israel's attack in Gaza swept the nation:

The University of Texas in Austin saw demonstrators driven back by police. Gregg Abbott, the governor of Texas, said on X on Wednesday afternoon that "arrests are being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses". Twenty or so were taken into custody, the local officials said.

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles was another location where police engaged demonstrators. Following a few skirmishes, a demonstration involving 300 people seemed to be going well.

Following a demonstration, Ohio State University in Columbus detained two students.

Protesters established a camp at Harvard University on Wednesday afternoon despite efforts to keep them out. Camps were also reportedly established at MIT, Tufts, and Emerson, among other Boston-area campuses.

A camp was established at Sproul Plaza, the University of California, Berkeley, the scene of many anti-war and free speech demonstrations. Authorities at the school said that as long as the camp did not impede university activities, they would accept it.

There have also been reports of camps at many other campuses, such as the University of Michigan, the New School in Florida, as well as the University of Rochester in New York state.

Universities have been under pressure from activists to "divest from genocide" and to cease allocating large portions of their endowments to businesses that produce weapons and other sectors that aid Israel's conflict in Gaza.

Israel vehemently refutes any insinuation that it is carrying out genocide in the Palestinian enclave, notwithstanding the International Court of Justice's finding that the charge was "plausible".

The battle started on October 7, when gunmen headed by Hamas launched an unprecedented offensive on southern Israel, murdering over 1,200 people, the bulk of whom were civilians, and capturing 253 more as prisoners to return to Gaza.

Since then, over 34,180 people have died in Gaza, the most of them women and children, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas in the region.