Biden keeps quiet as arrests, evictions continue on US campuses

President Joe Biden is staying mum about student protests and police crackdowns as Republicans try to turn campus unrest over the war in Gaza into a campaign cudgel against Democrats.

Tension at colleges and universities has been building for days as some demonstrators refuse to remove encampments and administrators turn to law enforcement to clear them by force, leading to clashes that have seized attention from politicians and the media.

But Biden's last public comment came more than a week ago, when he condemned "antisemitic protests” and "those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

The White House, which has been peppered with questions by reporters, has gone only slightly further than the president. On Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is "monitoring the situation closely," and she said some demonstrations had stepped over a line that separated free speech from unlawful behavior.

Meanwhile, police tore down a protest encampment at the University of Texas on Wednesday, arresting more than a dozen people, as unrest over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza simmered on US campuses.

Officers also detained several people at Fordham University in New York and cleared an encampment set up inside a school building, officials said, and law enforcement were on standby at Columbia University across town after mass arrests the previous evening.

Supporters of the pro-Palestinian protesters sit on stairs leading to an encampment in Los Angeles, California. AFP

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology protesters dug in, blocking an avenue near the center of the campus in Cambridge during the height of Wednesday afternoon's rush hour commute.

And dozens of police cars patrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles in response to violent clashes overnight when counter-protesters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian students.

The University of Texas Dallas saw police remove an encampment and arrest at least 17 people for "criminal trespass," the school said.

Demonstrators have gathered in at least 30 US universities since last month, often erecting tent encampments to protest the soaring death toll in the Gaza Strip.

But the sight of helmeted officers at two of America's most prestigious universities left some students dismayed.

People pray at an encampment on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday. AFP

"I don't think we should have a heavy police force on campus," UCLA student Mark Torre, 22, told AFP as he surveyed the scene from behind metal barriers.

"But more and more, day by day, I think it's a necessary evil, to at least keep safety on campus."

At Columbia and at the City University of New York, where police cleared out demonstrators overnight, some students decried the police behavior.

"We were assaulted, brutally arrested. And I was held for up to six hours before being released, pretty banged up, got stomped on, got cut up," one CUNY student who gave his name only as Jose told AFP.

A medical student offering treatment to detainees as they were released described a litany of injuries.

"We've seen things like severe head traumas, concussions, someone was knocked unconscious in the encampment by police, someone was thrown down the stairs," said the student, who gave her name as Isabel.

A person cheers as pro-Palestinian students and activists extend their encampment in Cambridge, Massachusetts. AFP

About 300 arrests were made at Columbia and CUNY, Police Commissioner Edward Caban said.

Mayor Eric Adams blamed "outside agitators" for ratcheting up tensions. Columbia students have denied outsiders were involved.

University president Minouche Shafik, who has come under fire over her decision to call in police, said the turn of events "filled me with deep sadness."

"I am sorry we reached this point," she said in a statement.

Wave of unrest

The protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints of criminal activity, anti-Semitism and hate speech.

The administration of President Joe Biden -- whose support for Israel has outraged many protesters -- has also tried to walk that line.

Faculty from the University of Texas Austin gather to condemn “scholasticide” in Gaza, in Austin, Texas. AFP

"We believe it's a small number of students who are causing this disruption, and if they're going to protest, Americans have the right to do it in a peaceful way within the law," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Biden's rival in the November election, Donald Trump, voiced his full-throated support for the police response at Columbia.

"It was a beautiful thing to watch. New York's finest," he told a rally in Wisconsin.

"To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students."

'Unlawful assembly'

Late Tuesday, police entered Columbia's campus and climbed into Hamilton Hall -- barricaded by protesters -- via a second-floor window before leading out people in handcuffs. They also cleared the large tent encampment.

In Los Angeles, counter-protesters sprayed chemical substances onto the pro-Palestinian encampment and attempted to tear down wooden boards and metal barricades before police eventually arrived.

Pro-Palestinian protesters hold a rally on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday. AFP

On Wednesday, students on loudspeakers called for demonstrators to keep going at a camp blocking the entrance to one of the school's main libraries, which bore graffiti reading: "Free Gaza."

Elsewhere, police moved in at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and arrested several protesters, TV footage showed.

At the University of Arizona, police said they used "chemical irritant munitions" to disperse "an unlawful assembly."

The Gaza war started when Hamas fighters staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The Hamas fighters also took about 250 hostages.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Agencies