As Gaza protests spread at US universities, House Speaker Johnson suggests calling in National Guard
- Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of US campus protests against Gaza war grows
- House Speaker Mike Johnson said US president should take action, that National Guard may be needed
Spiralling pro-Palestinian protests that are rocking universities across the United States spread to more campuses, triggering suggestions from a senior Republican leader that the National Guard could be brought in.
The comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson are likely to evoke strong emotions in a country where the 1970 killing by National Guardsmen of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam war lives on in folk memory.
Demonstrations erupted at the University of Southern California on Wednesday, and in Texas, where a tense stand-off developed between students and police in riot gear, with more than 20 people detained.
It was the latest confrontation between law enforcement and students angry at the mounting death toll in Israel’s war against Hamas.
The movement began at Columbia University in New York where dozens of arrest were made last week after university authorities called in police to quell an occupation that Jewish students said was threatening and antisemitic.
Johnson told reporters at Columbia on Wednesday that if the demonstrations were not contained quickly it would be “an appropriate time for the National Guard”.