AUSTIN: The National Guard had not been called in to tackle pro-Palestinian student rally at the University of Texas on April 24, the Texas Military Department and the university said.
According to Reuters, a senior University of Texas official stated that the National Guard had not been deployed to the campus during the protest against Israel.
Pro-Palestinian student protests have spread across universities since Columbia University administrators called in police personnel to dismantle an encampment on their campus on April 18. On April 24, the police forces at the University of Texas doused a large number of students with pepper spray and captured many of them.
An April 24 post on social media platforms, sharing a video of security personnel on horses confronting students, said: “Texas University protestors confronting National Guard.”
Violence at the 2024 student protests has raised the threat of the killing by National Guard forces of four university students protesting the American war in Vietnam at Kent State University in Ohio, on May 4, 1970.
According to the Texas Military Department, the National Guard was not present on the campus during the April 24 rally. Reuters reported that the National Guard had not been called to the campus to tackle pro-Palestinian students on April 24.
