Police in the United States have arrested dozens of protesters at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and the University of Southern California (USC) as student-led demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza intensified across the country and House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested calling in the National Guard.

The arrests on Wednesday in cities of Austin and Los Angeles came as students at Harvard University and Brown University on the east coast also defied threats of action and set up encampments in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The movement, which began at Columbia University in New York last week, is calling on universities to cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling its brutal war in Gaza. At least 34,262 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave since October 7, when fighters from Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking dozens of people captive.

The student-led protests have been peaceful and largely respectful, but have been met by heavy-handed action from many universities amid allegations of anti-Semitism.

The biggest rally on Wednesday took place at UT Austin where hundreds of students staged a walkout and marched to the campus’s main lawn, where they planned to set up an encampment. But the university said it would “not tolerate disruptions” and called in local and state police to disperse the crowds.

Hundreds of officers arrived at the scene, some on horseback. Holding batons, they charged at the crowds and forcefully arrested several students.

At least 34 were taken into custody, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, said the protesters “belong in jail” and that any students joining in what he called “hate-filled, anti-Semitic protests” should be expelled.

Jeremi Suri, who is Jewish and a professor of history at UT Austin, told Al Jazeera there was “nothing anti-Semitic” about the protests.

“These students were shouting ‘free Palestine’, that’s all,” he said. “They were saying nothing that was threatening. And as they were standing and shouting, I witnessed the police – the state police, the campus police, the city police – an army of police almost the size as the student group … many were carrying guns, many were carrying rifles, and then, within a few minutes, this group of police stormed into the student crowd and started arresting students.”

At the USC campus in Los Angeles, efforts by students to set up an encampment were also met with force.

Campus security scuffled with students as they took down tents, and dozens of police officers holding batons and wearing helmets later moved in to arrest the protesters as helicopters hovered overhead. The crackdown came after USC Provost Andrew Guzman sent a campus-wide email, saying protesters had “threatened the safety of our offices and campus community”.

Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from the university, however, said that “this protest against the war on Gaza was entirely peaceful”.

“We did not see any confrontations or harassment among the students,” he said.

Reynolds said some of the students later staged a sit-in with their arms linked.

“One by one, protesting students are being handcuffed with zip ties and led away by Los Angeles police officers, under arrest and taken away to a vehicle on the campus. They did not resist arrest and we did not see any violence on the part of the police,” he added.

The Los Angeles Police Department said some 93 people were arrested in and around the USC campus.

Jody Armour, a law professor at the university, said officials were using claims of anti-Semitism to try and silence the protests.

“We have lots of Jewish, and Muslim, and Palestinian, and Catholic like I am, Protestants too, intergenerational, coming together. Everybody should hate anti-Semitism and fight anti-Semitism, but being opposed to Israel’s slaughter in Gaza that the UN has said may plausibly be genocide, does not mean that you’re anti-Semitic, and we need to stop allowing people to weaponise anti-Semitism against real valid protests.”

‘Freedom of speech’

On the other side of the country, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hundreds of students at Harvard University set up their own encampment at Harvard Yard, despite the university closing the space and threatening “disciplinary action” against students for setting up tents without prior permission. The protesting students were calling for the institution to divest from Israel and also lift the suspension of a pro-Palestine group called the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Similar scenes played out at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

The New York Times said students there had erected some 40 tents by Wednesday afternoon, despite the university threatening “proceedings” against the students if they did not clear out.

At Columbia University in New York, meanwhile, there was an uneasy truce between students and officials.

The university, which called in police to clear an encampment last week resulting in the arrest of more than 100 students, is currently in talks with the students to dismantle the protest camp and averted another confrontation by extending a deadline for dispersal by another 48 hours.

Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House, also visited the campus to support Jewish students amid concerns of anti-Semitism, and called on Columbia President Nemat Shafik to resign “if she cannot bring order to this chaos”. Johnson, who addressed the media on the library steps near the encampment, said that “if this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard”.

He said he intended to demand US President Joe Biden “take action”, and warned that the demonstrations “place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States”.

Protesters nearby appeared to pay little attention.

“We regret that there’s no attention on this peaceful movement and politicians are diverting attention from the real issues,” said Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia who was part of the negotiations with the university’s administration about the protests although he was not staying at the camp. “This is academic freedom, this is freedom of speech.”

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, meanwhile, said Biden backed free speech.

“The president believes that free speech, debate and nondiscrimination on college campuses are important,” she told reporters.

SACRAMENTO – As protests continue to erupt across the country, Jewish leaders in Northern California say the rate of antisemitic incidents has now broken records.

Universities across the nation have become ground zero for people protesting the Isreal Hamas war.

At Columbia, classes have moved to online learning to keep students safe, barricades have gone up around New York University, and at Yale, things have reached a boiling point.

Tensions on campuses have led to concerns about harassment and safety for the schools’ Jewish communities.

“So they started taunting me and giving me their middle finger and yelling in my face. And until one of them waved his Palestinian flag in my face and then jabbed me with it in my left eye,” said Sahar Tartek, the editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press.

“It’s something that the Jewish community feels viscerally in a way that antisemitism hasn’t been felt in a long time,” Mark Levine said. 

Levine is the director of the Anti-Defamation League Central Pacific Region. He says the number of antisemitic incidents has skyrocketed in California.

“We have the highest spike in antisemitism compared to anywhere else nationally. It soared across the U.S. by about 140%. Here in Northern California – a 202% increase,” Levine said.

Pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with police on the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt this week.

Earlier this month, a legal complaint was filed against UC Davis, alleging antisemitism in the classroom and out around campus.

When asked about recent protests, President Joe Biden denounced antisemitism but said people also need to think of the Palestinian community. 

“I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I’ve set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” Biden said.

Some colleges have started to give protestors a deadline to move out. But will they remain? 

“You can criticize a government but still support a country’s right to exist but I think far too many people are saying maybe Israel doesn’t have a right to exist,” Levine said.

The ADL has a heat map that tracks certain hate crimes on its website.

A series of maps show the full extent of California’s proposed high-speed rail routes that would provide an efficient and quick way of travel between the state’s major cities.

Renewed interest has surfaced in high-speed rail travel after Brightline West, a new all-electric, 218-mile rail line bringing passengers from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Rancho Cucamonga, California, broke ground on Monday after construction was delayed for several years.

The project is expected to be completed before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has another rail line planned that would provide a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours, but progress has been slow.

According to maps on the Rail Authority’s website, the proposed high-speed rail line would traverse three regions—northern, central and southern California.

“The Phase 1 system will connect San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin via the Central Valley in under three hours on trains capable of exceeding 200 miles per hour,” the website said. “Phase 2 will extend to Sacramento and San Diego.”

A spokesperson for the Authority told Newsweek that the project is at an “exciting time.” There are 171 miles of rail line under construction, and there is environmental clearance for 422 miles.

“In the last year alone, the Authority has been awarded $3.3 billion in new federal funds to advance the work on the initial operating segment between Merced and Bakersfield, signifying a renewed federal partnership,” the statement said.

Northern California project

There are two legs to the northern California project. Phase 1 involves creating a high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Merced, with stops in between at Millbrae-SFO, San Jose and Gilroy. Phase 2 would bring travelers from Sacramento to Merced with stops at Stockton and Modesto.

For the San Francisco to San José leg of the journey, the Authority plans to introduce high-speed rail service to the Caltrain corridor. Environmental clearance was completed in 2022, and construction of the Caltrain electrification is under way.

Environmental clearance also was completed for the San José to Merced leg.

“Electrifying the existing rail corridor from San José to Gilroy will modernize the rail corridor for electrified high-speed rail service and allow Caltrain to extend electrified service to southern Santa Clara County,” the website said.

Central California project

The middle stint of the statewide project travels from Merced to Bakersfield with rail stations at Fresno and Kings/Tulare. Construction is most promising in this segment.

“The electrified high-speed rail line between Merced and Bakersfield is the first building block of the statewide system. This 171-mile line will offer the nation’s first true electrified high-speed rail service,” the Authority said on its website.

The spokesperson told Newsweek that this leg of the project is expected to be completed by 2030 to 2033.

Southern California project

The southern California stint also involves two phases. Phase 1 would bring travelers from Bakersfield to Anaheim with stops in Palmdale, Burbank and Los Angeles. Phase 2 would travel from Los Angeles to San Diego with stops at San Bernardino and Riverside. The southern California map also shows the Brightline West route.

The statewide project has been plagued with delays and price jumps. Voters approved the project in 2008, KTLA reported, with Phase 1 taking travelers from San Francisco to Los Angeles. At the time, the project was anticipated to be operational by 2020 and cost $33 billion.

Four years past the deadline, the project is still far from being completed and the price has jumped to $128 billion.

“The full Los Angeles to San Francisco line completion date is contingent on federal funding,” the spokesperson told Newsweek.

According to a U.S. House testimony by Lee Ohanian, a UCLA professor and Stanford University fellow, California began its journey to high-speed rail in 1993 by creating the California Intercity High-Speed Rail Commission. Three years later, the commission was replaced by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

“California’s HSR project has little to show over this 30-year period. The project is significantly delayed, and its budget has increased to about four times its initial cost. Some of this is due to mistakes in planning, management, oversight, and accountability,” Ohanian testified.

“But other factors reflect more endemic challenges in building HSR, including limitations in understanding the scope and size of the problems and risks that can arise in such a major infrastructure project.”