Texas Governor Greg Abbott says pro-Palestinian protests on Ivy League campuses such as Columbia University are indicative of the antiquated nature of institutions that he claims exist due to the "chaos" they sow.
Abbott, the Republican who has garnered national attention for years based on his administration's staunch policies pertaining to illegal immigration, was referencing nearly a week's worth of protests ongoing at New York-based Columbia—where more than 100 students were arrested for refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the campus. Tensions ran so high among students and non-students alike that in-person classes were canceled on Monday to turn down the social temperature.
Houston has for months been a popular Texas statewide location for pro-Palestinian advocates to galvanize, with successful efforts in canceling some public-speaking engagements involving Israeli speakers and Jewish sympathizers. Local groups have taken hold on campuses like Rice University and across the entire city of Houston.
Ivy League universities are showing that their time has passed.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 23, 2024
They are little more than monuments of our past.
Now they are accomplices of the chaos they helped to sow.
"Ivy League universities are showing that their time has passed," Abbott said in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Tuesday. "They are little more than monuments of our past. Now they are accomplices of the chaos they helped to sow."
Newsweek reached out to Abbott's office via email for comment.
The Houston Democratic Socialists of America have expressed support for Palestine long before Hamas' deadly attacks on Israelis on October 7.
Last July, the Houston DSA referred to Palestine as "a red line" and said that "anti-Zionism means fighting against settler colonialism imperialism, and the worst reactionary forces of capitalism."
Six days after the attacks, they issued another statement scrutinizing Israel's "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians—vowing, along with DSA chapters on a national scale, to support Palestine's efforts.
"Houston DSA stands in unflinching solidarity with the cause of Palestinian liberation," the statement read. "We will work tirelessly to build our capacity to fight in Houston and nationally to end any and all support from the U.S. for the colonial, apartheid state of Israel."
Newsweek reached out to the Houston DSA via email for comment.
Rice University SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) has issued similar statements, including one on October 20, 2023, saying the group "extends our unwavering support to our Palestinian friends, family, and community in acknowledgment of the devastating losses they have endured in their people's struggle for liberation."
A broad list of Rice faculty members wrote and signed a letter written and comprised between October 22 and 27, encouraging the university to, in part, release a statement condemning the violence in Gaza and the West Bank—as well as to "affirm its commitment to a culture of care" toward Palestinian, Arab and Muslim student body members.
"We are writing as educators and researchers at Rice University to denounce US-backed genocidal violence against Palestinians by the Israeli state," the letter reads. "We write in grief as a political act. We grieve the loss of human life. We mourn and oppose the loss of Jewish and Israeli civilian life caused by the Hamas attack.
"We grieve and oppose the loss of Palestinian life by military attacks and settler violence. We grieve that not all lives are being valued as grievable. We write to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle for liberation and call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and demand Rice University stand with and not against Palestinian people."
On Tuesday, according to the group's Instagram page, Rice SJP's "Liberated Zone" became active on campus and included a long list of activities for people to take part in "to stand united with the student movement and Gaza."
The schedule included art sessions, study time, Palestinian prison letter writing, film screenings, open mic poetry and an array of political discussions.
Newsweek reached out to the Rice SJP via email for comment.
A spokesperson for Rice University declined to comment to Newsweek on the group and its demonstrations.
Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Houston Police outside the Harris County Jail after three protesters were arrested for alleged noncompliance and others purportedly intervening with the arrest, according to local ABC 13.
Last month, the Houston Young Republicans (HYR) meeting with guest speaker Livia Link-Raviv, a consul general for Israel, had to be rescheduled due to security threats.
Also last month, Houston Mayor John Whitmire was interrupted by the group Houston for Palestinian Liberation as he was beginning his keynote address at the 25th annual "Houston Iftar" Ramadan dinner. They wore red latex gloves to symbolize the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Other active pro-Palestinian groups in Texas that had consistently put on weekly events in relation to the Middle East conflict have included the local Palestinian Youth Movement chapter, Houston Jewish Voice for Peace, and Houstonians for Palestinian Liberation, according to Axios.
Update 4/23/24, 11:10 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Rice University.
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