NEW YORK — Columbia University, the epicenter of anti-Israel protests that have upended college campuses across the United States, began suspending student demonstrators on Monday after they defied an ultimatum to disperse.

The move follows almost two weeks of protests against Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza — which have sometimes veered into antisemitism and intimidation of Jewish students — that have swept through higher education institutions from coast to coast, after around 100 protesters were first arrested at Columbia on April 18.

In the latest crackdown, authorities at the prestigious university in New York demanded that the protest encampment be cleared by 2:00 p.m. local time, or students would face disciplinary action.

The deadline, which had previously been repeatedly delayed, was openly defied.

Pictures shared by the local branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, which despite being suspended has been calling for its supporters to flock to the encampment, showed paper copies of the ultimatum with “Columbia will burn” and “I aint [sic] reading all that Free Palestine” written on them.

“These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians,” said a statement, read out by a student at a press conference after the deadline, referring to an unverified Hamas-issued death toll in Gaza that doesn’t differentiate between terror group members and civilians.

“We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or… are moved by force,” said the student, who would not give his name.

A few hours later, Columbia Vice President of Communications Ben Chang said the university had “begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus.”

He said students had been warned they would be “placed on suspension, ineligible to complete the semester or graduate, and will be restricted from all academic, residential and recreational spaces.”

Meanwhile at the University of Texas at Austin, police clashed with protesters Monday, including using pepper spray, and made arrests while dismantling an encampment, adding to the more than 350 people detained nationwide over the weekend.

“No encampments will be allowed,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on social media. “Instead, arrests are being made.”

Paul Quinzi, of the Austin Lawyers Guild helping those detained, told AFP they estimated “at least 80 arrests, and they are still going.”

The protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints and documentation that the rallies have veered into antisemitism and hate.

Protesters have made three demands: divestment from Israel, transparency in Columbia’s finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.

Footage of police in riot gear summoned at various colleges to break up rallies have been viewed around the world, recalling the protest movement that erupted during the Vietnam War.

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik, in a statement Monday announcing talks had broken down, said “many of our Jewish students, and other students as well, have found the atmosphere intolerable in recent weeks.

“Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy. Antisemitic language and actions are unacceptable and calls for violence are simply abhorrent,” she wrote after videos taken inside the encampment showed some students chanting “Zionists not allowed here,” “Go back to Poland,” and other students calling for “10,000 October 7ths.”

Shafik went on to say that it was a tragedy that Jewish students had felt the need to leave campus in recent weeks due to the “intolerable” atmosphere. Classes were moved online after many Jewish students left campus, saying they felt unsafe.

“To those students and their families, I want to say to you clearly: You are a valued part of the Columbia community. This is your campus too. We are committed to making Columbia safe for everyone, and to ensuring that you feel welcome and valued,” she wrote.

“One group’s rights to express their views cannot come at the expense of another group’s right to speak, teach and learn,” Shafik said.

Shafik wrote that despite the protesters’ demands, the university would not divest from Israel but that it had offered to compromise with protesters by making “investments in health and education in Gaza, including supporting early childhood development and support for displaced scholars.”

She also offered “a process for students to access a list of Columbia’s direct investment holdings, and to increase the frequency of updates to that list.

Since the encampment and protests have created an “unwelcoming environment” for Jewish students and faculty and a distraction for students who are trying to complete the academic year, Shafik said the protest no longer complied with guidelines. She pledged that they could continue after exams and Commencement “with two day’s notice in authorized locations.”

With the school year wrapping up, administrators point to the need to maintain order on campus for exam studies.

One graduate student protester, who asked to be identified only as “Z,” told AFP: “It’s finals week, everyone is still working on their finals, I still have finals to do. But at the end of the day, school is temporary.”

US President Joe Biden’s White House has also attempted to walk a fine line of defending the right to protest while condemning reported acts of antisemitism.

“We get that it is a painful moment that Americans are dealing with, and free expression has to be done within the law,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

However, Biden’s Republican opponents have seized on the issue, casting the protests as antisemitic and threatening to pull federal funding if they aren’t stopped.

“What continues to transpire at Columbia is an utter disgrace. The campus is being overrun by antisemitic students and faculty alike,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on X, reiterating his call for Shafik to resign.

Meanwhile, suspensions were also ongoing at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where president Martha Pollack said student protesters had been “dishonest” by saying they did not intend to form a tented encampment on campus.

Over days of negotiations, students were offered multiple opportunities to move the encampment, or face sanctions.

“They declined,” Pollack wrote. “Therefore, more temporary suspensions… are forthcoming.”

While pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests have been held regularly on US campuses since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 with the terrorist organization’s unprecedented attack on Israel in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and 253 were taken hostage, the demonstrations sparked renewed attention after Columbia protesters set up their encampment earlier this month.

After the NYPD removed the encampment and arrested more than 100 protesters, demonstrators at other universities around the country and in Europe were inspired and erected their own encampments while the Columbia one was reassembled.

Protest organizers deny accusations of antisemitism, arguing that their actions are aimed at the Israeli government and its prosecution of the conflict in Gaza. They also claim the more threatening incidents have been engineered by non-student agitators.