Protesters march against the ICE detention of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, during a protest near Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, Arizona, US, March 15, 2025. Photo: Rebecca Noble via Reuters Connect.

The state of Arizona has criminalized “establishing or occupying an encampment on a university or community college campus,” a move that is a direct response to pro-Hamas demonstrations that have convulsed higher education in the US for over a year.

Governor Katie Hobbs (D) signed legislation enacting the measure on Thursday, according to the Arizona Daily Star, a local newspaper. The bill passed the legislature with bipartisan support, and its main sponsor was Rep. Alma Hernandez of Tucson, who is Jewish. During debates over the legislation, titled HB 2880, Hernandez pointed to security risks posed by pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protesters as well as the ways in which they allegedly violated the civil rights of Jewish students, such as subjecting them to hate speech or restricting their movement through campus.

Hernandez cited recent events which transpired at Columbia University — in which pro-Hamas students occupied a library and injured public safety officers — as vindicating the legislation of accusations that it undermined activities protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution — such as free speech and the right to peacefully assemble.

“This is precisely why I am proud that AZ became the 1st state to take action to prevent this situation from unfolding here,” Hernandez posted on the X social media platform. “We shouldn’t even need to get to this point. This behavior is not welcome here in [Arizona].”

On Thursday, Rep. Hernandez told The Algemeiner: “We have watched in recent months as campuses across the country have been disrupted by extremist demonstrations and encampments that have made many students feel unsafe and unwelcome. That is simply unacceptable. Arizona is leading the way in protecting student safety and campus order.”

She added, “I am especially proud that this was accomplished in a bipartisan manner. I want to thank Governor Hobbs and my colleagues from both parties who helped make this legislation a reality. HB 2880 is now the law of the land in Arizona, and I’m honored to have played a part in making it happen.”

On Wednesday, SAFE CAMPUS, an advocacy group that raises awareness of anti-Zionist discrimination at colleges and universities, cheered Hobbs’ signing of the legislation as progress for Jewish students who are facing a barrage of antisemitic hatred unlike any seen in the US in decades.

“Arizona is leading the way,” the group said, writing on X. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated college campuses. People have the right to protest, but they do not have the right to disrupt the learning of other students or intimidate Jewish students who are trying to get to class.”

As previously reported, by The Algemeiner, pro-Hamas encampments, established on open fields of campus and inside of administrative buildings, have created conditions not seen in higher education since the 1960s when far-left activists and Black nationalist groups extracted concessions from administrators that changed the face of higher education for the next 60 years.

In May 2024, The Algemeiner visited an encampment established at George Washington University (GW), accompanied by Jewish civil rights activist Lizzy Savetsky. Older men — many of whom wore masks to conceal their identities — with body tattoos, as well as other older adults who appeared to be under the influence of drugs, idled inside and around it. Students there appeared unbathed, and no sanitary facilities were immediately visible.

Not long after the on the ground visit, the group of students and non-students signaled their intentions, as a crush of them marched to GW president Ellen Granberg’s home shouting, “Granberg, we’re at your door, complicity no more.” Standing outside the property for nearly an hour, they clamored for a face-to-face meeting with Granberg, who is Jewish, and demanded that she accept their terms for ending the encampment, which included GW’s adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel. Chants of “Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine,” an apparent reference to the tens of thousands of people who were beheaded during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, were also widely reported.

US President Donald Trump has moved to on to suspend federal funding to any educational institution that refuses to quell similarly riotous demonstrations, a punitive measure which contributes to fulfilling his administration’s pledge to crack down on campus antisemitism and the pro-Hamas activists fostering it.

“All federal funding will stop for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social, the social media platform he founded in 2022. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”

He added, “No masks! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

No sooner had Trump issued the statement earlier this year than his administration confiscated some $400 million in grants and contracts previously awarded to Columbia University, an institution that reportedly punished no one following the 2024 spring semester takeover of Hamilton Hall that resulted in over 100 arrests. Harvard University, Northwestern University, and Princeton University collectively lost billions too in a slew of expropriations the Trump administration executed in rapid succession.

“Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses — repeatedly overrun by antisemitic students and agitators,” US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in March. “Institutions that receive federal funds have a responsibility to protect all students from discrimination. Columbia’s apparent failure to uphold their end of this basic agreement raises very questions about the institution’s fitness to continue doing business with the United States government.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.