New York, New York - A day after Columbia University suggested the National Guard be deployed to remove protestors, Gaza solidarity activists have filed a complaint with the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Over the six months since the October 7 attacks triggered major assaults on Gaza by the Israeli military, hundreds of protestors have been arrested on US campuses.

Earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson joined Columbia in calling for the involvement of the National Guard.

Many of the arrests have been carried out by armed officers in riot gear, and have drawn parallels for being reminiscent of the infamous Kent State shooting on May 4, 1970, when the Ohio National Guard shot dead four college students who were protesting the Vietnam War's expansion into Cambodia.

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In response to increasing pressure on the activists to vacate campuses and cease their demonstrations, Palestine Legal on Thursday filed a civil rights claim on behalf of students at Columbia University.

Palestine Legal will represent four students as well as the group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine as they demand an investigation into what they call the university's "discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies, including by inviting NYPD officers in riot gear."

Protestors have faced accusations of antisemitism over their views on the Gaza siege, as well as claims that they have made Jewish students and staff feel unsafe when going about their day-to-day business at various universities.

Many participants in the solidarity protests, who include a number of Jewish students, have disavowed antisemitism and criticized officials equating it with opposition to Israel.

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Late on Thursday, Columbia University backed away from an overnight deadline for protestors to abandon a solidarity encampment they had build on university grounds. According to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, the "talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned."

"We have our demands; they have theirs," Shafik added.

Despite the backtracking of pressures on student protestors to cease on-campus protesting, the lawsuits will go ahead, as students seek justice for what they see as unlawful behavior on the part of Columbia University.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), which is partnered with Palestine Legal in the aforementioned case, said the university's actions were "retaliatory," "targeted," and fly "in the face of the free speech principles that institutes of higher learning should be defending."

"Students protesting at private colleges still have the right to fair, equal treatment – and we are ready to fight that battle in court," she said.

"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning – not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don’t approve of."

NYCLU and Palestine Legal are also collaborating on another lawsuit accusing Columbia of unlawfully suspending its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.