2024-04-27 19:08:22
image source, Reuters
Comment on the photo, Protests continue at several American universitiesItem information
A group of students set up their tents in the courtyard of Columbia University at dawn on Wednesday, April 17, to protest the war launched by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, demanding that the administration academic prevents any cooperation with companies that support the war.
That day, the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, was traveling to Congressional headquarters in Washington, DC, to attend a session on the protests and how to respond to them.
During the session, which lasted regarding four hours, Minouche defended the decisions she made and said students “know very well that violating our rules will have consequences.”
But Minouche made a decision the next day that sparked protests at several colleges across the United States, following he said students entered the property, refused to leave and created an “environment of harassment and intimidation.” for many of their classmates.
The students refused to leave and end the protest, so Minouche called the New York Police Department to intervene and end the sit-in.
Shortly therefollowing, members of the largest police branch in the United States appeared, wearing masks, and arrested more than 100 students, in the largest mass arrests in the university’s post-war history. of Vietnam, more than fifty years ago. .
image source, getty
“It shocked me, but I felt it was a call to action,” says Rasheed Mustafa, a doctoral student at Columbia University.
The students’ anger immediately intensified and the next day they had set up their tents once more in another location of the university, a few meters away.
This time, the size of the sit-ins was larger and the site was filled with tents. They also prepared food, drinks and meals using student donations, and prepared an entertainment program for participants, with a “security team” on site. door to watch for intruders into the sit-in.
The next day, another sit-in site was set up at another university, Yale University in the state of Connecticut, which is a prestigious university.
By midweek, protests had spread to dozens of universities across the United States and extended into the weekend. American police announced on Saturday that they had ended another demonstration at Northeastern University in Boston and arrested around a hundred people.
The movement at Columbia University was the spark of a national movement, and student anger over Israel’s waging of its war once morest Hamas has raised many questions from university officials who are already witnessing widespread controversy over what is happening in the Middle East.
But the biggest dilemma for them is how to guarantee the right to protest and freedom of expression, while preserving the safety of the rest of the students and their personal freedoms? Knowing that when the police are called, millions of posts will appear on social media showing video clips of students being arrested and detained.
At Yale University, police arrived at dawn on April 22, while protesters were sleeping. However, police arrested around 50 of them following they refused to leave.
Chisato Komura, a law student at the university, told the BBC: “They arrived suddenly and without any warning. A large number of police officers entered the square. »
She added: “Seeing soldiers in military uniform, who came at the request of the university administration, was a sad thing. We were doing nothing but protesting peacefully.”
American universities have been at the center of attention since the start of the war in Gaza, which left 1,200 Israelis dead, 253 others detained and more than 34,000 Palestinians dead, the majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
But the last ten days have seen the most massive US protests in six months, following tensions escalated with the end of the first sit-in at Columbia University, followed by clashes and arrests elsewhere.
At the University of Texas in Austin, police officers – some on horseback – arrested hundreds of students, and at Emory University in Atlanta, where a university professor was thrown to the ground, tied up and arrested, and the clip posted on social media.
In Boston, police stormed Emerson University and arrested a number of students. The same thing happened at the University of Washington, New York University and the University of Southern California.
Protesters are also demanding a severing of ties with Israeli academic institutions and businesses that support the Israeli military, and are officially calling for a ceasefire.
Some Jewish students and university workers expressed fears for their safety, which was one reason police were called to intervene.
“Students have the right to protest, but they do not have the right to do so in a way that makes other students feel discriminated once morest or harassed,” says Page Fortuna, a political science professor at the University of Columbia.
Jewish students said in interviews in recent days that they had been subjected to harassment, including offensive comments and hostile chants, some of which supported Hamas, and others amounting to physical violence and threats.
Eli Kia, a 22-year-old Jewish student, says the protests constantly made him feel bad, to the point that he began hiding the Star of David he wore around his neck.
He said: “It is very painful to come to the university every day, and I feel a sense of impatience when I go through the university every day and I do not know what I will face, nor what who might harm me.
image source, getty
Northeastern University officials said some protesters used anti-Semitic slogans, which is why the university decided to take action Saturday. The university said the demonstration began as a student protest, but people from outside the university also joined.
However, protesters are keen to distance themselves from extremists, racists and anti-Semites, and have sometimes blamed instigators outside universities.
Protesters said some Jewish students had joined the demonstrations without problem and that the focus should be on the number of civilian deaths in Gaza.
When negotiations between university administrations and protesters failed, the police intervened, leading to an increase in protests.
“It started with regarding 70 student protesters,” says Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota representative in Congress and a harsh critic of President Joe Biden’s administration policies.
She added to the BBC: “The case escalated into nationwide protests because Columbia University chose repression and violated the first clause of the Constitution concerning freedom of expression. »
Ilhan’s daughter was arrested among students detained at Columbia University.
Omar Zigar, one of the protesting students at Columbia University, believes the problem will continue to get worse, adding: “I think students at most universities across the country will do the same thing.” Police intervention caused the problem to escalate. “
Some observers believe that the police intervention is reminiscent of the student clashes that took place in the sixties of the last century, due to the Vietnam War.
University professor Mariana Hirsch, who participated in the protests, said the current protests remind her of the Vietnam War, adding: “The war in Gaza makes it impossible to continue business as usual.”
image source, getty
Comment on the photo, Protests at Columbia University in 1968
At the same time, the current wave of protests is putting increased political pressure on Biden and his administration, especially following criticism leveled at them for their support of Israel, largely in an effort to gain support for his campaign aimed at obtaining a second presidential term in the expected elections. at the end of this year.
Some Democrats are expressing fear that demonstrators will show up at the party’s general meeting, scheduled in a few weeks in Chicago, where the party will announce the name of its presidential candidate, amid anti-war protests of Vietnam overwhelmed the 1968 conference, also in Chicago. .
Ahmed Hassan, a University of Southern California graduate who participated in the protests this week, believes the student protests will have a broader impact on American attitudes.
“Students always had to tell people it wasn’t right and they wouldn’t accept it,” he said.
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