Unsurprisingly, President Joe Biden agreed with Israel and accused the students of "blatant antisemitism." The president has been vocal about his all-out support and "loyalty" and has even publicly announced that his regime gives Israel $3.8 billion in military assistance annually. On Wednesday, Biden also signed into law a massive funding package that will provide an additional $17 billion to the country.
The state of Israel is meddling directly in US politics, promoting a call for the US National Guard to attack and repress student protesters at Columbia U, and demonizing those American students as "terrorists"
Biden has taken the side of the Israeli state against Americans,… pic.twitter.com/IG4Li1Vnb8
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 22, 2024
The protests all started at Columbia University, where the pro-Palestinian campus was organized by Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student-led coalition of more than 100 organizations, including students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. They organized a rally to protest what they describe as the university's "continued financial investment in corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and military occupation of Palestine." The students said they won’t disperse until the school commits to a "complete divestment" of its funds from entities connected to Israel. Other protesters are similarly calling on their campuses to divest from companies that sell weapons, construction equipment, technology services and other items to Israel. Protests continue at campuses across the US as more arrests are announced. The New York Times reported that the faculty senate at the said university is expected to vote on a resolution admonishing School President Minouche Shafik on Friday over several of her decisions. Shafik is being criticized for authorizing police to shut down student protests on campus.
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Meanwhile, Brown University identified about 130 students who it alleges violated a school conduct code that forbids encampments on campus. As per the university, students found responsible will be disciplined depending on their behavior and other factors, including any prior conduct violations.
At Emory University, 28 people were arrested, including 20 Emory community members, during a protest at the school, according to Vice President for Public Safety Cheryl Elliott. Authorities used pepper balls "to control the unruly crowd" during the protest, Georgie State Patrol said. A group of Democratic Georgia state lawmakers condemned the "excessive force used by Georgia State Patrol" during arrests at Emory.
Moreover, more than 100 people were arrested and four police officers injured during an encampment clearing at the Boston liberal arts college at Emerson College. President Jay Bernhardt said he recognized and respected "the civic activism and passion that sparked the protest" but still had arrested dozens of students.
At least 33 people were detained on campus Thursday following encampment protests at Indiana University while DC Metropolitan Police were asked to assist in relocating an "unauthorized protest encampment" on campus, George Washington University President Ellen M. Granberg said. The decision came "after multiple instructions made by GWPD to relocate to an alternative demonstration site on campus went unheeded by encampment participants," she said. Meanwhile, the University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony next month, citing "new safety measures in place.” Nearly 100 people have been arrested on the campus.
Since last Thursday, several campuses have been protesting sites, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, University of New Mexico, University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and Harvard University.
The campus encampments spreading across the nation have brought together students from a variety of backgrounds, including Palestinians, Arabs, Jews and Muslims. (Related: U.S. senate working to CRIMINALIZE any criticism of Israel’s genocide with ADL-backed law that will make it illegal to tell the truth.)
Scholasticide in Gaza, suppression of thoughts and speech in the U.S.
Last week, a group of United Nations experts noted that 80 percent of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in early October.
Nearly 5,500 students have been killed, alongside 261 teachers and 95 university professors. "It may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide,'" the experts said in a statement on April 18. "These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society."
Meanwhile, in the United States, hundreds of students have already been arrested since protests against Israel's violent attacks in Gaza began. Al Jazeera talked to a first-year PhD student at New York University (NYU), who spoke on condition of anonymity due to a fear of reprisals. The student said they are acting "on the ideals and the histories that they're being taught." "As students who are being taught in class about colonialism, about Indigenous rights, about the effect of non-violent protests across history, it would be extremely hypocritical or it would undermine the point of our education if we didn't act," the 25-year-old said.
At the very least, they can show that there was resistance to what is happening in the Gaza Strip, the student added. "The horrors in Gaza are really beyond imagining. These small acts of resistance, these are small sacrifices, they are nothing compared to what is happening on the ground in Palestine."
Head over to Chaos.news to read updates on the ongoing conflict between Gaza and Israel and how it is affecting the United States.
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