“Anti-Semitism”: America’s Excuse to Suppress Rights and Freedoms
Student protests are escalating across American universities in solidarity with Gaza and in opposition to U.S. support for Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. These protests are coinciding with the spread of student protests to universities in European countries.
Despite the widespread violations, assaults, and arrests that students and professors at American universities advocating for Palestine have been subjected to, the student movement continues to grow, expand, and spread, sweeping across more than 50 American universities. Similar student protests have also ignited in several European universities, indicating a shift from a movement that began in a number of American universities to an international university movement.
The unprecedented human rights violations and violent assaults that the protesters in American universities have been subjected to by the police and security forces, which were called in to break up the sit-ins and directed to suppress and arrest the protesters, have not been able to halt the increasing growth and expansion of the student movement. Misleading slogans launched by the American authorities against peaceful demonstrators, including the discredited claim of anti-Semitism, have been refuted by the demonstrators, activists, and others from the political, academic, and human rights elites. Protestors respond that condemning the massacres of genocide is not anti-Semitic, and that demanding an end to the aggressive war is not anti-Semitic.
The student movement began on April 17th, at Columbia University, where a student coalition comprising more than 120 student organizations and faculty members organized a sit-in, setting up tents on the university grounds. Other American universities followed suit.
One of the significant factors that fueled the protest movement denouncing the aggressive war on Gaza in American universities was the arrest of dozens of students participating in the protests at Columbia University and their subsequent punishment after the president of Columbia University, Nemat Shafik, called the New York police to break up the sit-ins. This was one of the main factors that ignited the protest movement and pushed more student entities to engage in the protests, and even expanded them to other universities across the United States, including the most prestigious and largest American universities.
The protesters, who are students at American universities, demand a ceasefire in Gaza and the divestment of university funds from companies that support the Israeli military effort in Gaza. They also call on their universities to sever all ties with Israel.
These demands represent the most important demands of the student protests in various American universities. They include an end to the aggressive war and genocide committed by the Zionist occupying entity in the Gaza Strip, as well as the withdrawal of investments and cessation of cooperation with Israeli companies, especially those operating in the arms sectors. The student protests called for the sale of university shares in funds and companies that benefit from the aggressive war on Gaza, such as Google and Airbnb, as confirmed by a report in The New York Times.
The American student movement has extended to the most important and prestigious American universities, which are described as a stronghold of excellence and a haven for American thinkers and politicians, including Ivy League universities. This extension, expansion, and spread of this student movement advocating for Gaza has provoked the organizations and personalities supporting Israel.
The student activity in American universities is characterized by a high degree of organization. The protests usually start with students setting up camps on the university campus, accompanied by written statements in academic language on the websites of student clubs demanding the university and politicians to stop the firing and stop funding companies associated with Israel, and raising slogans calling for freedom for Palestine.
The student movement has received support from both inside and outside the universities. Many faculty members and university staff at Columbia University, including university professors, criticized the decision to arrest students, and hundreds of them protested against it in a stand where the professors carried slogans praising the student sit-ins and demanding the lifting of sanctions on them.
This situation has put American universities between the hammer of the protests and the anvil of politics. The Speaker of the House, during his visit to Columbia University last Wednesday, called on the president of the university, Nemat Shafik, to resign if she could not control the protests that spread the “virus of anti-Semitism” to other universities, according to his expression. His statement received negative reactions from the students, who booed him and shouted “Mike, you suck” during his speech.
In addition, 26 members of the U.S. Congress have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to restore “order in the universities that have been shut down by anti-Semitic gangs targeting Jewish students.” Marianne Hirsch, a professor of literature and comparative literature at Columbia University, commented on these events at a press conference in front of Shafik’s house, saying, “I can only agree that what happened is driven by an attempt to calm and appease members of Congress who are trying to intervene in the administration of this university, and all American universities.”
The Zionist occupying entity is also pressuring American universities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described what is happening in the universities as terrible, saying that the protesting students are a group of anti-Semitic mobs who have occupied advanced American universities, and accused them of attacking Jewish students and professors. But these are false allegations with no basis in truth and are not supported by any evidence at all. They also ignore the fact that many of the protesting students are Jews, some of whom have resorted to wearing shirts indicating their identity.
In a statement responding to Netanyahu and also appropriate to respond to members of Congress who support the suppression of protests in solidarity with Gaza, former U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said, “No, Netanyahu, saying that your government killed 34,000 in 6 months is not anti-Semitic and not supportive of Hamas, and saying that you destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure and health system and 221,000 homes is not anti-Semitic.”
“We Reject Hatred and Bigotry” In this context, the student groups supporting Palestinians in these protests responded to accusations of being anti-Semitic by saying, “We strongly reject any form of hatred and bigotry, and we stand vigilant against individuals other than students who are trying to disrupt the solidarity being formed by a number of Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, African-origin students and students supporting Palestinians. These represent the full diversity of support for Palestinians within our country.
“No to the Militarization of Universities” In this regard, the Council of Islamic Affairs in America considered the security campaign against protesting students and their confrontation with unprecedented military force to be dangerous and said in a statement issued by it that “the militarization of educational institutions and the deployment of police against peaceful student protesters is a worrying development.” The council called on the leadership of Columbia University to oppose the threat of deploying the National Guard.
Analysts conclude from this wave of protests that a segment of American youth is dissatisfied with President Joe Biden’s absolute support for Israel in its war in Gaza.
Liberal American political figures have expressed their displeasure at using tax money to fund Israel. They called on Biden to prove the continuation of support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu by a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Duplication in University Administration’s Treatment Protests and activities of students supporting Israel did not face the same response as protests of students supporting Palestine. American universities have focused on protecting students supporting Israel and have taken care of their feelings in their student communities, while criticizing and criminalizing student protests supporting Palestine.
Here we note that the behavior of universities in criticizing and criminalizing protests supporting Palestine and denouncing the aggressive war on Gaza is consistent with the narrative that prompted the U.S. House of Representatives to equate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism.
The protest student movement, which began in a number of American universities, and then expanded its scope and spread noticeably to sweep this growing student movement squares of 50 American universities, indicates that it will turn into an international university movement? This is after we witnessed during the past days, the entry of scientific edifices in Australia, France, Italy, and other countries on the line of protests calling for an end to the aggressive war and genocide in Gaza.
In this context, students from a number of European universities have been demonstrating for days in protest against the continued aggression of the Zionist occupying entity on the Gaza Strip, in line with the protest stands witnessed by American universities.
Wafa agency reported that a number of students staged a sit-in inside the building of the “Sciences Po” university in the French capital, Paris, in protest against the violations of the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian people, and they raised the Palestinian flag on the windows and above the entrance of the building, and a number of them put the keffiyeh of black and white colors, which is a symbol of solidarity with Gaza and Palestine.
In Berlin, protesting students set up tents in front of the parliament building to denounce the aggression and support the Palestinian people.
In Britain, demonstrations are held regularly every Saturday, in London, and in other cities, attended by tens of thousands of students in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.