THE TOP REPUBLICAN in the US House of Congress has suggested bringing in the National Guard to quash demonstrations by pro-Palestinian students at campuses across the country.
Students at a growing number of universities are speaking out about Israel’s campaign of violence in Palestine and demanding the US end its support for Israel.
The movement began at Columbia University in New York and has expanded to other campuses over the last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at Columbia that it could be “an appropriate time for the National Guard” to be brought in if the protests are not ended quickly.
The comments have roused memories in the US of events in 1970 when the National Guard killed four students and injured nine others when they fired on students in Ohio who were protesting the Vietnam war.
Johnson said he will demand US President Joe Biden “take action” and claimed the demonstrations “place a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States”.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre separately said that Biden “believes that free speech, debate and nondiscrimination on college campuses are important”.
Police made more than 20 arrests in Texas after a stand-off between students and police in riot gear, where the state’s governor Greg Abbott wrote on social media that the protesters “belong in jail” and should be expelled.
At a demonstration on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, biology student Yaseen El-Magharbel told AFP: “We’re all just trying to advocate for our brothers and sisters in Palestine who just don’t have voice right now.”
Internationally-known universities like Yale, Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Brown have all seen student movements grow in recent days.
Over 100 students were arrested at Columbia University last Thursday when police moved in to clear an encampment, but protests have only grown in size since.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest group said students since agreed to talks with the university after it said it would not call the police or National Guard.
“We fear that Columbia is risking a second Jackson State or Kent State massacre,” the group said in the social media post, referencing the demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970 where the National Guard killed four students. Less than two weeks later, at Jackson State in Mississippi, police opened fire on student protesters, killing two and injuring 12.
Additional reporting by AFP
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