PRO-PALESTINE DEMONSTRATIONS on US university campuses have become the focus of intense political controversy since students at Columbia University in New York began protesting last week.
In-person classes were cancelled at Columbia yesterday and a number of students have been arrested. University president Nemat Shafik called for a “reset” in an open letter to the school community.
The protests, which are calling for a ceasefire in the conflict in Palestine and divestment of university funds from Israeli businesses and institutions, have spread to other university campuses, including Yale, MIT and New York University.
Columbia University’s decision to call the police to deal with the protesters last week has been heavily criticised by many, including by its faculty members, hundreds of whom walked out in solidarity with their students yesterday.
Over 100 students were arrested last Thursday when police moved in to clear the encampment. The protests have only grown in size since.
The university had suspended some students before asking the police to remove them for trespassing. The move has been condemned by many observers as a violation of the students’ rights to freedom of speech and academic freedom.
There have also been pro-Israel demonstrations at Columbia and other colleges since October last year.
Massive faculty walkout at @Columbia opposing the university’s decision to call in NYPD on Palestine solidarity protests: pic.twitter.com/DcCSxObtx9
— Bassam Khawaja (@Bassam_Khawaja) April 22, 2024
Some Jewish students at Columbia have reported intimidation and anti-Semitism amid the days-long protest, which is calling for the prestigious New York institution to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
“Over the past days, there have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behaviour on our campus,” Shafik said.
“Anti-Semitic language, like any other language that is used to hurt and frighten people, is unacceptable and appropriate action will be taken.
“To deescalate the rancour and give us all a chance to consider next steps, I am announcing that all classes will be held virtually on Monday,” she added.
People on both sides of the issue have called for Shafik to resign.
Some videos posted online appear to show pro-Palestine protesters aggressively shouting at Jewish students. In one video, people with their faces covered shouted, “Never forget the 7th of October”, saying it would happen “10,000 more times”.
Columbia’s chapter of the international Orthodox Jewish movement Chabad released a statement saying that protesters had also told Jewish students, “You have no culture”, “All you do is colonise” and to “Go back to Europe”.
The pro-Palestine student protesters at Columbia issued a statement yesterday saying: ”We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us…Our members have been misidentified by a politically motivated mob.”
“We have been doxxed in the press, arrested by the NYPD, and locked out of our homes by the university. We have knowingly put ourselves in danger because we can no longer be complicit in Columbia funnelling our tuition dollars and grant funding into companies that profit from death.”
“We firmly reject any form of bigotry,” they said.
Doxxing is the practice of identifying someone and revealing personal information about them online.
Mimi Elias, a social work student who was arrested last week, told the AFP news agency yesterday: “We are going to stay until they talk to us and listen to our demands.”
“We don’t want anti-Semitism or Islamophobia. We are here for the liberation of all,” Elias said.
Joseph Howley, an associate professor of Classics at Columbia, said the university had reached for the “wrong tool” by involving police, which had attracted “more radical elements that are not part of our student protests.”
“You can’t discipline and punish your way out of prejudice and community disagreement,” Howley said.
American politicians, including staunch supporters of Israel like President Joe Biden have weighed in on the matter, labelling the protests as anti-Semitic.
Biden said yesterday that he condemned “the anti-Semitic protests” at Columbia.
“I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” he told reporters, without further details.
Vociferous Israel supporter Senator John Fetterman has compared the protest camp to the white supremacist “Unite the Right” march through the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017.
That comparison has offended many observers who have pointed out that the Charlottesville event resulted in the death of one person, Heather Heyer, when a car rammed into a crowd of counter-protesters.
Claims that the protests are inspired by and feature anti-Semitism, however, appear to be at odds with some of the events at the protest camp at Columbia.
As the Jewish holiday of Passover began last night, social media images appeared to show pro-Palestinian Jewish students holding traditional seder meals inside the protest areas on multiple campuses, including at Columbia.
Supporters of Israel often conflate criticism of the Jewish state and anti-Semitism.
Explaining the seder plate at the Columbia encampment. These students truly embody the meaning of Passover in their provisional seder and their commitment to liberation. pic.twitter.com/5dOT46IeF1
— Arielle Angel (@ArielleLAngel) April 22, 2024
The most commonly cited phrase heard at pro-Palestine rallies when making accusations of anti-Semitism is, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The president of Columbia recently told a congressional committee that she believes the chant to be anti-semitic.
“It’s a difficult issue because some hear it as anti-Semitic, others do not,” she said. She also told Congress, however, that she was not aware of any anti-Jewish demonstrations at Columbia.
Advocates for Palestinian rights argue that the chant simply calls for Palestinian people to be free of occupation and oppression by Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
A Jewish Palestinian solidarity group, Jewish Voice for Peace, said in a post on X (Twitter) that since conflict in Palestine began, “the University of Columbia and Barnard College have created a climate of repression and harm for students peacefully protesting for an end of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
The group said that actions taken by the college’s management had made the campus “much less safe for Jewish students”. It said that of 85 students who had been suspended by that point, 15 were Jewish.
Elsewhere in New York yesterday evening, police began detaining protesters who had set up their own encampment at New York University, the New York Times reported, after the school called the students’ behaviour “disorderly, disruptive, and antagonising.”
There were also demonstrations at MIT, the University of Michigan and Yale, where at least 47 people were arrested yesterday after refusing requests to disperse.
“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind,” the college said in a statement.
Yesterday at Harvard, university officials suspended the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, the student group said on Instagram.
They were ordered to “cease all organisational activities” for the rest of the term, or risk permanent expulsion after holding an unregistered demonstration last week, student newspaper the Harvard Crimson reported, citing an email to the group.
Universities have become the focus of intense cultural debate in the United States since Hamas’s 7 October attack and Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza that has now killed over 34,000 people.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people and the abduction of another 250. Israel estimates that 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.
US university students have a history of protesting against wars, including the US war against Vietnam and the US war against Iraq.
The US also has a history of police cracking down on campus protests, especially those against the Vietnam War.
With reporting from AFP
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