Published April 25, 2024
Some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the US – the strongest ally of Israel – have been facing protests over the Gaza war.
Pro-Palestine protests have spread to more college campuses in the US, denouncing the mounting deaths in Gaza. Over a hundred students have been arrested for campus occupation, which Jewish students claim to be antisemitic.
Here are the top 10 points on this big story:
- Some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the US – the strongest ally of Israel – have been facing protests over the Gaza war. Their demands include a ceasefire, an end to US military aid to Israel, and the withdrawal of university investments from arms supplies and companies benefiting the war.
- At New York’s Columbia University, where the protests began, over 100 students were arrested after a pro-Palestine rally was dispersed by the cops last week. Amid spiralling tensions, it cancelled in-person classes last Monday and switched to virtual learning.
- At the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday, police in riot gear were deployed to face off with students who walked out chanting “down with occupation”. Over 20 protesters were arrested, with State Governor Greg Abbott declaring “these protesters belong in jail”. “Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled,” the Governor said.
- As many as 50 protesters were detained at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles after hundreds of students started an occupation on the campus and raised “free, free Palestine” and other controversial slogans. This prompted the university to announce closing the campus to visitors. Classes, however, would continue here.
- Protests have also erupted at Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Brown. At Harvard, students have begun an encampment exercise, setting up tents on the campus. At a protest in New York University, over 130 people were arrested on Monday while another nine people were detained reportedly at the University of Minnesota.
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SOURCE: www.ndtv.com
RELATED: Johnson: ‘There is an appropriate time’ for National Guard if student protesters don’t disperse
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses reporters after a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Published April 25, 2024
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said there could come a time when the National Guard is needed to quell pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University and other universities experiencing unrest.
The comments from Johnson came during a combative press conference the Speaker held with Republican lawmakers at Columbia University in New York City, during which they called on pro-Palestine protesters who have set up an encampment on campus to disperse and denounced the alleged antisemitism percolating through campus — all while the crowd heckled the group.
“If this is not contained quickly, and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard,” Johnson said. “We have to bring order to these campuses. We cannot allow this to happen around the country. We are better than this.”
Johnson said he planned to call Biden after his visit to the campus to “share with him what we have seen with our own two eyes and demand that he take action,” arguing that “there is executive authority that’d be appropriate.”
Johnson’s statements came after Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Tom Cotton (Ark.) on Monday called on Biden to deploy the National Guard to colleges across the country — especially Columbia — to end sit-ins and other demonstrations staged by pro-Palestinian protesters.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Columbia must send the pro-Hamas protestors a clear message
Published April 25, 2024
The intifada revolution has engulfed Columbia University. Just a week after a congressional hearing in which President Minouche Shafik touted her school’s efforts to combat antisemitism, protests rife with antisemitism raged on Columbia’s campus. Shafik tried to assuage lawmakers’ concerns on April 18 by dispersing an unsanctioned anti-Israel protest on Columbia’s lawn, leading to more than 100 students getting arrested. But many returned, and the demonstrations grew, testing Shafik’s commitment to defending Jewish students.
At a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, Shafik acknowledged that Columbia’s anti-Israel demonstrations were rife with antisemitism, admitted that there was a problem and pointed to steps she had taken to combat the issue. Shafik cited a new demonstration policy of Feb. 19 that confines protests to a designated location on weekday afternoons, with two-day advance notice and approval from the university, and accountability measures for policy violators.
But just one day after the hearing, many students returned, and were hurling abusive phrases like, “We don’t want no Zionists here” and “Oh Hamas, my beloved, strike Tel Aviv.” The circus at Columbia attracted jesters right outside campus, including one who vowed, “October 7th will happen every day for you … 10,000 times” and another who allegedly punched Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Hadad in the face. The situation got so out of hand that a Columbia University rabbi warned Jewish students to go home and the university moved to virtual classes on April 22.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
