• Protests at elite US universities over the Gaza war prompts arrests and disruptions.
• Allegations of “antisemitism” during the protests spark condemnation from Joe Biden.
Protests over the war on Gaza have gripped several prestigious US universities, igniting tensions and raising profound concerns about free speech. Instances of arrests, confrontations with law enforcement, and disruptions to academic activities have characterised the demonstrations, reflecting deeply entrenched divisions on US campuses over the war on Gaza.
At New York University (NYU), Yale, and Columbia University, students have protested and demonstrateddemanding institutional accountability and urging their universities to disclose and divest from entities with ties to the Israeli occupation. The demonstrations have been marred by allegations of “antisemitic incidents”, drawing swift condemnation from the White House and other officials. It seems that some groups are freer to express their opinions than others. Some demonstrators have been accused of carrying out “intimidating and harassing behaviour” as stated by Columbia head Dr Minouche Shafik. Dr Shafik asked students to stay away from campus and classes were held virtually instead. Dr Shafik said tensions on campus had been “exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas”.
In response to the escalating tensions, many commentators on the right wing have called for the protests to be put to a stop which seems contradictory as those on the right wing are constantly reminding everybody else about freedom of speech. When the issue is regarding Muslims, the right wing forgets their ideals and start pursuing left wing criticisms. An example of this hypocrisy was when, quite a while ago, Dr Jordan Peterson (a person who is aligned with the right-wing) was met with criticisms by those on the left because there was a “Nazi presence” at one of his talks. Many right-wing commentators came to Dr Petersons defence and preached freedom of speech to everyone who made this criticism. Now, the script is flipped and the right-wing now wish to restrict the freedom of speech that they used to defend so fiercely.
In the midst of the protests, Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Manning, after touring Columbia University, expressed dismay at witnessing protesters calling for “Israel’s destruction”. The difference here is that a couple of university students protesting don’t have the same power as Israeli government officials who also openly call for the destruction of Gaza. President Joe Biden condemned the demonstrations calling them “blatantly antisemitic”. Biden also said it was necessary to speak out against “the alarming surge of antisemitism – in our schools, communities, and online”.What also is antisemitic is the Israeli defence minister calling Palestinians “human animals”, given that Arabs are also Semites. However, this statement was not met with any criticism by US officials.
The criticisms of the demonstrations simply highlight the subjectivity of western ideals, this makes it difficult to work with if one standard is applied to themselves and another standard is applied to others. This opens the doors for law enforcement and other forms of authority to apply these malleable standards in a discriminatory way.
