In the past two weeks, there has been rapidly increasing protest at US universities over the war in Gaza. On Monday, police were deployed at several universities to clear tent camps of demonstrators. ‘It was the fastest repression of student manifestations I have ever seen.’
The current wave of protests started at Columbia University in New York. That university has a tradition of protests, including an occupation of buildings in the spring of 1968 in response to the university’s involvement in the Vietnam War and racial segregation.
The current rector, Nemat Shafik, who has been in office for less than a year, was questioned by a House of Representatives committee on April 17 about anti-Semitism on her campus. She had studied the examples of her fellow rectors, who had resigned after serving on this committee. Shafik seemed to agree with the Republicans on the committee. She criticized professors who had supported the student protests surrounding the war in Gaza, and promised sanctions against professors who, in her view, had gone too far in that support. She also promised sanctions to curb anti-Semitism at the university, promising sanctions against protesting students who violate university rules, and stating that she had already suspended two protest groups.
Pro-Palestinian students set up a tent camp in an open area of the university on the day of her testimony. That camp had to reinforce their long-standing demand: ‘divestment’ in Israel, severing ties between the university and Israel, and between the university and companies that win from the war in Gaza.
A day later, Shafik called for help from the New York Police Department to clear the tent camp. About 100 students were arrested and suspended by the university.
“The aggressiveness of the response against overwhelmingly peaceful protest surprised me,” said David Farber, a professor of history at Kansas University who specializes in protest movements. ‘That wasn’t smart. You would think that universities have their own history. Aggressively deploying the police creates outrage and solidarity. You are being aggressive against a small group and you can be sure that the passion and numbers will grow among the students protesting.”
Even before the detainees were released, sympathetic students had set up a new tent camp. The publicity surrounding the police action in Columbia mobilized students from other universities. Since then, protests and tent camps have multiplied, as have police crackdowns and removal/arrest/suspension of demonstrators. For example, a camp was cleared in Austin, Texas, on Monday. The police used gas to chase away demonstrators. Dozens of arrests were made.
In Columbia, all students who refuse to vacate the tent camp are threatened with suspension, although Principal Shafik no longer wants to deploy the police. She firmly rejected the demand to sever all ties with Israel.
The only incident in which the protesters themselves committed acts of violence occurred at UCLA in Los Angeles. There, clashes broke out with counter-demonstrators who confronted pro-Palestinian students with images of Israeli victims on October 7.
Student protest is never popular. As unpopular as the Vietnam War was, the anti-war movement was even more unpopular.
What happened at Columbia, and elsewhere, “was the fastest crackdown on student protests I’ve ever seen,” says Robert Cohen, “and it’s my field of study.” He teaches social sciences, specializing in student protests, at New York University. He went to visit the students who were protesting at his own university and in Columbia, about ten kilometers away.
‘They used their freedom of expression in the outdoor space. The police arrested students, not because they were disrupting classes, but because the university leadership was concerned with politicians and financiers who did not want to hear about these protests. Moneylenders made public statements against the demonstrators, the speaker of the House of Representatives went to the Columbia campus with a number of Congress members and urged the rector to resign.’
“It’s a tradition on the right,” says Cohen, “to think of universities as a cultural fifth column. And apart from that: student protests are never popular, they don’t win elections. ‘In the 1960s, a majority of the population finally turned against the war in Vietnam. But as unpopular as that war was, the anti-war movement was even more unpopular. That is a culturally conservative trend in this country: people want students who are law-abiding and who study diligently.’
How does he estimate the size of the current protest?
It is now, he says, ‘the largest student protest in the US in this century. It is nowhere near as big as the protests against Vietnam. At that time, about half of the students at many universities protested. Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street There were also major protests, but they largely took place outside the universities.’
Anti-Semitism
The recurring criticism from Republicans is that the student protest is anti-Semitic.
There are many testimonies about this. The Columbia newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, was able to view images of some recent examples. Sometimes it concerns statements on campus, but especially just off campus, at the entrance to the university, where slogans could be heard such as – towards American Jews – ‘Stop killing children’, and, ‘go back to Poland, go back to Belarus’. It has not been determined whether the people chanting the slogans are students.
Jewish students also complain about expressions of support for Hamas, about vandalism towards them, or about being spat at.
Americans are no longer accustomed to angry debate.
A rabbi associated with the university advised Jewish students to avoid campus.
Leaders of the pro-Palestinian action advocate equal rights for all and tolerance. But that’s not an error-proof program. Khymani James, one of the spokespersons for the actions in Columbia, stated in a video: ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live.’ And: ‘Be glad I don’t kill Zionists myself’. The video, which he posted himself, dates from January, when he was summoned by the university for an anti-Zionist contribution on social media: “I don’t fight to injure,” he wrote at the time about Zionists, “or to be a winner or result in a loser. I fight to kill.”
Do you see why this is problematic? a member of the disciplinary committee asked him. “No,” was his response, which also included the aforementioned rant.
He wasn’t suspended at the time, but after the video leaked last week, James was expelled from the university (and from the protest). He has since apologized for his statements.
Professor Cohen: ‘There is anti-Semitism and the guilty must be held accountable. The Congressmen said: these demonstrators are driven by hatred of Jews. And there are probably some, but most of them protest against the war and the many civilian deaths.’
David Farber: ‘At Kansas University I notice anger and passion among the demonstrators. I am Jewish myself. I have not encountered any anti-Semitism among them.’
But there have certainly been incidents of anti-Semitism, he says, and there is certainly fear among Jewish students. ‘This is a time when students are very sensitive. Not just Jewish students. Students have become accustomed to quickly feeling unsafe. There is confusion between freedom of expression and threats of violence. Americans are no longer accustomed to angry debate.”
Divest?
Professors Cohen and Farber are not surprised that Columbia so decisively and quickly rejected the activists’ demands to cut ties with Israel.
Farber: ‘No university has so far turned away from ties with Israel or from companies that invest in that country.’
Cohen: ‘There are more than thirty of the fifty states in the US that do not want to do business with companies that boycott Israel. There is little chance of a university disinvesting. The demonstrators have not adapted their old demands to the situation. For example, they demand that the branch of the university in Tel Aviv be closed. How does that help people in Gaza?’
How can the protest evolve if the main demand is blocked?
Cohen: ‘Maybe that requirement doesn’t really matter. The protests make people think about the war and its consequences. They are putting pressure on President Biden to become more critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
But he believes that the movement is also partly missing its goal.
‘Zionist students emphasize what Hamas did, the October 7 massacre. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators don’t talk about that. They criticize the war, but not Hamas. They don’t support Hamas – most of them don’t anyway. Many are in favor of a one-state solution. They chant: from the river to the sea. What does that mean? Do they want to kill all the Jews now living in Israel? Or do they want a secular state where everyone can live? Many Jews hear the slogan and think that another holocaust is coming their way.’
‘If the protest movement were smarter, it would come up with slogans that wouldn’t sound so scary. Do you want to act tough towards people in your bubble, who already think the same as you? Or do you want to reach people with a different perspective?’
The protesting students are not building a broad coalition?
‘They do reach out to non-Zionist Jews. But I think: even people who sympathize with Israel can be addressed about the tragedy that is happening in Gaza. You can involve some of those people in the movement. But they are too stuck in their own nationalist discourse to create that opening. At New York University there are roughly 200 demonstrators, out of a total of 30,000 students. That’s more than it was before the arrests. But why isn’t it more? Because the organizers have not changed their tone.’
Holidays
How will this continue?
Farber: ‘The holidays start in about a week. Few students live near their university. They come from all over the country, from all over the world. It is difficult to imagine that this protest will continue during the summer holidays. The test will be what happens in September, when universities reopen, two months before the presidential election. There is so much uncertainty. But if the situation in Gaza does not improve, and if the protest continues in September, it could have an effect on the elections. The US is so politically divided into almost equally strong camps that even a little influence can change the outcome.’
Cohen: ‘In the summer there are the two party conventions. Republicans and Democrats worry that the protests will reach the conventions. Maybe those conventions will enable the movement to survive the summer holidays.’
