Editorial: Campus unrest

It may well be the ‘Arab Spring’ moment of America. In what has turned out to be a spontaneous mass upsurge, hundreds of students have been protesting on university campuses across the country against the ongoing Israel’s war in Gaza. The scale and intensity of the demonstrations are reminiscent of the campus unrest of the Vietnam War era and more recently the ‘Never Again’ campaign in 2018 spearheaded by students seeking gun control laws. The ongoing pro-Palestine demonstrations in over 120 universities and colleges across the US represent collective social outrage over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza following relentless military strikes by Israel. The demonstrators have been demanding that the US should halt all forms of support to Tel Aviv, including an end to US military assistance to Israel, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting. The protests reflect that young Americans are more likely to oppose Israel’s actions than the older ones. A survey in March found that 55% of Americans disapproved of the Israeli military action in Gaza, with 63% of them in the age group of 18-34. While the protestors are well within their right to freedom of expression, the campaign appears to be crossing the limits at some places with incendiary slogans being raised targeting Jews. Some irate anti-Israeli demonstrators vandalised a World War I memorial and torched an American flag at Central Park in New York.

The mass protests driven by a just cause should not be reduced to a hate campaign. Already, some Jewish students have called the protesters anti-Semitic and expressed concern about their safety. An aggressive crackdown by administrators and the police in the form of arrests, suspensions and class cancellations has only complicated the situation. Even prestigious universities like Harvard, Columbia and Indiana have floundered in dealing with the protests and have hastily called in the police to handle the situation. Though the US boasts its rich traditions of free speech and expression, its track record in handling mass protests has not been very encouraging. The administration and the police have a tendency to overreact. American students have a long history of rallying behind social and political causes. They were at the forefront of the anti-segregation movement in the 1950s and 1960s; they protested Free Speech limitations in Berkeley in 1964, thereafter the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa and gun violence in their own country. The Biden Administration, which is largely seen as a firm supporter of Israel, has failed to handle the situation with sensitivity and maturity. Under pressure from the left wing of the Democrats, Biden has backed students’ right to protest, “but not the right to cause chaos and violence”.