The war between Israel and Hamas is creating very strong tensions on American campuses. The anger of pro-Palestinian students grew on Wednesday in the United States, with tense confrontations with the police in Texas, New York, New England and California.
Visiting Columbia University in Manhattan – where this latest wave of student protests began in October – the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, threatened: “if the situation is not brought under control quickly and if the threats and intimidation do not stop, it will then be time to call in the National Guard.”
Accusations of anti-Semitism
Mike Johnson, close to Donald Trump, warned that he would demand President Joe Biden to “act” and judged that the pro-Palestinian demonstrations “put a target on the backs of Jewish students in the United States”, who matter the most of Jews in the world (some six million) after Israel.
Since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October, American universities have been shaken by sometimes violent debates on freedom of expression and accusations of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism which cost the presidents of Harvard and the University their jobs this winter. University of Pennsylvania. “Enjoy your freedom of expression,” said Mike Johnson provocatively, booed by hundreds of Columbia students.
On Wednesday, the White House reaffirmed that Joe Biden, who hopes to be re-elected in November, “supports free speech, debate and non-discrimination” at universities.
Since the renewed tensions last week at Columbia, the movement has spread to other campuses. Particularly in the New England states, where prestigious universities have asked the police to arrest student demonstrators who denounce the United States’ alliance with Israel and criticize the current conditions of the Palestinians.
Tents to occupy several campuses
The presidency of Columbia University, for its part, welcomed “significant progress” in discussions with students to evacuate this encampment by Friday.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, 120 people were briefly arrested in front of New York University (NYU), in the heart of Manhattan. In Yale, Connecticut, around fifty demonstrators were also arrested. Harvard also saw a camp set up on its campus on Wednesday. At the other end of the country, the University of Texas at Austin was the scene of a confrontation, ultimately good-natured, between hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and the police. And at the University of Southern California, several hundred students demonstrated shouting “liberate Palestine”, “revolution through intifada”.