Fox and other networks call it anti-Israel protests. Pro Palestine doesn't mean they are racist to Israel either, more against the US veto on the recognition of Palestine as a state.
However indeed, the protests are against the involvement of the Universities with Israel, against their complicity in genocide, against stifling of free speech of anti war protestors, they're calling for a ceasefire and for Palestinians to be free. Pro Palestine captures it sort of but is easily twisted in black and white USA to anti Israel. In the end most advocate for a 2 state solution, implying both Israel and Palestine... Yet that seems to much for Fox viewers to comprehend.
NYU professor denounces ‘over-the-top response’ against demonstrators
Helga Tawil-Souri, an associated professor at New York University, says school administrators gave conflicting reasons for the crackdown on pro-Palestine demonstrators.
“When they brought in the police – hundreds of policemen in riot gear – they charged us with trespassing, though we are NYU faculty and students. I don’t know how we trespass on our own campus but that was the charge against us,” she told Al Jazeera.
It remains unclear how many demonstrators were arrested but news reports say “dozens”.
“I’ve been a professor at NYU for 20 years. I’ve never seen a crackdown of this nature and such an over-the-top response by campus security and then on the part of the NYPD [New York Police Department]. It is reflective of attempts across the country to crack down on what is being called pro-Palestine speech.”
‘Stop investing in this genocide’
In addition to antiwar demonstrations at Ivy League schools, pro-Palestine encampments have sprouted up on other campuses, including the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dozens of arrests have been made overnight, with school administrators cracking down. Mohammad Khalil, an activist from Columbia University, urged his school to stop funding war-related industries.
“The university should do something about the genocide that’s happening in Gaza. They should stop investing in this genocide that our people are now suffering from,” said Khalil.
Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into anti-Semitism and made them feel unsafe.
In an email to staff and students on Monday, Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said the school is cancelling in-person classes and moving to online teaching to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps”.
US student protesters see Washington’s ‘dishonesty’ over Gaza
Hassan Barari, a professor of international relations at Qatar University, says pro-Palestine protests that are snowballing across elite US universities are “not surprising” given the “scope of the genocide taking place in Gaza”.
“It’s obvious to many students that the American administration has been providing lip service when talking about humanitarian aid and the need to stop the war” – even as it keeps funding Israel with billions of dollars, said Barari, who taught at Yale University.
Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters have been arrested at Yale University, Columbia University and New York University as they held Gaza solidarity demonstrations.
Antiwar protests have also spread to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan.
Demonstrators call for Yale University to disinvest from weapons-makers that supply Israel
Columbia, NYU, Yale on the boil over Israel’s war on Gaza
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/22/columbia-university-on-edge-over-gaza-whats-going-on
Top American schools are on edge. Classes will be held virtually because of mounting tension between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters with dozens of students and faculty members arrested.
UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese has highlighted the arrests and alleged targeting of students who showed solidarity with Palestine.
“What lessons are Western universities and governments imparting to their young citizens and students when they attack the very values and rights that are said to be foundational to Western societies?”
