Anti-Palestinian Protests Shake US Universities Amid Gaza Conflict Talks

Anti-Palestinian protests and clashes with law enforcement on some US college campuses came to a head as talks began between diplomats trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East. sort out

The intensity of these demonstrations puts more pressure on US President Joe Biden, putting the US administration in a political dilemma at the local level.

Biden has been caught between the left, who want peace, and Americans who are worried about the disruption in university education because of the disruption that threatens the civil order.

A message written on a tent in a refugee camp in Rafah, a city under siege in the southern Gaza Strip, showed how far the words of participants in campus protests in the United States can reach. and as transcendent as they can be.

The message read: “Thank you, Colombian students Thank you.

Other tents carried similar messages of gratitude and solidarity, which were recorded on video and photos taken by American journalists in the Palestinian camp.

Over the past few weeks, police have arrested more than 2,000 protesters at dozens of universities across the United States.

Late last Tuesday night at UCLA, a group of abusive pro-Israeli men attacked an anti-Palestinian student protest camp before officers were called to the campus and classes were canceled. Last Thursday, California police removed the pro-Palestinian camp as well.

This scene was repeated at Columbia University, where New York City police forcefully broke up an anti-Palestinian student demonstration, using riot gear and dispersing the demonstrators who were banned in one of the study buildings. The police also removed the camp set up by pro-Palestinian students inside the university.

These disturbances in American universities coincide with the intensification of the conflict in Gaza.

It appears that the Israeli armed forces are preparing for a major military campaign in the city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilian residents of Gaza live. The Israeli side says it is the last stronghold of Hamas forces.

At the same time, the United States is pressuring the Israelis and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire that could last for weeks. The agreement also includes the release of some Israeli hostages held by Hamas, an increase in the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the return of Palestinians to the northern part of the Strath, the area from which the Israeli attack began months ago.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken completed his seventh visit to the region since the start of the war in Gaza, where he met with Arab and Israeli leaders in a last-ditch effort to halt the Rafah process, which observers say that could cause a humanitarian disaster.

In a press conference held by the US State Department last Thursday, State Department spokesman Matt Miller said that the Israelis had made significant concessions in the recent talks – agreeing to terms that Hamas said were necessary to reach an agreement.

Miller said: “Hamas is responsible for every day that goes by without a pause at this time. They are the ones who are creating obstacles to the response to this proposal, and they are the ones who are preventing an immediate truce.”

A Hamas leader said last Friday that the movement was reviewing the latest proposal “in good spirit,” and a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for truce talks last Saturday.

The Biden administration is likely to welcome any progress in the current talks between the two sides of the conflict, at the same time as increasing pressure on Washington to stop the bloodshed and civilian suffering in Gaza, co -at least for a short time.

Miller rejected reports that American campus protests were the driving force behind the American efforts, but acknowledged that it was difficult to avoid American media coverage of the unrest even abroad, stressing that the issue of student demonstrations had been discussed at a press conference held. with Blinken on his tour in the Middle East.

Despite the official denial of what is said to be the reason for these protests to accelerate the pace of American efforts aimed at a cease-fire in Gaza, it seems that the political pressures on Biden are the result these complaints keep increasing.

Over the past few months, the US President has been resisting demands from the Democratic Left to withdraw his special aid to Israel.

Biden did this despite the obvious political risks involved, as more liberal voters – particularly young people and people of color who make up the core of his electoral coalition – have been increasingly criticism grew about what they see as a policy that is passive, if so. without support, to Israel’s aggression in Gaza.

Recent polls have shown that Biden is fighting a difficult battle for re-election next November, as any decline, even limited, in support in the states for Israel is expected to be the difference between victory and four more years of Donald Trump in the White House.

“There are very small differences in some places like Wisconsin and Michigan that will be very important in the election, and I think that could make the war in Gaza more important,” said Jessica Weeks, a professor political science at the University of Wisconsin.It should be noted that the state of Wisconsin has seen the largest number of camps for anti-Palestinian demonstrators and the number of arrests as a result of these protests.

President Biden still seems willing to pursue this risk, at least for now.

Visible protests by the leftist camp in the ruling Democratic Party over the US administration’s aid to Israel were repeated frequently in the months following the start of Israel’s ground attack on Gaza. But what’s new — and perhaps more complicated — is the pressure the Biden administration has begun to face from the right and Democratic center as campus unrest dominates headlines. .

Republicans – who feel they are in a weak position – continue to attack Biden, claiming that he cannot maintain law and order and that he will turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, described the demonstrators as “moonshots and Hamas sympathizers,” at a rally in the state of Wisconsin last Wednesday.

Trump demanded: “Remove the camps immediately, destroy the terrorists, and restore our campus for all students who want a safe place to learn.”

The next morning, after several nights of police crackdowns on protesters, Biden made a quick appearance at the White House to criticize what he said were illegal actions at some of the protests – including vandalism , crime and disruption of university operations.

He said: “We are a civil society, and there must be order. “

Traditionally, US presidential elections are not decided on issues of foreign policy unless American soldiers die overseas, but issues of law and order and domestic tranquility can be more prominent – especially for middle-class American voters. a class that lives in cities with universities Or if they send their children to prestigious universities.