Mass arrests at Gaza protests on US campuses, calls for National Guard – National & International News – TUE 23Apr2024

US campus protests over Gaza continue to grow and spread despite mass arrests. Calls for National Guard intervention spark fears of Kent State repeat.

Campus Gaza protests continue to escalate despite mass arrests

This week, students at New York University, Yale, UC Berkeley, MIT, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt and other top tier schools have staged large scale, peaceful sit-in protests on their campuses. This movement has grown rapidly following a police crackdown on students at Columbia University in New York last week.

The students are attempting to keep attention on Israel’s ongoing military onslaught in Gaza and the growing humanitarian crisis there, even as Gaza has fallen out of the news since Israel’s showdown with Iran. The protesters have also joined forces with advocacy groups to call on their universities to divest from companies that support Israel and to end cooperation with Israeli universities.

Columbia

Columbia has been a hotbed for Gaza Ceasefire protests since October of last year. There have been several incidents on campus, including one where peace protesters were subjected to a chemical attack on campus. Columbia’s administration came under fire for allowing “antisemitic” protests, despite many of the protesters being Jewish themselves. In November, the university suspended two campus groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

On April 17, over 100 students set up an encampment on a lawn at Columbia. That very day, Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik testified before Congress about supposed “antisemitism” on campus. The protester’s numbers grew throughout the day. Following her testimony on Capitol Hill, President Shafik responded by closing the campus to the public and calling the NYPD. Rumors that mass arrests were imminent summoned hundreds more supporters to the campus.

On the morning of the 18th, NYPD arrested over 100 students, including Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Hirsi, who was one of the chief organizers, was also suspended from Columbia. This was despite an admission from the NYPD itself that the protest was completely non-violent.

The following day, there were even more protesters at the school. Massive protests have also gotten underway at the other universities mentioned above (as well as others), amplifying the demands for a ceasefire, divestment from Israel by their universities, and respect for students’ First Amendment rights and academic freedom on campus.

More arrests, accusations of “antisemitism”

Many faculty members at Columbia have also joined the protests on campus in solidarity with their students and in hopes of protecting them from another police sweep. However, mass arrests have since taken place at NYU, where over 150 people (including many NYU faculty members) were taken into custody. Another mass arrest also happened at Yale yesterday. In each case, arrests have brought out more supporters to the campuses.

The protests have also attracted the attention of pro-Israel groups and elected politicians, many of whom have condemned the protests as “antisemitic”. The Israel lobby and US politicians supported by them have increasingly sought to conflate the words “antisemitism” (anti-Jewish hate) and “antizionism” (opposition to the state of Israel, including among Jews). This tactic is often used to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel, even by Jews.

There have been some instances of people wearing keffiyehs (a traditional Palestinian scarf) over their faces shouting pro-Hamas or anti-Jewish slogans. However, there is reason to believe that some of these individuals may be provocateurs recruited by pro-Israel groups to smear protesters and discredit the movement. To reiterate, many of those taking part in the divestment demonstrations are Jews.

Politicians, ADL head call for National Guard crackdown

Despite the arrests and antisemitism accusations, protests have continued to grow and spread. Several campuses now have large numbers of students camping on their quads and demanding their universities divest from Israel and companies that support it.

In response to these non-violent protests, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR.) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) are demanding that President Biden use the National Guard to suppress these protests. Jonathon Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, has also called for intervention from the National Guard. The most significant call for force is a letter signed by 25 Republican Senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling for federal law enforcement to get involved. 

These calls have raised alarm bells, warning that calling in the National Guard to suppress campus protests risks a repeat of Ohio’s Kent State massacre of 1968. In that case, the Ohio National Guard confronted students protesting the Vietnam War. Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired about 67 rounds, killing four students and wounding nine others.

Aside from risking tragic and unnecessary bloodshed, the events of 1968 also demonstrate that such a show of force would be more likely to escalate the protests further rather than quell them.