Another chapter in the continuing saga of the Israel-Palestine war seems to have been written today as protests across college campuses in the United States have erupted in favor of the people of Palestine who are currently engaged in a war with the State of Israel. This eruption of tension comes in the midst of election year and the war itself, representing a continuing decline in global harmony.
The movement started at Columbia University. Universities, especially ivy league ones, have a history of being the centers of activism. During the Vietnam War, protests against the war were largely concentrated within college campuses, and movements against the war were largely student-led, representing that the student demographic tends to be more radical and expressive of their beliefs. Columbia itself was the site of anti-Vietnam protests back during the war, but no protest like this has ever occurred.
The protests, whilst originating at Columbia, soon spread like wildfire to other universities across the United States, with fellow Ivy League University Yale students joining in soon after. Students at MIT joined in soon after as well. The movement has now become nationwide, evoking memories of the Anti-Iraq and Anti-Vietnam protests across the country, and the response thus-far has done nothing to shy away from this comparison. At these universities, police have been sent in to quell the protests and riots.
The movement advocates for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and calls upon the government of the United States to make it happen. The movement decries Israeli actions in the Gaza strip as a genocide, and expresses disgust with the current government of the United States for effectively enabling said genocide, despite the promises of the Biden administration for a progressive administration and change, with their support of Israel’s genocide lapsing back into the same ideologue as Biden’s predecessor according to the protesters.
As protests spring up, President Biden and his administration have denounced what he calls “antisemitism on college campuses.” In addition, the large number of riot personnel deployed have already made hundreds of arrests across the nation. However, these arrests have only emboldened protesters, and already some of the protests have effectively become riots, with protesters occupying the administration building at Columbia University.
As the protests and riots continue to circulate, the question of what is to come arises. Will the Biden administration continue supporting Israel even amidst the anger at his government for doing so? Or will they make a marked difference in policy? Only time will tell.
