"The college campus protests against Israel’s destruction of Gaza have been overwhelmingly peaceful. But elite reporters– following the lead of politicians of both parties – continue to refer to them as violent and chaotic."
"With almost no exceptions, the only violence involved in these protests has been the violence perpetrated upon the protesters – either by police in riot gear, or by counter-protesters, or in some cases, like at UCLA, both. …
Student journalists, who base their reporting on what they see with their own eyes, have done a vastly superior job of covering the protests."
Josh Marshall reports that no clear information has yet been reported on who the pro-Israel counter-protesters violently attacking student protesters at UCLA are. He's also seen no evidence they were arrested.
Reports uniformly say they were not students and were almost all men. They were wearing balaklavas.
"This was a pretty big deal. So I’m curious that we still don’t seem to know the actual identities of these people and that – at least as far as I can tell – there have yet to be any arrests. If you’ve seen news reports that shed light on this can you send them in?"
"I feel compelled to point out that the masked goons at UCLA and the riot police on dozens of other campuses are all on the same side of the issue. In the elite political press, that is apparently considered to be the way things should be."
Robert Reich reports that he's been meeting with students and faculty to understand the protests. He's concluded:
"While protest movements are often ignited by many different things, and attract an assortment of people with a range of motives, this one is centered on one thing: moral outrage at the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people — most of them women and children — in Gaza."
"To interpret these protests as anything else — as antisemitic or anti-Zionist or anti-American or pro-Palestinian — is to miss the essence of what’s going on and why.
Most of the students and faculty I’ve spoken with found Hamas’s attack on October 7 odious. They also find Israel’s current government morally bankrupt, in that its response to Hamas’s attack has been disproportionate."
Heather Cox Richardson reminds us today of where the roots of today's turbulent student protests lie:
"The roots of today’s protests lie in an investigation by the Republican-dominated House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Virginia Foxx (R-NC)."
Republicans have worked hard to manipulate university administrators into taking unpalatable and hostile positions towards students.
Republicans have used the cudgel of pretend concern about antisemitism to force administrators to dance to their tune, exacerbating violence and inflaming students' anger — all serving Republican needs to say that chaos is everywhere and woke students are running wild.
We would not be where we are today without deliberate Republican manipulation and inflammation of this volatile situation.
"This violence is all-too American. Rather than confront protestors’ painful truth—that we are watching mass death unfold in Gaza, aided, and abetted by U.S. military aid—this country prefers to silence dissent.
"The echoes of how this country violently suppressed demonstrations against the Vietnam War are deafening—last night police raided the very same building students occupied in 1968. Then as now, protest is treated as a greater danger than our country’s responsibility for war crimes."
"It's easier to argue about what college kids are doing than to confront the human misery and destruction that's happening in the actual conflict which is, of course, the source of these protests."
"Keep this quote in mind from Dr. Martin Luther King’s critically important book 'Why We Can’t Wait' about the essential, urgent and imperative nature of socially conscious protest movements :
'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.'
Maybe it is the rest of us who should re-examine our approach and listen to what the students are saying."
"Israeli officials fear potential ICC prosecution over #Gaza actions. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned top officials of possible arrest warrants, although the ICC has not confirmed issuing any. What would #ICC arrest warrants mean for #Israel's #WarOnGaza – and for #InternationalLaw?"
w/
Mark Kersten, Asst Prof of Criminal Justice, Univ of the Fraser Valley
Trump, at a rally in Waukesha, #Wisconsin, called for tougher action against campus protests & again suggested some of the protesters were paid actors. He called on college presidents to “remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the locals & take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”
Speaking at a campaign event in #Wisconsin on Wed, #Trump derided the #protesters as “raging lunatics & Hamas sympathizers," & called on #Biden to “speak out” — accusing him of being “definitely against #Israel.”
Trump also took aim at #Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik….
“The person that heads it up — a woman — she waited so long. She was so weak. She was so afraid. She was so bad.”
Like the #protesters, Biden believes that #Israel has inflicted too much carnage in #Gaza. Unlike some of them, he defends Israel’s sovereignty & recoils at the notion of Jews losing a homeland.
#POTUS#Biden is set to give a speech on May 7 at a ceremony commemorating the Holocaust.
#DouglasEmhoff, husband of VP #KamalaHarris, said at an event in New York on Wednesday that, "We’re in favor of the right to #protest. But when that crosses into #violence — when that crosse into calls for genocide, calls for Jews to be murdered, that’s completely unacceptable & must be stopped.”
"[#Biden] said he ran because of #Charlottesville.… Well, if the people that know Charlottesville, when you extend that statement, it’s a big hoax. Charlottesville is peanuts compared to what you’re looking at now."
#HouseRepublicans are seeking to unite their unruly majority around an evergreen #conservative cause, devising a strict response to the wave of pro-Palestinian protests….
#GOP ldrs this wk announced plans for new “oversight investigations” of #universities where — in the words of #House#Republican Whip #TomEmmer — “pro-terrorist anti-Semites [are] taking over.”& on Wed they prepared to pass a bill they said would empower the #federal govt to crack down on anti-Israel #protests on #campuses by codifying a definition of #antisemitism that encompasses not just threats against Jews, but also certain criticisms of #Israel itself. #HouseRepublicans#Gaza#Palestinians
As Timothy Burke notes, for the most part, those pressuring university administrators to crack down on student protesters "are going wholly undiscussed in the national news coverage." The media mantra is that the protests are causing "chaos." This ignores that the chaos is being created by administrators dragging in police to squelch peaceful protests.
"The pattern is clear. Not only have universities across the country resorted to student suspensions and violent arrests in recent weeks, but they have also been heavily repressing pro-Palestinian activism for months."
"Since Israel’s assault on Gaza began, there has been a systematic restriction and criminalization of pro-Palestine political action and speech, rendering transnational solidarity highly costly for many of those who wish to speak out against such injustices. In large part, this is because US universities—law schools included—have turned their backs on their claimed commitment to free speech."
Among many things, use of the word “#Zionist” sets off alarms for the many different people who hear it. Is it pure #antisemitism? Or is it an attack on the Israeli govt, whose snr leaders have expressed concern that the #ICC will issue arrest warrants for them? Is it an assault on the right of #Israel to exist? Or is it a demand that it not continue to exist w/in its current contours & constructs w/the #Palestinian people?
They call police to make arrests. They suspend students & declare them trespassers on their own campus. But the very meaning of a protest is to disrupt the status quo, to bring thoughtless momentum to a halt, to underscore precisely how imperfect the world really is.
On college campuses, the tents represent one of many truths. In addition to the savagery of #Hamas on #Oct7, along w/the cruel holding of #hostages, alongside the shames of #antisemitism & #Islamaphobia, Palestinian #civilians are being killed by the thousands.