Inevitable protests

US universities and colleges, students, police and law enforcement are bracing for the resumption of anti-Gaza war protests as the academic year begins. Protests are inevitable in the run-up to the US presidential and Congressional elections on Nov.5. Protesters who vote could influence outcomes by refusing to vote for Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris who is standing for president against Donald Trump. Critics of Biden administration policy are unlikely to cast ballots for Trump but they could boycott the poll or vote for Green Party nominee Jill
Stein who supports the Palestinians and calls for an end to the Gaza war.

Vice President Harris is unable to break ranks with President Joe Biden, her boss until next January who flatly refuses to use US leverage on Israel by pausing arms deliveries. Instead, he has maintained the flow of bombs and munitions which Israel needs to maintain the Gaza war. Israel has adopted a defiant stand and refused to adopt and implement Biden’s May 31 ceasefire plan. If Harris wins the presidency, she has said she would continue to arm Israel despite a June poll which showed that 61 per cent of US citizens want a halt to arms supplies to Israel during the war. For those under 30 years of age, that number surges to 77 per cent.

The situation in Gaza has become increasingly dire during the summer university vacation. As Israel has continued its military offensive, the toll has risen to more than 40,700 deaths, 94,000 wounded and 10,000 disappeared beneath the rubble, 70 per cent women and children. Despite popular pressure for a ceasefire and Israeli hostage and Palestinian prisoner swaps, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has overruled his generals and sabotaged the Biden deal for months by insisting that Israeli troops must remain in Gaza indefinitely and l must control Palestinian civilian freedom of movement between the north and south of the strip.

Last week, Israeli forces mounted a major offensive in the West Bank, besieging cities and refugee camps, killing fighters and civilians and destroying roads, water pipes, electricity and telephone lines. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres immediately called for a halt to Israel’s operation. While recognising Israel’s right to self-defence, Britain expressed deep concern over “the methods Israel has employed and by reports of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.” The Biden administration has ignored Israel’s new offensive and issued new sanctions against violent West Bank Israeli settlers.

Last April, US countrywide demonstrations over Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza morphed into a a 100-student encampment at Columbia University in New York. They called for the university to divest from arms firms and businesses dealing with Israel which they charged with committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. As this tactic was adopted by tens of thousands of students across the US, the more than 3,000 students who were arrested at camp protests have faced criminal prosecution. Many more have to deal with punitive measures adopted by universities, including suspension, expulsion, denial of degrees, and refusal to allow protesters to finish courses necessary for graduation. Among the students harmed by joining protests, many justify their actions by arguing that their universities and colleges have either divested from Israel and firms dealing with Israel or shown willingness to discuss with students divestment and transparency of investments.

Pro-Israel organisations and individuals have exerted pressure on universities and colleges to promote the false conflation of criticism of Israel, a state. and Zionism, an ideology, with antisemitism, anti-Jewish racism. The case of New York University (NYU) has prompted the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express grave concern about the updated Guidance and Expectations for Student Conduct. In a letter to NYU’s provost, MESA argued “the new policy is likely to undermine the ability of students to exercise their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and assembly, while also threatening the academic freedom of NYU faculty by subjecting them to monitoring and sanctions by administrators.” This policy could serve as a dangerous precedent to be adopted by other universities.

Arrests, prosecutions, and university anti-protest measures could challenge the right to free speech and assembly guaranteed in the hallowed First Amendment of the US Constitution. Colorado First Amendment lawyer Steve Zansberg told the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Service that the First Amendment protects students at government universities but not at private universities. He stated, “There’s no doubt that students on a government-funded college campus have the right to speak and to share their views, and to call upon the administration to divest of investments in Israel or other companies supporting the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.” However, he said, they cannot “interfere with the educational mission of those institutions... university administrators cannot take sides in the debate. They have to enforce the same content neutral restrictions equally to both sides.”

If he were to win the presidential election, Trump has said he would use state National Guards militiamen or regular army troops to suppress protests. This could be a risky policy. In May 1970, students demonstrating against the Vietnam War clashed with armed National Guards at Kent State University in Ohio. Four students were killed, nine injured. This incident has, so far, given pause to national, state, and university authorities when considering how to respond to mass student protests.

When at the University of Michigan last week peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters began to march, they were assaulted by police who injured two people badly enough to be taken to hospital. Two of those detained were activists who had been monitored and harassed for weeks before the demonstration, Middle East Eye reported.

The US cannot claim to be a democratic country which respects freedom of speech and assembly if those who wield power act to silence those who protest their policies.

Photo: TNS