As many students across the nation protest the Israel-Hamas war at college campuses and urge colleges to divest from military investments, university administrators and State officials are increasingly relying upon State Law Enforcement Agencies to quell the peaceful, yet vociferous demonstrations. Although the students and even some faculty members are exercising their First Amendment rights in common areas of the campus, the administrators would rather shut down the protests which they perceive as a nuisance or a prelude to more unruly demonstrations involving inter-ethnic strife. Unfortunately, even when the protests have been free of violence, vandalism and hate, the police have reacted in a heavy-handed fashion by using tasers, tear gas, pepper balls and forcible restraint on pavements. This is what occurred on the campus of Emory University in Georgia today. Neither the students nor two faculty members, an Economics professor and the Chair of the Philosophy Department, were spared from the disproportionate police reaction. See the video from CNN here: www.cnn.com/…
11 Georgia State Democratic lawmakers were sufficiently appalled that they signed a statement calling on law enforcement to eschew violence. To wit, johnnyrivera.us/…
Similarly, at the University of Texas at Austin, 57 protesters were arrested and journalists were knocked down after the Governor called the State Troopers, some mounted on horses, to remove the students. The students were calling on the University to divest from the arms manufacturing industry which they contend profits from the death in the Israel-Hamas conflict. UT Austin has invested $52.5 million in the arms industry. Although the Governor claimed that the protests were anti-Semitic, Jeremy Suri, a Jewish professor of history at the school, disagreed with that specious inference:
“The law enforcement response was inappropriate and an “attack on students.” The protest was not disruptive during class this morning.“They're not shouting anything anti-Semitic, they're not harassing anyone, they're standing on the green lawn, expressing themselves,” “The appropriate response would be to ask them to be contained in an area, let them stay on the grass and let them shout until they have no voices left.”www.crossroadstoday.com/…
Right wing politicians from the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the Governors of red states are attempting to malign all anti-war protests as anti-Semitic. This broad brush approach was evident in PM Netanyahu’s recent statement in which he equated all US anti-war protesters to the anti-Semitic mobs in 1930s Germany. We are fortunate, however, to have Senator Bernie Sanders set the record straight:
"No, Mr. Netanyahu. It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in a little over six months, your extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000—70% of whom are women and children," said Sanders (I-Vt.). "It is not antisemitic to point out that your bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless—almost half the population."
"Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people," continued Sanders, who lost family members to the Nazi Holocaust. "But, please, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government. Do not use antisemitism to deflect attention from the criminal indictment you are facing in the Israeli courts."www.commondreams.org/...