Pro-Palestinian mobilization on campus | White House calls for “peaceful” protests

(Washington) The White House on Sunday called on demonstrations in support of Gaza, which have increased in recent days at American universities, to remain “peaceful”, after around 275 people were arrested over the weekend , including a presidential candidate.

“We obviously respect the right to peaceful protest,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on ABC on Sunday.

“But we completely condemn the anti-Semitic remarks that we have heard in recent times and […] all the hate speech and threats of violence that are circulating,” he continued.

Starting last week from New York’s Columbia University, this new episode of the protest movement against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip has spread to a number of American campuses, from California to Massachusetts (north-east). ) passing through the southern United States.

The students denounce the United States’ military support for its Israeli ally and demand that their university cut all relations with companies linked to Israel.

Scenes of arrests have since followed one another across the country: demonstrators who have set up tents on their campus are dislodged, often in a muscular manner, by police officers in riot gear, at the request of university management.

Over the weekend, 100 people were arrested on a university campus in Boston and their encampment dismantled, 80 at a university in Missouri, 72 on a campus in Arizona and 23 others at Indiana University.

Candidate arrested

Jill Stein, candidate of the “Green Party” in the November presidential election, was arrested Saturday evening on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.

“It’s a question of freedom of expression… on a very important subject,” she declared on CNN shortly before her arrest. “And now they send the riot police and create a riot,” she denounced.

At Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut (northeast), another prestigious establishment, demonstrators established a new encampment on Sunday, according to the school’s student newspaper. A few days earlier, police had dismantled another, arresting dozens of people at the site for trespassing.

Between calls to let demonstrators exercise their freedom of expression, and exhortations to act against the anti-Semitic comments and acts reported by some during these gatherings, university administrations are attempting a perilous balancing act.

The main campus of the University of Southern California (USC) was closed on Saturday after pro-Palestinian groups re-established a previously evacuated encampment, the establishment announced on X.

Since the start of the war in October between Israel and Hamas, the conflict has unleashed passions in renowned universities in the United States, such as Harvard, UPenn (Philadelphia), or Columbia (New York), where groups of pro-Palestinian students were suspended.

The war was triggered by the unprecedented attack on October 7 on Israeli soil by Hamas commandos which resulted in the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.

In retaliation, Israel promised to destroy the Islamist movement, and its vast military operation in the Gaza Strip left 34,454 dead, mostly civilians, according to Hamas.