(New York) The pro-Palestinian demonstrations which have shaken American campuses for several weeks are seeking new life, after dispersals by the police, mass arrests and a severe call to order by the White House.
Early Friday, police smoothly dismantled an encampment at New York University (NYU), at the school’s request.
At the University of Chicago, the administration, which reported on disperse the gathering.
Police were at the scene on Friday. In images circulating on social networks, we could see demonstrators and counter-protesters facing each other.
On other campuses, law enforcement has intervened manu militari in recent days, such as at Columbia in New York and at UCLA in Los Angeles.
Nearly 2,000 people in total were arrested, according to a report established by several American media.
Highly criticized by students and within the teaching staff for having twice called the police to intervene – images which went around the world – the president of Columbia, Minouche Shafik, spoke of the “turmoil” in her establishment.
“These last two weeks have been some of the most difficult in Columbia’s history,” she said in a video posted Friday on social media, saying the student occupation of a building had been “ a violent act.”
“We have much to do, but I am committed to working every day and with each of you to rebuild the community on our campus,” she added.
Since April 17, a new wave of mobilization for Gaza has swept across American campuses, evoking, to a lesser extent, the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s.
In addition to demanding an end to the conflict in Gaza, these students are calling on universities to sever their relations with Israel and disengage from their investments linked to this country.
They also denounce the almost unconditional support of the United States for their ally.
Israel is engaged in a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7 on its soil.
Vietnam
Thursday, during a short speech, Democratic President Joe Biden, long silent on the demonstrations, insisted that “order must prevail”.
This earned him both criticism from the right, who considered him too complacent, and indignation from supporters of the demonstrators.
“There is a right to demonstrate, not a right to cause chaos,” said the octogenarian, candidate against Republican Donald Trump in the November presidential election.
His Minister of Education, Miguel Cardona, sent a letter to university leaders in which he said he was “incredibly concerned by reports of anti-Semitic hatred against students on certain campuses,” according to CNN. “.
The demonstrations have reignited the debate in the United States, already tense and even violent since the Hamas attack, on freedom of expression, anti-Zionism and what constitutes anti-Semitism.
On the one hand, students and teachers accuse their universities of seeking to censor political speech, on the other several personalities, including elected representatives of Congress, affirm that activists are fueling anti-Semitism.
The issue could undermine Mr. Biden’s race for the White House.
“This could be Biden’s Vietnam,” left-wing senator Bernie Sanders warned on CNN.
“I really fear that President Biden is putting himself in a position where he alienates not only young people, but a large part of the Democratic base,” he added.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump described the demonstrators as “radical left freaks”, who must “stop now”.
The mobilization inspired pro-Palestinian activists across the world, in France, as in the prestigious Parisian school Sciences Po, or at McGill University in Canada and at UNAM in Mexico.
Unlike other institutions, Brown University, in the American state of Rhode Island, agreed with the demonstrators to dismantle their encampment in exchange for a vote on possible “divestment”.