New Delhi: The Indian external affairs ministry took a swipe at the US Thursday after widespread student protests exposed the deep divide in American society over Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Countries are judged by what they do at home and not what they say abroad, said Randhir Jaiswal, the ministry spokesperson. In every democracy, he said, there has to be “the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order”.
“Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad,” Jaiswal said at the regular MEA press briefing Thursday.
American campuses have been awash with protests as anti-war students come face to face with the police. The unrest over the conflict in Gaza took a different tone on 18 April when 108 students were detained and some others suspended in Columbia University.
Students across campuses have called on their universities to cut their financial ties with Israel or with any company that was supporting the war in Gaza.
Some common demands by student groups included greater transparency of the money received from Israel and how it was used, preventing business deals with military weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel and for colleges to stop accepting money from Israel for projects that aid its military efforts.
Administrators of universities from Democrat-run California to Republican-run Texas attempted to clear protesters and the encampments using their police departments, with many students being arrested in the process.
In Los Angeles, police officers in riot gear reportedly arrested at least 93 students and off-campus protestors on charges of trespassing and cleared the tents that had come up in the centre of the campus on Wednesday.
Similar scenes were witnessed at the University of Texas Austin, where police officers on horseback blocked protesters from entering campus. Columbia University in New York — the scene of the original protest — announced that classes would be shifted to a hybrid mode, given the situation within its campus.
Students at Harvard University pitched over thirty tents at the Harvard Yard, in front of a statue of a founder John Harvard on Wednesday, and stayed the night at the camp, despite the cold, the college newspaper Harvard Crimson reported.
Protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza have been ongoing in campuses in the US since the conflict first began on 7 October, 2023 with Gaza’s militant ruler Hamas launching an attack on south Israel, which killed about 1,200 Israelis and saw another 250 taken hostage.
The resulting military retaliation by Israel has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza-based health authorities, injured thousands and seen famine set in parts of the strip.
The starting point
Swarms of police officers armed in riot gear and carrying plastic zip ties entered the protest site at Columbia University, with the goal of breaking up the camp on 18 April 2024. One of the protesters arrested that day was Isra Hirsi, the daughter of US representative Ilhan Omar, who was suspended and evicted from campus housing.
i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings
i just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.
— isra hirsi (@israhirsi) April 18, 2024
“I authorised the New York Police Department to begin clearing the encampment from the South Lawn of Morningside campus that had been set up by students in the early hours of Wednesday morning,” said Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University on the police action.
Shafik added: “I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances. The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies.”
The action by the administration was reminiscent of the 1968 police action against student protesters in the university, who had seized five buildings in its campus to protest against the US’s policies on the Vietnam war and campus racism.
The actions by the Columbia administration sparked the current wave of protests across college campuses.
Government response
The protests have also brought to the forefront the divisions among Americans on the war in Gaza. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum have been threatening or calling for arrests of pro-Palestine supporters, calling them antisemitic.
“Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail. Anti-semitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period. Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled,” said Gregory W. Abbott, the governor of Texas on social media platform X.
Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses.
These protesters belong in jail.
Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period.
Students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled. https://t.co/XhLlQdvUl0
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 24, 2024
Speaker of the House of Representatives James Michael (Mike) Johnson on Wednesday called on Minouche Shafik to resign for the “inept” handling of the protests.
The Democratic mayor of New York City, Eric L. Adams, supported the police action at Columbia University.
In comparison, Democrats Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have supported the rights of students to peacefully protest while also repudiating those using the opportunity to promote anti-semitism in the US.
On Thursday, Columbia arrested and suspended its students who were peacefully protesting and have now ignited a nationwide Gaza Solidarity movement. This is more than the students hoped for and I am glad to see this type of solidarity. But to be clear, this about the genocide in… https://t.co/ixc7ZqcPnk
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 22, 2024
(Edited by Tikli Basu)