U.S President, Joe Biden has given remarks on the pro-Palestine protests occurring nationwide at colleges and universities.
In his remarks, he said that it was not a “moment for politics” but was instead a “moment for clarity.”
Biden asserted that there’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.
“Violent protests are not protected. Peaceful protest is,” he said.
“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campus, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation … none of this is a peaceful protest.
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it’s against the law.”
Joe Biden
He added that protest should not veer into harassment, or prevent other students from receiving their education.
“There should be no place in any campus place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden averred.
He stressed, “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people and squash dissent … but neither are we a lawless country.”
Moreover, Biden said that he did not think that the National Guard should intervene in pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.
This latest stance from Biden comes as Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have called on Biden to allow the National Guard to quell protests on campus.
Several Democrats have dismissed the idea, noting that it would escalate tensions on campuses.
Biden also noted that the student protests have not made him reconsider any policies in the Middle East.
It was said that Biden ignored one of the worst acts of violence to be committed at the student protests over the past two weeks, that is, the attack by pro-Israeli protesters on the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA late on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
Meanwhile, police arrested at least 132 student protesters and put them on buses after they forcibly cleared a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) early on Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Photos from the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student paper, show protest signs and supplies left behind by protesters.
The signs advocated for UCLA to divest from Israel-linked companies
Graffiti was also sprayed on UCLA’s Royce Hall, where students were camping out, including graffiti reading “free Palestine.”
Biden’s comments came shortly after Trump weighed in on the protests.
Speaking outside of his hush money trial, Trump praised police in New York and California for cracking down on protesters.
“[The NYPD] did a job in Columbia and likewise in Los Angeles they did a really good job at UCLA,” he said.
He then renewed a familiar line.
“These are radical left lunatics. And they’ve got to be stopped,” he said.
Latest Sign Of Disdain For Biden Administration
US political analyst, Eric Ham opined that the student-led university protests are just the latest sign of public disdain for the Biden administration’s role in Israel’s war on Gaza.
“We have already begun to see the impacts that these protests, that these demonstrations, but more importantly, the backlash that many people are feeling about President Biden’s handling of this conflict,” Ham said to a news agency.
“We’ve already begun to see the impact that they are, in fact, having on elections across the country,” he stated.
“If you go back to the primaries in Michigan, Wisconsin or even Pennsylvania, there have been sizeable numbers of voters who have been voting ‘uncommitted’ to protest and to showcase their disdain for the administration’s handling of the war. Now what we are seeing is just the escalation of that disdain that’s now playing out across the nation on America’s colleges and universities.”
Eric Ham
Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, also said that even if pro-Palestine protesters do not succeed in pushing universities to divest from Israel, their campaign is sending a strong message that could have long-term impacts on US policy.
“The attention it brings to the issue … to the fact that young people across the country are morally opposed to any kind of support for this kind of oppression, will change things politically,” he asserted.
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