American campus protests: Lessons from the Emory epiphany

The viral video of a female professor of Emory University in the US state of Georgia being roughly told by a burly cop to “get down on the ground” and being headlocked and wrestled into that position as a crowd heckled the two uniformed men doing so, has an epiphanic quality. What if a protesting Indian academic was videographed being similarly manhandled by desi policemen? There would be calls (especially from abroad) for the Prime Minister, no less, to resign.

But relevant concerned Americans, unlike their concerned expatriate Indian counterparts, have not called for President Joe Biden to step down—or even stop his re-election campaign. Maybe they believe the Biden campaign officials quoted by US media, who insist public polling and party research show that issues other than Palestine are more important for most young voters—such as health care and inflation. Why are these individuals occupying campuses then?

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As more and more US campuses get drawn into the protests—whether they call themselves pro-something or deny they are anti-something—the instigators, the shadowy leaders of Hamas hiding safely away from the bloodied expanse of Gaza, must be pleased at the international support they have garnered in lieu of the over 34,000 Palestinian deaths in Israeli retaliations since October 7. It is surely the most audacious gambit for world attention in the 21st century.

The video from Emory had other messages for viewers, especially those not privileged enough to be on a US university campus circa 2024. For instance, the incongruity of police officers being called “Hitler” or “Fascist!” while trying to contain anti-Israel protestors—okay, pro-Palestine demonstrators—clearly escaped most of those present there, whether silently filming on their phonecams or screaming the choicest invectives on the law enforcement officials.

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The claims that “outsiders” were behind the spiralling demonstrations on campuses would also sound familiar to Indians. But if students and teachers willingly join professional agent provocateurs, does it really matter who began the sit-ins and tented encroachments? For most people both in the US and elsewhere, the last time they saw such widespread and seemingly uncontrollable campus protests was during the Vietnam War over half a century ago.

Then, the US had skin in the game so to speak as young Americans were being drafted into the military and dying in a faraway, unwinnable war. The same cannot be said for what is happening in Israel. Heavily armed Hamas terrorists from Gaza attacked, killed and kidnapped Israelis, including many women, children and elderly; Israel retaliated to stamp out Hamas and rescue its citizens. Hamas cynically used civilian Palestinians as shields leading to a high death toll.

Why university students and teachers should consider it their business to bring things to a standstill on campus for that specific conflict among the many raging simultaneously elsewhere in the world, is unclear. Ukrainians must be wondering why their ongoing battle against Putin’s Russia has not resulted in a similar demonstration of disruptive support in the ideological battleground of Academic America, though Kyiv is a good 1,000 miles closer to the US than Gaza.

The biggest casualty, however, is the shattering of the touchstone for liberal democracies of the post-Nazi era: zero tolerance for anti-Semitism. It is now open season on the Jewish cause—and perhaps Jews too, soon—with platoons of ill-informed young Americans marching around US university campuses and streets in support of Palestine and, by extension, the main fundamentalist Islamic ruling force of Gaza. There’s no shame in being anti-Jew if you’re pro-Palestine.

So much so that politicians like the Somali-origin Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar can be openly anti-Jewish—even implying that being anti-Semitic is okay if the Jews in question are “pro-genocide”, a position that’s rather difficult to ascertain. Her consistent anti-Jewish remarks were enough to get her voted out of the House panel on foreign relations committee and for her to become a darling of the elements that now chant “pro-Palestine” slogans in universities.

How did “outsiders” barge in and occupy the green area, pitching tents unchallenged? University authorities across the US have been egregiously soft pedalling anti-Semitic tendencies for years now; some say ever since the Left “won” the culture wars with the ascent of Barack Obama to the White House and the subsequent wave of wokeism. No wonder the “other” opinion is effortlessly excised from serious academic dialogue and public debate on the Hamas-Israel war.

Ironically, in the UK for the past few years, the Left—not the Right—wing had been ineffectually fobbing off accusations about increasing anti-Semitism. Now, there is no reason for anyone to dissemble anymore there. Skinheads or keffiyeh-heads, just use the term “pro-Palestine” and get a free pass from the media, the police and anti-bigotry watchdogs on slogans like “From the river to the sea…” The racist Right must be wondering how they got edged out of that game.

Earlier this month, an “openly” Jewish man—that is, he was wearing a kippah or skullcap—being told to stay away from a pro-Palestine rally in London by an officious policeman because his presence was “antagonising” demonstrated how skewed the situation has become in key western “democracies”. Astoundingly, in its initial “apology”, the Metropolitan Police maintained that the Jewish man’s presence was “provocative” but withdrew it after being roundly criticised.

Its second apology after retracting the first was equally bizarre. “In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offense. This was never our intention. We have removed that statement, and we apologize. Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in the city.” Was the last two sentences statements of fact by the police or wishful thinking? What is the definition of ‘provocation’ for a police force today?

Meanwhile, back in the US, commencement (graduation) season begins in May. And the US President generally addresses a few of the ceremonies. The pressure to give in to the students must be strong, their anti-Semitic tones notwithstanding. Elections are not far off after all. And the Democrat dependence on university and urban voters makes it important for Biden to keep them on his side even as he does a tightrope walk on support for Israel as it plans another Gaza attack.

Predictably, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has characterised these widespread and prolonged anti-Israel—“pro-Palestine”—campus protests as being far worse than the two-day demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia by the Far Right in 2017. Ironically that rally also saw anti-Semitic and racist chants, and resulted in one death, but has been portrayed since then as a narrowly averted war. But both protests undeniably have been manifestations of deep hate.

If the protesting students and teachers at Emory and other campuses are asked what they realistically want from the authorities, most will be at a loss to answer. Will they admit they want the destruction of Israel, conflating their goal with the stated objective of Hamas? Can the US ever agree to fulfil that demand? Can a country be dissolved just because agitating American academia wants it? Or is opportunistic continued chaos and disruption of order their actual intention?

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.