Debate grows over whether student protests in the US are anti-Semitic or anti-war

Protests over the war in Gaza at dozens of universities in USA continue this Tuesday to show their rejection of US policy towards Israelwhile rhetorical controversy grows over whether such demonstrations promote anti-Semitism or are simply anti-war and include Jewish students.

The speaker of the House of Representatives, the Republican Michael Johnsondescribed this Tuesday as “anti-american” that the current American president, Joe Biden, “is unable or unwilling” condemned what is happening at some American universities and pointed to a lack of leadership in a “critical moment”.

“It’s not about freedom of expression“, the Republican added in a press conference about the pro-Palestinian protests, and said that the country needs “desperately” a clear moral authority in the face of what he considers a rise in anti-Semitism.

The conservative senator Tom Cotton has come to call the protesters “proterrorist mob” and has asked for a tougher hand against the students by the Police.

The governor of Texas, the Republican Greg Abbottconsidered last week that the students participating in the peaceful pro-Palestinian protests in that southern state should go to jail for promoting hatred and anti-Semitism.

The White House has also stressed on different occasions that the president Biden supports the right to “peaceful protest“, but that is against “any violent rhetoric, hate threats (…) and anti-Semitism”, something that some students have denounced, but it is not widespread and from the beginning it has allowed the participation of Jewish students opposed to the war.

Apart from criticizing Washington’s support for Israel during the war of LoopAnother common denominator among these demonstrations is the students’ demand that their educational centers cease their investments in the Israeli private sector and promote greater transparency about these relationships and their possible involvement with the military industry.

The progressive Jewish senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders He rejected the parallel drawn by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, between the protests of these days and those that occurred during Nazi Germany against the Jews.

“Anti-Semitism is a vile and despicable form of intolerance, but please do not insult the intelligence of Americans by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government.“Said Sanders in an interview.

“The vast majority of people who protest (…) are tired and disgusted by this war“said the senator.

Omer Bartova Jewish professor and expert on the Holocaust and Genocide at Brown University, has warned that accusations of anti-Semitism against university protests, in which he has participated by leading assemblies and debates at the University of Pennsylvania, are dangerous because they are used as throwing weapon

“There are politics and there are prejudices. And if we don’t make a distinction between the two, then what we are really doing is imposing a silence on the Israeli government’s policies that have now culminated in the total destruction of Gaza.“, he indicated Bartov in a radio interview this Tuesday.

This Tuesday College Democrats of Americathe student organization of the Democratic Party, supported the protests on campuses in a statement for “see this war for what it is: destructive, genocidal and unjust”, while they condemned the police actions to evict the camps.