Biden condemns violence in university protests against war in Gaza

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, condemned this Thursday the violence in the university protests against war in Gaza and stated: ““Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is.”

Biden He made these statements during an urgently called speech at the White House that did not appear on the official agenda that the press office sent to the media on Wednesday night.

In statements lasting just three minutes, the president defended the students’ right to demonstrate, but insisted that “order must prevail” in response to the riots that have occurred in recent days on university campuses across the country with hundreds of arrests.

“Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is. It is illegal when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it is illegal. Vandalism, break-ins, breaking windows, paralyzing campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a peaceful protest.”, he emphasized.

“Threatening people, intimidating them, instilling fear in them is not a peaceful protest. It is illegal”, he stressed.

Biden I affirm that “dissent is essential for democracy“, but the dissent “It should never lead to disorder and should never result in the denial of the rights of other students to complete the semester and their college education.”.

The president, who had remained silent in recent days about the spread of the protests throughout the country, stated that on university campuses “there is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind“, whether it’s “antisemitism, islamophobia” or discrimination against students of Arab or Palestinian origin.

At the end of his speech, Biden responded with a dry “No” when a journalist asked him if the university protests had made him reconsider his policies toward Israel.

He also answered negatively when asked if National Guard reservists should intervene in these protests, something that the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, resorted to to repress the protesters at the University of Texas at Austin.

The last time Biden spoke about the protests was on April 22, when, in response to questions from reporters, he said he condemned the “antisemitic protests” already “those who do not understand what is happening to the Palestinians”.

Hundreds of students have been arrested in protests, encampments and occupations of buildings in pro-Palestinian protests throughout the country, after harsh interventions by riot police in actions that have generally been peaceful, but that their critics have branded as anti-Semitic and organized by external agents.