Several colleges across the United States have been paralyzed by pro-Palestinian protests for more than a week. Students, but in some cases activists who have nothing to do with universities, express solidarity with civilians in the Gaza Strip who are suffering as a result of Israel’s war against the Hamas movement responsible for the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
Protesters demand an end to the conflict. Some universities have come to an agreement with the protesters, but elsewhere the situation is escalating and clashes are taking place. The police have already detained hundreds of people, at Columbia University in New York, armed forces intervened against students who occupied one of the school buildings.
“Hamilton Hall, which they temporarily occupied, has a long history of such occupations. Similar protests were held in the same place at the end of the 1960s, for example, against the war in Vietnam,” Matěj Jungwirth, who is currently working on his doctorate at Northwestern University in the state of Illinois, whose students also participated in the protests, pointed out to Seznam Správy.
“So it’s a symbolic place, but it turns out that there are apparently topics that the intellectual liberal elites can’t handle, and everything then escalates in this way,” adds an analyst from the Association for International Affairs (AMO).
In the interview, in addition to his own experiences with the demonstrations, he also provides his perspective on the accusation that the protests are a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
What do you think about the events of the past days? The situation has already escalated enough.
I assume you are referring primarily to the events at Columbia University. Just yesterday, I was writing to a friend of mine that the shots from New York – that is, from Columbia and the City College of New York, where, by the way, there was also a very harsh intervention – look a bit like dystopian thrillers.
I think the heavy-handed police response was very disproportionate. It is a sharply escalating step that does not correspond to the threat, scale and form of most of those protests. Of course, there are some individual excesses, but in principle, what happened at Columbia is, in my opinion, a big failure of the university management. It shows an unwillingness to meet the students at the negotiating table.
It was, I think, a very cowardly attempt to abdicate responsibility by delegating it to the NYPD and de facto inviting them in, which is unprecedented and hard to believe in many ways. Additionally, from what I’ve heard about Columbia, the academic professors or the academic senate were not involved at all, were not informed, and had no say in the matter of their university becoming a “war zone.”
Photos from the protests
The unrest on American academia continues. While police detained hundreds of people in New York, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), police began removing barricades around a pro-Palestinian camp on Thursday night.
A frequent counter-argument will probably be that the protesters should not have occupied buildings, should not have set up tents, and should have formulated their demands in a different way. Specifically, the Hamilton Hall building, which they temporarily occupied, has a long history of such occupations. Similar protests were held at the same place in the late 1960s against the war in Vietnam.
So it’s a symbolic place, but it turns out that there are apparently topics that the intellectual liberal elites can’t handle, and everything escalates in that way.
But Northwestern University, where you work, was able to come to an agreement with the protesters. How do you rate the overall approach of the school?
I am glad that negotiations between the university administration and the protesting students have been open here since the beginning of the protests. At the beginning of the week, a breakthrough agreement was reached, which includes major concessions on the part of the university, regarding, for example, transparency regarding university investments, which was also one of the major demands of the protesters.
What I mean is that at Northwestern, but also at Brown University and a few other schools, for example, they are capable of some plus or minus civil behavior and there are no such violent and dangerous escalations as we see elsewhere.
Why do you think it was different for you and these other schools?
I think it’s a combination of different factors that have different strengths in different places. Specifically at Columbia, the major problem was that the first camp was set up on the day the university’s president was to testify in Congress about allegations of anti-Semitism at the school. I think she took it very personally – like a gauntlet thrown down and an insult to power.
The American political context is very important here. Many university administrations today are on the defensive – facing attacks and accusations that they condone hate speech against Jewish students and communities. The question, of course, is to what extent these accusations are legitimate. However, they create a situation where universities try to show, for example, funders that they take everything seriously, and this then contributes to the sharp escalation and suppression of protests.
But I think institutional history will also be a factor, including how strong Middle Eastern communities are at particular universities and what kind of relationships they have.
United States and Israel
According to the US State Department, Israeli soldiers committed human rights violations even before October 7. However, they will use exceptions in the laws so that military aid to the country continues.
So at Northwestern did this factor prove strong?
It turned out that the coalition supporting the protest was very broad. Of course, there was a core of Middle Eastern students, but we also saw a high turnout of progressive Jewish students who were very visible at the protests. Seders were held here, for example (Jewish holiday, editor’s note) celebrations, while in the other corner Muslims were praying five times a day and at one point a holy reception was also taking place.
Therefore, it was much more difficult for the opponents or the administration of the school to trivialize the situation to the level of anti-Semitic cries or hatred, which I think, on the contrary, is successful at other universities. However, in the eyes of the public, this justifies the harsh repression that we see elsewhere.
In addition to what you’ve already outlined, what did the protests look like at your university?
The protest camp was set up last Thursday morning and initially consisted of about 50 people and several tents. Already in the first hours, the university police tried to dissolve it, but this was prevented by the considerable participation of university professors, who, regardless of whether they agreed with the demands, proclaimed that due to freedom of expression, one cannot be selective in who to give this freedom and to whom deny her. In response, the camp grew very quickly.
I think people don’t appreciate that this is actually a group of very young people who are going somewhere for the first time to “camp” and learn how to set up tents, manage food, get water, where to go to the toilet or how to dispose of garbage. These are completely banal things, but they are very important for the movement as such and for building some solidarity and community.
We have already mentioned the circulating accusations of anti-Semitism, so I have to ask if you have seen anything that would be so-called over the line in your country?
I think we all have a different perception of what is over the edge and what is not. There were individual incidents at Northwestern that were already over the line; for example, the “Death to Israel” graphic on one university building. But it was immediately taken down and its author, who was also the only one who had any problems with the police, was arrested. I think the organizers did a very good job in management and moderation.
The Hague is also following the events in the Gaza Strip
The events surrounding Gaza’s main hospitals may become part of an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which hears criminal cases against individuals for war crimes.
The infamous slogan “From river to sea, Palestine will be free” (From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, note ed.), which many people who disagree with the protests see as anti-Semitism or support for genocidal policies against Jews and the state of Israel. I personally wouldn’t use it or chant it, but I think the reaction to it is exaggerated. It’s a semantic debate about who said what and how they meant it.
On a general level, I think there will be individuals and people whose participation in the protests is perhaps in some way motivated by anti-Semitism. But I definitely don’t think there will be many. Individual excesses certainly do not define the movement as such and its demands as such.
You observe the action directly on the spot, so you have a better idea than we do. Do these protests even resonate outside the campuses of individual schools?
Certainly. Campuses are the epicenters of these protests, but I think it’s the participation of the wider communities in that people from outside often come to support the protests. The argument that there are external agitators and professional demonstrators at the protests is misplaced. As for Northwestern, I’d say 20-25% were outside protesters, the rest were students.
It actually happens on such a community level – people come, bring some food or come to protest with the students.
However, what we see in Columbia, Texas or Indiana will have a political impact. I think that this event can affect the presidential election and the decision of people who will or will not vote in it.
