Comment by President Joe Biden that he has most strongly dissociated himself away from any conflicts that take place at college campuses in the aftermath of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
As regarding the violence that has happened on college campuses linked with numerous pro-Palestinian protests, President Joe Biden made stern and clear comments, stating that “dissent must never cause disorder”.
While standing at the White House, Biden said everybody has the right to protest, but there is not the right to destroy property. He said that there is no place for such hatred, which may include antisemitism, Islamophobia, and discrimination against Arabs or Palestinian Americans among others.
The act of damaging the property does not contribute to peaceful protesting. It is not permissible. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, halting graduations, and forcing the closure of schools – these are not peaceful mobilization.
Told point-blank if the protests have made him consider any of his policies about the conflict in Gaza, he replied, ‘No.’ He also said that his view on the matter of removing the National Guard from conducting the job of resolving conflicts on the academic campuses was the antithesis of the matter that some Republicans have called for.
Biden’s remarks today are the strongest ever made by the president, who, before that, had always criticized the unrest even as he had said both sides needed to work together to address their respective concerns. So far, the president has been walking a fine political line, showing at the same time, support for the Israelis in the war against Hamas and their quest to restore calm and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to the people. At the same time, the young progressives in the Democratic Party base have been very critical of the unrelenting use of force against the people in Gaza.
However, the situation with a series of campus confrontations arrests, and clashes as both the campuses around the country prepare for the day of graduation is what seems to be in dire need of an immediate response from the White House.
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“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said. “The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues. But neither are we a lawless country.”
The remarks occurred on the bar of the escalating tensions at the University of California, Los Angeles. The events later that evening in Los Angeles were reported by police to have led to the city-wide “tactical alert” that followed the formation of the protester’s encamp. The campus police can be heard on loudspeakers telling students to leave saying that they may be “in violation of the law and subject to administrative actions”. Six of the tents were being burned down following Tuesday night’s incidents where counterprotesters and protesters attacked each other with poles and lighting flares.
Over 100 people were arrested as police swarmed through the camp where they were pushing the demonstrators away from the school. The whole incident also saw at least one officer got injured in an effort to save the day.
Tensions escalated further at Columbia University on Tuesday night when Minouche Shafik, the university president, sent campus authorities to force noisy students out of a building they were using as a blockade. Riot police served in the operation and arrested more than 100 protesters.
There was this countering force in the form of the administration that was finding ways to cautiously respond to matters as compared to the U.S Congress which saw members on both sides of the aisle quickly act by condemning or passing praise.
Joining the GOP’s House Oversight Committee, members also visited the George Washington University encampment in Washington and demanded that the D.C. Police Forces took action against building the demonstrations.
The hearings included the inquiries of Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Both of those were met with the young people protesting with their fists in the air and booing.
“The Congress has the legal authority over D.C.,” Comer says. “With congressional jurisdiction, there will be enhanced operations of the university police forces, which will be working with the Washington police.”
In the House, on Wednesday, the bill received resounding support from both parties, and it codified into Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the relevant language of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. The Education Department would now be empowered to enforce provisions against the hate.
A number of the Democrats, including D — , of Washington, D.C., decided not to support it pointing out that their measure failed to the Committee examining it.
“That free speech will be intimidated is the basis of my concern. Freedom of speech which is critical only of Israel is not a form of unlawful discrimination. … The bill touches wider than the billing room.”
Conference members showed they still were in the mood to demonstrate mercy Thursday evening by visiting the Holocaust museum that is in Washington country. A bipartisan event, headed by a Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a Republican Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessee, a Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito of New York, a Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, a Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, and Rep. Republican Max Miller, of Ohio, was held.
The campus demonstrations sprang up on Oct. 7, when Hamas used a surprise attack on Israel, whereby 1200 people died and 253 were taken hostages. Israeli forces acted to pay back with incessant airstrikes that demolished many dwelling places of Gaza and then a ground pick up – which the Gaza Health Ministry says have hit more than 34,000 Palestinians at once.
In the very beginning, most American universities could merely witness sporadic, small-scale, scattered awakening among the colleges with one of the largest Jewish populations, but soon their scale actively increased and became more complex to the extent that it has turned to be prolonged on some of the campuses with highest social status, where Jewish students have spoken up and claimed to feel unsafe after antisemitic attacks have sharply upped Numerous of the youths participating in the countrywide protests have been initiating and echoing to pull out their schools from financial undertakings for companies which weaponize Israel in the Gaza Strip region or that affiliate themselves with the Israeli occupation. In addition, Universities have been trying to prevent demonstrating non-students participation in such activities as well.
