Protesters take part in a demonstration at Columbia University in New York City, USA, in the early hours of April 24. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Rui
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Anti-war demonstrations at colleges and universities in many parts of the United States have intensified over the past week, demanding a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. In the face of the anti-war wave, President Joe Biden signed a huge foreign aid appropriations bill this week to provide more military aid to Israel. Police in the United States arrested hundreds of protesters.
The spread of anti-war demonstrations in colleges and universities shows that young Americans are dissatisfied with and question Biden's Gaza policy, and are even considered by public opinion to be likely to affect his presidential election.
The anti-war wave swept through colleges and universities
Since the arrest last week of hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia University, student protests have erupted on a growing number of university campuses, including Harvard, Yale and other prominent universities. In response to the chaos, Columbia University announced that it will adopt a combination of online and in-person teaching by the end of the spring semester.
Local media reported that the American university demonstrators called for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. They also demanded that the university cut ties with Israeli arms suppliers and other businesses profiting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the expulsion and other disciplinary actions against the protesting students, faculty and staff be revoked.
The students were ethnically diverse, ranging from Muslims to Jews.
People gather on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin on April 24. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Christopher Davila)
Biden condemned the "anti-Semitic demonstrations" and "those who do not understand the situation of the Palestinians" on the 22nd. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, said on the 23rd that the demonstrations at Columbia University posed a serious "threat" to Jewish students, and "these are not peaceful protests, they are anti-Semitic thugs."
The organizers acknowledged that some of the slogans and rhetoric were extreme, but opposed being labelled "antisemitic," stressing that the "inflammatory" words and actions of individual individuals did not represent the anti-war movement as a whole.
Sarah Bolles, a Jewish student at Barnard College, affiliated with Columbia, said at a news conference attended by Jewish and Palestinian demonstrators that college management, some members of Congress and Biden "equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism" in an attempt to "silence us," media reported.
Zachary Herring, a member of Jewish Voices for Peace, said during a demonstration at Yale, "We all need to recognize that we are fighting for violence and nothing else." ”
Biden has "added fuel to the fire" of the conflict
At a time when the anti-war wave was set off in colleges and universities across the United States, the US Senate passed a foreign aid appropriation bill totaling $95 billion on the 23rd, including $26.38 billion in aid to Israel. Biden signed the bill on the 24th to make it law.
After the United States approved a huge amount of aid, Israel violently bombed the Gaza Strip for the second consecutive day on the 24th, and at the same time launched an "offensive operation" against southern Lebanon.
Robert Wood (front left), deputy permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations, votes against a draft resolution on Palestine's candidacy for full membership in the United Nations at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 18 April. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Yi
As Israel's biggest "backer," the United States has not only continued to provide military aid to Israel, but also supported it politically. On 18 July, the United States voted the only negative vote in the UN Security Council to veto the draft resolution on Palestine becoming a member of the UN, further igniting the anger of the demonstrators.
The current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out on 7 October last year and has dragged on to this day, causing a serious humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. According to the health department of the Gaza Strip, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 34,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children, injured more than 70,000 and displaced more than a million.
Will it lose young voters?
With more and more civilian casualties in Gaza, Biden's handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and his ability to manage it are widely questioned. The ongoing anti-war demonstrations in colleges and universities have amplified young voters' skepticism about Biden's Gaza policies. Polls show that Biden's support among young voters is ahead of former Republican President Donald Trump, but his advantage is not as obvious as it was four years ago.
People participate in a rally in solidarity with Palestine in Washington, D.C., on January 13. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Aaron)
Political analyst David Schultz believes that the mass student protests could affect Biden's presidential election, and that "the Democrats need a very high turnout of young voters to win the election", otherwise the situation will be in favor of the Republican Party. Dan Senna, who served as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, also believes that the student protests have brought challenges to Biden's election, "I am most worried about young people."
Maggie Moynishin, a student at the University of Minnesota, said that the students who protested at the university "will not vote for him [Biden]" because they are extremely unhappy with Biden's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "which is why so many people voted with 'no commitment'."
"No commitments" was called a "protest vote" by the US media during the Democratic Party primary, that is, voters only expressed partisan leanings, but did not support a specific candidate. Biden defeated his rivals in the primary election in Michigan, a "swing state" that ended on the evening of February 27, but more than 100,000 Democratic voters ticked the "no promise" option on their ballots. Dissatisfied with the Biden administration's "bias" since the outbreak of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, activists in Michigan launched a "protest vote" campaign to protest against Biden.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling place in Petersburg, Virginia, U.S., on March 5. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Wessted Barnes)
Biden's campaign sought to downplay the impact of the student protests on the campaign, saying the demonstrators were a small fraction of the electorate and nothing more than "attracting disproportionate media coverage." Polls also show that other issues such as the economy are more of a concern to younger voters than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But one congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the constant social media reporting of young people seeing images of the war in Gaza, hungry children, and the Biden administration's unbridled military aid to Israel is indeed "a problem" for Democrats. (Reporters: Xu Yuan, Deng Xianlai, Hu Ruoyu; Editors: Chen Dan, Shen Haoyang, Wang Fengfeng)
Source丨Xinhua News Agency