The mood at many US universities is tense to the breaking point. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators loudly express their displeasure, and Jewish students feel threatened. In some places the police arrive and students are thrown off campus. Politicians denounce anti-Semitism. A visit to Columbia University.
On the street in front: police and flashing lights. The nearby subway exits: sealed off. The gates of the elite university: ostentatiously locked. The megaphone behind it: overloaded with pro-Palestinian slogans. And since last week, the next possible escalation has been waiting around the corner. The “Strategic Operations” police officers in special equipment are standing there on Tuesday afternoon, almost within shouting distance of the demonstration that various New York activist groups have called for. About 150 participants crowd the sidewalk in front of a tall black iron gate at Columbia University. They are calling for an end to Israel’s fighting in the distant Gaza Strip – among other things. Behind it, in the middle of the campus, is the activists’ tent camp.
Protests against Israel’s actions against the civilian population have been going on in the USA for months. But since last week, it’s no longer just slogans that can be heard, but also the clicking of handcuffs. It began at the prestigious Columbia University in Manhattan: the president had asked the police to break up a protest in the middle of campus. They arrested more than 100 students. The university administration suspended them and expelled them from the premises – some of them from their living quarters. Since then, solidarity demonstrations have been taking place at universities across the country, such as the elite Yale University, in California and state universities in Austin, Texas, and Minnesota.
At some universities there were scuffles between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students. The police arrested more demonstrators, around 150 on Tuesday at New York University, which is also private, and on Wednesday in Austin. Every day is a test of what is and is not allowed on U.S. college campuses. Where does the right to freedom of expression extend and where does anti-Semitism begin? How do private colleges like Columbia protect their students? And what influence do they have on management? The US Congress is dealing with it, the White House, and the US media is reporting in detail.
“Israel bombed, Columbia paid”?
John Sullivan, sunglasses, beige sweater, needs a break. The 19-year-old leaves the core of the protest, lowers his stick flag in Palestinian colors and massages his shoulder. He is enrolled at another college in northern New York City and came out of solidarity: “I’m here to show my support for the students who were suspended and arrested for freely expressing their opinions,” he explains. Columbia should stop using its foundation money to invest in Israel-friendly companies and thereby “finance genocide.” “Israel bombed, Columbia paid, how many children did you kill today?” shout the other demonstrators.
Private universities in the USA are financed through tuition fees, but also through donations, for example from successful former graduates. At Columbia University, revenue comes from treating patients in its medical facilities. The university also invests the money in its stock portfolio to grow it. Does it also finance companies involved in the war in the Middle East?
In December, 89 student groups submitted a joint petition. Based on tax records of the university’s capital results, they argued that Columbia had at least indirect interests in BlackRock and Barclays Bank, which in turn profited from defense contractors; as well as to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which themselves manufactured weapons that Israel also uses. It is unclear whether such holdings continue. This is not clear from the university’s reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The demonstrators want Columbia to use self-imposed rules to guarantee that no university money goes to the war in the Middle East. Like at the beginning of 2021, when the university decided to stop giving money to oil and gas companies in order to, according to its own statement, help bring global carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. Last year, the Columbia Investment Management Company said it managed $18.7 billion; 774 million of the 5.9 billion dollars in annual expenditure were profits from the investment sector.
University President Shafik criticized
Police at Columbia University are particularly concerned about keeping the streets clear for traffic. On Tuesday, several observers from the civil rights organization ACLU will be on site to document a possible escalation. “Hopefully this will make the demonstrators feel safer,” said one of them. When a van with three LED video walls drives past the gate, some demonstrators cheer. Even more of them as the image changes: University President Nemat Shafik can be seen with sparkling red eyes, like villains in superhero comics and films.
A few months ago, Claudine Gay, president of the elite Harvard University, and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania resigned under enormous pressure after they failed to speak out decisively against anti-Semitic statements on university campuses before the US Congress. Shafik was also summoned to the Capitol and testified there last week. A day later, she approved the police operation in which the students were arrested, which in turn triggered the current escalation.
Shafik is also the target of criticism from Congress. The day after the protest outside the gates, Republican Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, appears within sight of the protest camp on Columbia’s campus. While he talks about how violence and anti-Semitism should have no place at the country’s universities, the students greet him with chants. Johnson criticizes that Jewish students are afraid of coming to university. When he calls on Shafik to resign if she can’t restore order “immediately,” things get particularly loud. Johnson put new military aid for Israel to the vote at the weekend, thereby enabling it to be passed.
Not only Johnson, but also US President Joe Biden has already commented on the current student demonstrations and denounced anti-Semitism. The boundaries are fluid at Columbia University. On some signs, demonstrators are calling for an end to hostilities or help for the civilian population. But at the same time things are being chanted that could be considered incitement in Germany: they indirectly question Israel’s right to exist or openly call for armed struggle in the spirit of Hamas. It is similar with other pro-Palestinian demonstrations. When asked about this, demonstrators become defensive – it’s about showing solidarity and some chants could be misinterpreted.
Problem for Biden
For Biden, a staunch ally of Israel, the conflict in the Middle East as well as on domestic universities is a sensitive issue. After all, young and Arab Americans helped the Democrat win his presidency in 2020 as part of a broad coalition of voters. For months, polls have shown that they are extremely critical of Biden over Israel’s actions against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. In the primaries, hundreds of thousands symbolically refused to vote for him.
The pro-Palestinian activists at Columbia University are currently negotiating with their university. According to management, the students agreed on Wednesday to remove some of the tents from campus, expel non-students from the camp and ensure that no discriminatory statements were made. Negotiations will continue until at least Friday – always with the threat of having the police break up the tent camp by force.
Donald Trump also weighed in on Tuesday and offered a solution to goodness: Why not transfer a few New York police officers who were guarding his hush-money trial in southern Manhattan to the university to protect Jewish students instead? Then there would be more freedom of movement for his supporters in front of the courthouse.