Aviva Fried with AFP / Photo credits: Fatih Aktas / ANADOLU / Anadolu via AFP
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10:43 a.m., April 25, 2024
Pro-Palestinian protests continue on American university campuses. The latter do not fail to provoke an international reaction, notably from the Israeli Prime Minister who describes the demonstrators as “anti-Semitic hordes”. For his part, Joe Biden is trying to play a balancing act.
The tension is not decreasing on the campuses of American universities. Since the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel and the start of the Jewish state’s response, dozens of students from prestigious universities in the United States have taken turns on their campuses to show their solidarity with the Gazans.
But on social networks, several videos are circulating, showing pro-Palestinian demonstrators attacking Jewish students. The affair is taking an international turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted on X, formerly Twitter. “Anti-Semitic hordes have taken control of major universities. They demand the destruction of Israel and attack Jewish students. This is reminiscent of the German universities of the 1930s. We must stop this and condemn them unequivocally,” he judges. .
Anti-Semitism on campuses in the United States is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s.
The world cannot stand idly by. pic.twitter.com/oHlwig1vCl
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 24, 2024
Joe Biden plays the balancing act
And as an echo of this pessimistic vision at Columbia, classes are now online, because the administration believes it can no longer ensure the safety, particularly of Jewish students. So, even before Benjamin Netanyahu’s intervention, Joe Biden had condemned these excesses. But he continues to take refuge behind the First Amendment through the voice of White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre. “The president considers that debates on campus, where one can express oneself freely and without discrimination, are important. But the demonstrations must be peaceful,” she insists to journalists.
A way to spare the goat and the cabbage. The American president is viscerally attached to Israel, but he also does not want to alienate part of his electorate. A position that is difficult to maintain and which could cost him dearly next November.