The announcement of a new world

Za "Time" from New York

At Columbia's main entrance from Amsterdam Avenue, there is no longer a cheerful hum of students as they shuffle between Kent and Hamilton Hall. In front of the high gate, the door of which was always open for visitors, metal barriers were placed, the university can only be entered with faculty passes, be it students, professors or those who work in the administration. Anyone else arriving at the narrow, blue-canopied entrance is met with a cold rebuff from security guards manning the passage along with NYPD special forces, whose white-and-blue cars emblazoned with "courtesy, professionalism, respect" are stationed around campus after law enforcement evicts and arrested dozens of students, which sparked a wave of demonstrations at universities from the east coast to the west coast of America.

Although 2.500 academics have been arrested across the country in the past few days, the demonstrations continue. The students are not giving up on their demands to end the war in Gaza, which they call a "genocide against the Palestinians", to stop investing money from their tuition fees in the shares of companies that produce weapons or have ties to the Israeli government, but the university authorities are determined not to allow erecting new tents on campuses, nor allowing the chorus chanting "Freedom for Palestine", "Intifada" and "From the River to the Sea" to disturb students of Jewish origin, so that Columbia has just canceled the main graduation ceremony that has, in the hundreds of years of history of this elite faculty, always been the most important day for all those who attended that school, which has a long history of social activism.

photo: ap

As in Gaza miles away, where the war that has sparked the largest student protests in America since 1968 is raging, it is currently unclear where whose territory is. Although the authorities of academic institutions have regained control of the universities, luck is extremely elusive in such circumstances, academics have been attacked by various uniformed figures around the world, but students have not lost a single battle so far, especially not in democratic states based on freedom of speech and assembly. , what America is like. Of course, these rights are not without limits, freedom is not arbitrariness, but this lesson, which is still not in all school curricula, was imposed at the beginning of the turmoil in American colleges, which started after the massacre of Jewish civilians by Hamas and the Israeli revenge killing in the Strip. Gaze.

As with all things in the early stages of innocence, there was no indication at the time that the police would shortly thereafter be roughly prodding students with batons, dragging them across the ground, twisting their arms, pepper-spraying them, placing stun guns on their bare feet, or kneeling on on their backs before being dragged into the police cars, which will race through the city's traffic with rotating lights and piercing sirens.

INTERROGATION OF PROFESSOR

So, for example, in front of the administration building of Harvard in the quiet suburbs of Boston, one could see at that time only two or three young people who during the day were collecting signatures from passers-by against the Israeli action in Gaza, but there are green areas and pedestrian paths inside the campus, which connect university buildings older than the United States of America itself, were emptier than the surrounding restaurants and cafes where those who would like something more than the standard Annenberg Hall menu were chatting. Around that time, the Republican-led House Education and Labor Committee began looking into university campuses, looking at student rally slogans, social media posts, chat group messages and professors' texts. in magazines, raising suspicions that anti-Semitism is spreading in universities. After that, at their internal meetings, where Republicans and Democrats, who were always opposed, did not disagree, they came to the conclusion that the university administrations are not dealing with the problem in the right way, as "institutional anti-Semitism and hatred is spreading, so they Congressional hearing invited leaders of Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Needless to say, the brutal investigation of distinguished professors, who had probably never been subjected to such treatment, left a grim impression. To persistently repeating the question of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, "Does calling for the genocide of the Jews violate Penn's rules and code of conduct?" Yes or no?” the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, tried to explain, in professorial terms, how it depends on the context, that a distinction should be made between speech and action, but she remained silent because she had nothing to say when asked what disciplinary measures were taken against the perpetrator. Even those who did not watch this agony will not have a hard time imagining the expression on the face of the congresswoman who became the chairwoman of the Republican Conference at a time of partisan friction over Donald Trump's claims of a stolen presidential election, as she listened to the stuttering of the leaders of the elite universities who sat in front of her in the pews. Sensing what was coming, Columbia University President Minoush Shafiq excused her absence by attending a conference on climate change, while Harvard and Pennsylvania presidents Claudine Gay and Elizabeth Magill resigned soon after.

photo: ricardo b. brazziell / austin; american-statesman via ap

CALL TO THE POLICE

When the new memo from Congress arrived, Minus Shafik was ready. Yes, calling for the genocide of the Jews is a violation of Colombia's rules; yes, I find the chanting of the word "intifada" deeply disturbing and I don't want it to be heard on our campus again; yes, we have already taken disciplinary measures, 15 students were suspended; yes, Professor Joseph Massad, whose comments hurt many, will be removed from his leadership position... Maybe Minush Shafik passed the exam in front of the members of the Congress Committee with these answers, but her performance for the students was far below the passing grade. In their opinion, the professor betrayed them, trampled on academic freedoms and betrayed the right to freedom of expression.

While the chancellor was returning from Washington to New York, students set up tents in the center of the campus, in a place designated for protests. After unsuccessful negotiations by the faculty leadership to remove the camp, the president of Columbia did something that will go down in history as a turning point in the history of higher education: she answered the phone of the chief of the New York police, after which special forces, for the first time since the war in Vietnam, entered Columbia University , forcibly removed the tents and arrested those who were on the campus lawn.

What can I say, the feeling of humanity can always be stronger than the entrusted duty, but the American police knows how to be unpleasant, their members learn how to control any situation in schools, but this time with their rudeness they only incited protests at dozens of other colleges. The pulling of special vehicles with which the police, a few days later, stormed through the windows of Hamilton Hall, was a new step in the escalation, just as the clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students at the University of California in Los Angeles further inflamed the already heated atmosphere.

Thus, America got a new, cross-party division over the Israeli action in Gaza and the delivery of weapons to the authorities of that country. Even if political and moral principles are set aside, no one is comfortable watching their unborn child's hands being zip-tied by the police.

At a large number of universities, regular classes have been suspended, classes will be followed partly via the Internet until the end of the school year, which is about to end, but it is already clear that the calls of university leaders to the police are instead of discussing student demands, which, on example, the Brown leadership did, set things in motion that would change the world. Just as the first chants of "Stop the Killing in Gaza" could not have been predicted to end in expulsions from college, loss of tuition, or arrests that remain permanent blots on biographies, so perhaps there is yet to be a generation unenthusiastic about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, and that unreserved support for Israel, regardless of that country's legitimate right to defend itself from a terrorist attack, must end in view of the civilian casualties.

The answer they received from President Joseph Biden was unequivocal: there is no end to the war until Hamas is destroyed. Based on his address, it is clear that America does not intend to end aid to Israel regardless of criticism and warnings to the government there that the attack on Rafah should not be launched without a plan for the evacuation of civilians, that humanitarian aid must be allowed to arrive, the destruction of infrastructure must be prevented and the unbearable conditions should be improved in which the displaced live. The US seems to have an arsenal of tools to punish those with whom it is not on friendly terms - from objections, warnings, pressures and sanctions to armed interventions - but diplomacy has not yet found a way to convince its closest allies not to do what is not according to the will of the official Washington.

Therefore, it is easy for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to say how it was "beautiful to watch" as the New York police storm the Columbia building, which was occupied by "rabid lunatics and Hamas sympathizers", because they are not his party's voters anyway, but Biden had to to be much more careful, so he supported the right of students to protest, because "disagreement is important for the development of democracy", but he clearly said that there is no place for hate speech, violence and destruction. "Vandalism, unauthorized access, breaking windows, closing campuses and forcing classes and graduations to be canceled - none of this is a peaceful protest," the president said, adding that protests must be "in accordance with the law."

BIDEN AS A STUDENT

Nothing unexpected, even when he was a student, young Joseph Biden was not with his colleagues who rebelled against the war in Vietnam. On one occasion, he said that those who occupied university buildings at that time looked like "assholes", since his early years the president has been a legalist and believes that institutions are the only place where changes are initiated and implemented.

Regardless of the differences in style, some of his message is likely to be agreed upon by those taking part in the demonstrations, as their protests, with rare exceptions, are not violent or anti-Semitic, criticism of Israel's policies is not the same as hatred of Jews which is reprehensible. , only some small things remain to be resolved. First, what concerns the institutions themselves. Are the Republican members of the Board of Education disturbed by the messages of white supremacists, otherwise sympathizers of their party, who openly say "the Jews will not replace them", or only when chanting "Freedom to Palestine"? For example, is it just as offensive when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel must have security control over the entire territory "west of the Jordan River," or only when pro-Palestinian students chant "From the river to the sea," which means the same thing? How insulting is it for the professor of Jewish origin, Naomi Klein, when Joseph Biden points out that he is a "Zionist" and whether the US president is uncomfortable when she says, at a protest rally in New York, that Zionism is a "false idol" that turns biblical stories "into plans" for ethnic cleansing and genocide”? Does Donald Trump enjoy watching the police beat up his supporters who violently tried to seize power by storming Capitol Hill, as he looks forward to the action at the universities? Are all the unannounced demonstrations on campuses, as there have been dozens over the past months, a reason to call the police, or are law enforcement only called to help when there is a protest about a specific thing...? One can go on like this endlessly, but this is not about double standards, which is the first thing that comes to mind, but about the absence of criteria, which is why the student protests will continue.

The president may, as in his early youth, turn his head away and not look at the protesting students, but chants will still be heard to stop the war in Gaza. The US can convince its allies not to do what draws the condemnation of almost the entire world. And those who no longer sit on the benches of elite American universities have the opportunity to supplement their knowledge, because even the best are changing. If they stay in the same place, they will no longer be what they are now.