About 200 students were taken into custody by US authorities on April 27, 2024, from pro-Palestinian camps at three universities. Over the past few weeks, there has been an increase in student protests not just in the US but also in Canada, France, the UK, and other countries. The US protests now have a more specific and targeted goal: they demand that colleges cut their financial ties to businesses that support Israel's occupation of Palestine.
The issue arises from the conviction held by the students that Israel’s retaliatory attacks against Hamas have had more civilian damage – considered as war collateral – than what could have been accepted. Students are showing their outrage at being forced to contribute to a global economy they did not choose to participate in, one that uses their tuition money to fund companies that benefit from famine and conflict. Additionally, some students demand that the colleges disclose their ideological priorities—that is, if they prioritize human rights over profit—as well as how much money they have made from their relationships with Israel. Such demands have led to widespread protests where students and professors have decided to stop engaging with their academic commitments in pursuit of such answers. They have been termed as a security threat, and we might have seen some harrowing videos from the universities where these protestors have been harshly treated by army men. The situation is such that many universities are planning not to hold convocations this year due to updated security requirements to deal with campus protests.
However, the 2024 protests are not the first nor the worst the United States has seen in terms of student protests and university responses to the same. When the public was made aware of the horrifying crimes committed against Vietnamese civilians by television reporting in 1968, student protests against the Vietnam War erupted across American university and college campuses. The country was weakened by the pictures, the protests, and the government's harsh and disproportionate response to them. These factors also interfered with the presidential election that year.
Protests by students persisted after the 1968 election. In reaction to anti-war demonstrations at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire, killing four students and wounding nine more in what turned into a day of national humiliation. Following the executions, there was a statewide student strike that shut down hundreds of schools and institutions, and many Americans started questioning whether it was right to support the war. The US's senseless and brutal reaction to the students undermined national resolve and played a part in its ignominious pullout from Vietnam in 1973.
Anti-Vietnam War protestors faced brutality from the police and arrests, as well as demonization as terrorists, outside agitators, and communists. These days, the police and government are going even further, characterizing them as terrorist sympathizers and falsely accusing the demonstrators of being antisemitic despite the fact that many of them are Jewish. In the Vietnam War era, however, President Lyndon Johnson could not go in for a re-election campaign considering the massive ill will he held amongst the public but Nixon, who followed him, increased their involvement and hence the embarrassment when they withdrew. In the recent past, the United States has had a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with Donald Trump openly commanding the need for greater involvement in the war, the people have to choose between two evils.
History is repeating itself, and the people of the United States are yet again confronted with choosing between two evils – the evil that could cause the least embarrassment.
Image Source: Columbia University
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