Whereas the United States (US) government continues to call for respect for the right to assembly, freedom of speech and expression, and the right to peaceful demonstration, across the world, back-home incidents of students’ protests have exposed the US to the fact that they cannot practice what they preach.
This follows days of brutal crackdowns by US police on students across several universities who are peacefully protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 34,000 Palestinians and wounded over 77,084, with about 72 percent of those killed being women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Unarmed, peaceful demonstrators who have set up tents on the compounds of several universities across the US are calling on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel’s war on Gaza, to stop the bloodshed that global voices are calling a genocide against Palestinians.
Several university students across the US are outraged by their country’s support for Israel, having recently approved a $26.38 billion aid package in addition to thousands of pieces of military hardware for Israel to continue its war on Gaza.
However, the US government deployed heavily armed police to clear the protests, which students are calling a violation of their rights to peaceful assembly and their freedom of expression.
The police have since been brutalising protestors, detaining thousands without trial. A college professor from Illinois suffered nine broken ribs and a broken hand when he was arrested during a pro-Palestine protest at Washington University in St. Louis, according to a statement by the university.
Bystander video shows that Steve Tamari, a history professor specializing in Middle East studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, seemed to be moving in to take video or pictures of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly took him down.
According to local media reports, police in the US have arrested over 2100 students and injured thousands in a bid to quell the peaceful protests.
Despite President Biden’s being known for calling on several governments across the world to respect the rights of protesters, even when in most instances they are violent rioters, he has defended the brutal crackdown on students’ protests in his own homeland.
In a televised address on Thursday, May 2, 2024, Biden defended the police’s brutal actions, saying that violent protests are not protected and adding that there’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.
The US has been criticised for behaving like an authoritarian state in their attempt to silence students, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying US authorities have displayed cruelty in clamping down on pro-Palestinian students and academics on university campuses.
