The issue of the Columbia University camp set up by students to protest the Zionist war on Gaza is still at the forefront of American and Israeli media, university campuses and social media platforms due to allegations of “anti-Semitic” incidents on the university campus.
The protest by students at Columbia University and the camp they set up in support of Gaza sparked violent reactions from politicians in a country that sings of freedom and democratic slogans. Indeed, the Foreign Minister of the occupying entity, whose government has been waging a war of genocide against Gaza for more than six months, participated in these violent reactions – taking advantage of the opportunity.
In this context, US President Joe Biden condemned the movement of activists supporting the Palestinian cause for committing acts that he described as “anti-Semitic” during protests at American universities and schools. In a statement on the occasion of “Jewish Passover” yesterday, Sunday, April 21, 2024, Biden said that it is necessary to speak out against “the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism in our schools, our communities and online.”
This statement came three days after the arrest of more than 120 people who were protesting against the war waged by the occupying entity in Gaza on the campus of Columbia University.
Also, White House spokesman Andrew Bates claimed in a statement that “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly ‘anti-Semitic,’ unreasonable, dangerous, and have absolutely no place on any college campus.
New York Mayor Eric Adams commented on the current events at Columbia University in a blog post on his account on the “X” platform, saying: “I am horrified and disgusted by the ‘anti-Semitism’ being unleashed on and around the Columbia University campus. Hate has no place in our city, and I have issued my instructions. The NYPD will investigate any violation of the law that it receives a report and will arrest anyone found violating it.
These successive statements from politicians in America and the foreign minister of the occupying entity about the Columbia University camp supporting the Palestinian cause sparked a state of denunciation and ridicule among university students in America and the world and the audience on social media platforms.
Students at several universities worldwide began protesting in solidarity with the Gaza Solidarity Camp at Columbia University, and the protests ranged between strikes, marches, and camps.
Students at Yale University and the University of South Carolina at Chapel Hill held solidarity camps with the “Gaza Solidarity Camp” at Columbia University. In a post published on “Instagram,” the national branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) called on all branches to follow in the footsteps of Columbia University and put pressure on its administrations to withdraw their investments from “Israel”.
For her part, Carrie Zaremba, a member of the national SJP chapter at Columbia University, said that the support from other universities across the country is “absolutely unprecedented.”
Likewise, the University of Melbourne in Australia stated an Instagram post in which it wrote: From the other side of the world, we, the University of Melbourne for Palestine, express our complete and steadfast solidarity with the courageous actions of Columbia students for justice in Palestine.
