PNN – A professor at Columbia University in New York wrote in an article: Some American politicians considered the student protests in the United States against the war in Gaza as a threat, but the students of this university and an increasing number of other universities have taught the American society and indeed the world about democracy and citizenship with their peaceful protests.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Howard W. French, author and professor of journalism at Columbia University, added in an article published in Foreign Policy magazine: For the past few nights, I have been seriously disturbed by the loud noise of helicopters flying low before dawn over the skies of western Manhattan near where I live in New York. Every day I try to travel to the site of this police drama on the Columbia campus where I have long taught, and which is now the birthplace of a major student protest movement.
This university professor stated: Contrary to the claims of some, what the current period has clearly revealed to me is not the crisis in student culture in America, but the crisis in American policies centered on foreign policy and especially its close and long-standing relations with Israel.
He clarified: What is being discussed is not the defense of hate speech. Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, is deeply unacceptable, no matter what race or color it comes from. This includes a deep history of anti-Semitism once practiced at the university where I teach, which has historically limited the admission and employment of Jews largely to protect white Protestants from academic competition.
French added: I have no doubt that in recent days there have been cases of attacks, harassment and insults against Jewish students or any supporters of Israel in American universities, and these actions are truly unjustified. But my limited experience at Columbia University suggests that such behavior is not common.
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This university professor went on to refer to the Fox News broadcast of footage of a Hamas supporter threatening a Jewish person at a subway station outside the main entrance of Columbia University and wrote: It is clear that Hetak was not a student. Besides, the Columbia campus is full of TV crews who work long hours every day; Therefore, if there were many such incidents, instead of repeating this confrontation, we would see other cases.
He continued: What I saw outside the entrances of the university was an example of civilized behavior. The students have camped in an orderly manner and are talking calmly. Some of them are camping on the university lawn in front of the university library. Students have even published commendable codes of conduct that read in part: Do not litter; Do not use drugs or alcohol, respect personal boundaries, do not confront counter-protesters.
The journalism professor added: “In recent days, as I have done many times before, I reviewed the names above the neoclassical colonnaded facade of the Butler Library: ‘Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Vergil and the like.’ Then I asked myself: What threat do the Columbia University protests and other subsequent protests pose to Western civilization, American democracy, or even higher education?
This university professor said: Indiana and Ohio University students have seen snipers stationed on campus. While an Ohio University spokesperson claims they are “state troopers watching like watching a football game.” Every day there are scenes of the support of university faculty members who are beaten to the ground by the police and forcibly taken away with their hands tied.
The author of this article, who also wrote the book “Born in the Dark; He wrote “Africa, Africans and the making of the modern world” and continues to write: Now is the time for Americans to ask themselves if the student movement happened on such a scale in other countries, what would be America’s reaction? What I can imagine was the vociferous condemnation of US State Department spokespeople and leading American media editorials about the lack of authoritarian tolerance and the decline of democracy.
This university professor said: I realized this in a conversation with students from China and other countries next to the protest tents who were surprised by the ability of Columbia students during the protests. In the midst of the brutal actions [against them], the protesting students say that it is enough, and they have always done this quietly. Standing up to terror, they say, has more urgency than campaigns aimed at writing letters to members of Congress or waiting to vote in the next election.
The author of this article believes that the threat of Zionism today is not caused by protesting students in American universities. The biggest threat to Zionism is not even from Hamas. The biggest threat is the blurring of any boundaries between Zionism and the destruction of Palestinian life and hope in the future.