{"id":301994,"date":"2024-05-13T13:36:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T17:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=301994"},"modified":"2024-05-13T13:36:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T17:36:01","slug":"usa-protests-universities-palestine-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/usa-protests-universities-palestine-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Disobedience and protest in the United States (II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The challenges and empathy towards alternative causes are installed in U.S. political culture, even amid the division and polarization characteristic of the current scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the factors that explain the ongoing university protests, the following should be briefly mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Military financing\/aid for Israel<\/b><\/p>\n

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. aid. It is also its main ally in the region. The United States has agreed to give it almost $4 billion a year until 2028. Since October 7, the Biden administration has made more than one hundred transfers of military aid. Only two (totaling about $250 million) have reached congressional review and been made public.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israel\u2019s F-35 fighter jets. Photo: The Cradle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The very powerful Israeli army has systematically received weapons deliveries. It has used U.S. weapons systems including F-16s, F-35 aircraft, and Apache helicopters in its military offensive in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

In late April the House of Representatives finally approved, with bipartisan support, a <\/span>$95 billion<\/b><\/a> package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. This included $17 billion in military aid to Israel and some $9 billion in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The Senate ratified it by majority.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, it emerged that the United States government stopped the shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel last week; to prevent them from being used in Rafah, <\/span>where 1.5 million displaced people live in overcrowded shelters<\/b><\/a>. The detained shipment, <\/span>CNN specified<\/b><\/a>, includes 1,800 bombs of 907 kilograms and 1,700 of 226 kilograms, according to the channel\u2019s source, an unidentified U.S. official, who added that the concern is due above all to the final use of the former (the 1,800 heavier bombs) and \u201cthe impact they could have in dense urban environments as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A CNN analysis of satellite images early in the war found more than 500 impact craters consistent with the use of one-ton bombs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marc Garlasco, a former U.S. defense intelligence analyst and former UN war crimes investigator, said in December that the density of Israel\u2019s first month of bombing in Gaza \u201chad not been seen since Vietnam.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The new generation<\/b><\/p>\n

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Pro-Palestine protesters tell media they \u201chope for an immediate ceasefire.\u201d George Washington University, Washington, D.C., May 6, 2024. Photo: EFE\/EPA\/Jim Lo Scalzo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A <\/span>Pew Research Center<\/b><\/a> survey found that young Americans find the way Israel is acting in Gaza unacceptable and oppose the United States providing the aforementioned military aid.<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>Harvard Youth<\/b><\/a> Survey, implemented last March by the Institute of Politics, found that 51% of young people between 18 and 29 years old support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a policy supported by several Democrats in Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, a <\/span>Gallup poll<\/b><\/a>, also from last March, found that 55% of Americans disapprove of Israel\u2019s military action. And that percentage is much higher among those aged between 18 and 34 years (63%).<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering that young people <\/span>have preferred<\/b><\/a>\u00a0Democrats by substantial margins over Republicans, those trends could be a threat to President Biden\u2019s re-election hopes. They constitute, therefore, a pressure factor from the bottom up.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Students and professors at the University of Texas participate in a demonstration on Sunday, May 5, to demand that the institution stop investing in companies that sell weapons and military equipment to Israel, in Austin (United States). Photo: EFE\/Alejandra Arredondo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Some of the tents set up by a group of students, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) camp in Cambridge (USA). Opposition to the war in Gaza has unleashed a student movement in the United States not seen since the protests against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and in rejection of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the difference being the strong police reaction to peaceful rallies. Photo: EFE\/I\u00f1aki Est\u00edvaliz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Students at a demonstration in defense of Palestine at Hunter College in New York, on May 6, 2024. They were trying to march to the Met Gala but were blocked by police. Photo: EFE\/EPA\/Olga Federova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Students gather at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, on May 6, 2024. Student camps call on MIT to withdraw its Israel-related investments, despite threats of suspension by educational authorities. Photo: EFE\/EPA\/CJ Gunther.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Protesters hold a Palestinian flag at the George Washington University (GWU) student camp in Washington, D.C., on May 6, 2024. Photo: EFE\/EPA\/Jim Lo Scalzo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid protests and repression, the White House has just announced <\/span>new measures to counter anti-Semitism<\/b><\/a>, particularly on college campuses. These include new guidance from the Department of Education\u2019s Office of Civil Rights for all school districts and universities nationwide, providing examples of anti-Semitic discrimination and other hate speech that could be prosecuted for violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to an AP report, Jewish students\u2019 opinions on the conflict are diverse and often nuanced, they do not go in one direction. \u201cThey have had ardent debates among themselves about whether and how to respond as the pro-Palestinian camps spread from one university to another,\u201d the text notes.<\/span><\/p>\n