Protests are spreading across American campuses with students demanding divestment by their universities from companies linked to the Israeli campaign in Gaza, disclosure of all such investments, and a recognition of the right to protest without punishment.

At least 120 students have been arrested by police so far as universities try to clear protest-ins. 

It all began with police action on a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University last week after the university decided to involve the New York Police Department to curb the demonstration. Several other American educational institutes have reportedly joined in since, with a wave of anger spreading across campuses in even Cairo, Sydney and Paris.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which relies on putting political and economic pressure on Israel to recognise the rights of Palestinians and withdraw from all land occupied after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has been repeatedly termed anti-semitic by American ultranationalists. And US Congress, state legislatures and college campuses have been divided on the movement for years. 

Republicans have always accused elite colleges and universities of a left bias and a “woke” agenda, and many have sought to cut funding to colleges saying they are a breeding ground for anti-semitism. But while former president Donald Trump had tried to crack down on the movement, his successor Joe Biden – termed as “Genocide Joe” by critics of the American role in the conflict – has offered little difference in his approach, condemning the “anti-semitic protests”. Notably, the police crackdown at Columbia had come after members of Congress urged Columbia administrators to crack down even harder on pro-Palestinian student protesters.

Even the Indian government has now taken a dig at the condition of free speech in America, saying “we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad”. Sections of the Arab media and the Hindu right wing have also underlined this takeaway.

With the protests being an intersection of campus speech, anti-semitism allegations, and police excess, the polarisation in American society couldn’t have been more evident – be it in the media coverage that’s followed the protests as well as the rampant misinformation being circulated online. 

Let’s take a look at the left, right and centre of the American press.

The right

Fox News web was at it with banners like ‘campus terrorists’, ostensibly obliterating the word Palestine in its coverage.

While the police have been criticised for cracking down on peaceful protests, the New York Post seemed to play on apprehensions that the demonstrations could turn violent, with Jewish students at the receiving end of violence by pro-Palestine protesters. The headline to one of the reports read: UPenn swarmed by anti-Israel protesters who set up encampments on campus: ‘Source of fear’. “Jewish UPenn students told The Post that while the protests were largely peaceful, they’re worried that the situation could spiral out of control,” read the report.

A report on The Blaze seemed to doubt the protesters’ motives with complete obliteration of the context. “Protesters demanded that the USC divest itself of investments in companies that benefit Israel as a way of protesting the military actions the country took to target terrorist members that planned the heinous Oct. 7 massacre.” 

Most of such reports did not include quotes from protesters while including ample hints to accuse them of violence. 

“USC Provost Andrew Guzman said in a statement that the actions of the protesters had ‘escalated to include acts of vandalism, defacing campus buildings and structures, as well as physical confrontation that threatens the safety of our officers and campus community’,” read the report on The Blaze.

Several voices on American television have tried to connect campuses with antisemitism.

The left and centre

Politico noted that the “Student Gaza solidarity protests are engulfing some of the nation’s top colleges” while the leaders “scramble to respond” and “quell the growing unrest amid fierce partisan blowback”.

It described a scene from the protests held by the New York University students at the Washington Square Park: “A sea of students and faculty could be seen holding pro-Palestinian flags and posters with slogans like ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Zionist donors and trustees, hands off our universities’.”

Another report detailed the high-handedness of the US police at a campus in California. “Hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — bulldozed into protesters, at one point sending some tumbling into the street.”

Days after the protests began, the publication wrote that the “UC Berkeley’s campus is in turmoil. It’s unlike anything in recent memory”, but “Biden camp is not sweating political fallout from the latest round of campus protests”. Several of its reports delved into how the Republicans called the protesters “terrorists”. 

There is a “renewed urgency” in activists’ support for Palestinian rights, said a Washington Post report on why the students were protesting. Its op-ed, however, argued that the student protests will not be effective.   

The New Yorker in its column Daily Comments, also detailed the police action against Pro-Palestine students at Columbia University, and asked: “Was it a necessary step to protect Jewish students, or a dangerous encroachment on academic freedom?”

The report detailed instances of anti-semitism and fear among Jewish students in Columbia, and how the campus protests ahead of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon’s elections did little to address the root causes of the protests. The outlet also published a student journalist’s account of the protests at Yale University, who said if Jewish students are covering the war in a way their community members do not find “very fair to Israel”, they’ll be “more ostracised” from Jewish events on the campus.    

A report on CNN on “what campuses actually want”, deliberated on whether the universities “own that much stock” to make the protesters disinvestment demand “effective”. 

A New York Times report noted, “Some of the campus demonstrations that have taken place since the war began last year have included hate speech and expressions of support for Hamas, the armed group based in Gaza that led the deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the war that has left more than 34,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.”

The Economist has taken a dig at Joe Biden with a suggestion for Columbia activists in a piece headlined “The campus is coming for Joe Biden”. “The more thoughtful of Columbia’s activists, by the way, may also have something to teach everyone else, on campus and off. ‘We commit to assuming best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made,’ reads the eighth community guideline in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, ‘and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing’.”

Meanwhile, the Columbia School of Journalism is trying to offer a fact-check to false claims.

Amid all this, the kind of coverage the protests have received remains a blip compared to the issue of the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including a significant number of children, and America’s unwavering support for Israeli actions. The toll is estimated to have neared 35,000.

It is as was pointed out by Mehdi Hassan – who exited MSNBC two weeks after grilling one of Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s advisers over the deaths in Gaza – in an interview to the Daily Beast. “There are kids still being killed in airstrikes in Gaza. That coverage has gone away because we’re much more obsessed with what’s happening on the campus of a university in New York that some journalists’ kids probably have gone to.”