University protests and Palestine: The exam question Biden can’t get right

In New York, LA, Texas and everywhere in between, campuses have been seized by encampments and demonstrations in support of Palestine. Police have moved in to dismantle a sit-in protest at Columbia, and clashed with Gaza protesters in California. #protest #university #palestine The protests have created something of a crisis for university administrators, who have been faced with demands that their institutions divest from companies linked to Israel, cancel planned projects with Israeli universities, and condemn what the protesters describe as “genocide” in Gaza. They have also been faced with a surge of anti-Semitic hate speech, the targeting of Jewish students, and some support for the October 7 attacks. For those in charge of these elite institutions, dealing with these protests is a delicate balancing act between safeguarding free speech on campus – a major talking point for the political right – and protecting students and their studies from threats and disruption.