US elections 2024: Biden campaign will blame pro-Palestine protests for political violence and 'disorder', report says

 Reelection campaign will shift strategy away from attacking Trump after attempted assassination of former president

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the White House after assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, on 14 July 2024 in Washington, DC (Erin Schaff/AFP)

By MEE staff

Published date: 15 July 2024 19:18 BST | Last update: 6 hours 31 mins ago

What really happened at college campuses according to Jewish students

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In April, Biden released a statement condemning the pro-Palestinian protests occurring on college campuses, saying that while he "respects the right to free expression … forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful - it is wrong".

The comments were in response to student protesters at Columbia University occupying the institution's Hamilton Hall. That protest was met with a brutal police response, with officers in riot gear violently clearing the demonstrators and arresting dozens.

Then, late last month, Biden condemned a protest against an event in Los Angeles where real estate firms were being accused of advertising land in the occupied West Bank as residential homes for sale in "the best Anglo neighbourhoods in Israel". The West Bank is Palestinian land occupied by Israel, and Israeli settlements in the area are considered illegal under international law.

Biden, however, condemned the protest as "antisemitic" because it was outside of a synagogue, where the real estate event was taking place.

Mislabelling of pro-Palestine protests

Since Israel's war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023, following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 240 people hostage, Israeli forces have decimated the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

While the official death toll from the Gaza health ministry stands at just over 38,000, the English medical journal, The Lancet, recently published an article where it estimated that the death toll may likely exceed 186,000 Palestinians.

In the US, Israel's war has been met with massive pro-Palestinian protests across the country, the focus of which has been on college campuses where Gaza solidarity encampments began to spring up on university lawns over the past several months.

While these student protests have been largely peaceful, and with clear demands for their schools to divest financial stakes in companies profiting from Israel's war on Gaza, the protests have faced numerous attacks of antisemitism.

US lawmakers have also used these antisemitism claims to attack the leadership of a number of leading American universities.

Major American news outlets also framed these protests as being antisemitic and as promoting hate and violence.

Middle East Eye, however, spoke to Jewish students who have not only taken part in the pro-Palestine demonstrations at several universities but have played key roles in their organising.

The Jewish students said that claims of antisemitism were disingenuous and an attempt to distract from the demands of student protesters. MEE also found that at several student encampments, anti-Zionist Jewish students vastly outnumbered Palestinian or Arab student protesters.

"The narrative that the Gaza solidarity encampments are inherently antisemitic is part of a decades-long effort to blur the lines between criticism of Israel and antisemitism," several hundred Jewish students said in a letter published in May.

"It is a narrative that ignores the large populations of Jewish students participating and helping to lead the encampments as a true expression of our Jewish values."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-elections-2024-biden-campaign-blame-pro-palestine-protests-disorder-report-says