Washington:

Several top White House aides say they are confident protests across US college campuses against Israel’s offensive in Gaza will not translate into significantly fewer votes for Joe Biden in November’s election, despite polls showing many Democrats are deeply unhappy about the U.S. president’s policy on the war.

The White House’s optimism on the issue, which is shared by many in the Biden campaign, runs contrary to dire warnings from some Democratic strategists and youth organizers who warn misjudging the situation could cost Biden dearly in a tight race with Republican rival Donald Trump.

Several aides told Reuters they are advising Biden to remain above the fray, rather than directly engage with the relatively small groups of protesters on college campuses, arguing their numbers are too insignificant to harm the president’s reelection campaign.

Faced with a choice between Biden and Trump in November, many officials remain confident even Democrats who oppose U.S. policy will choose Biden. Reuters interviewed nearly a dozen top White House officials in recent days, but only two expressed concern about the impact of the protests and Biden’s handling of the issue.

The issue returns to the spotlight Sunday, when Biden makes the commencement address at Morehouse College, over some objections by students and faculty, and a warning from the college’s president that the ceremony will stop if there are protests.

Most officials Reuters spoke to said they believe housing costs and inflation were the issues top of mind for young voters, not the war in Gaza, pointing to a recent Harvard poll that ranks Israel/Palestine 15th on a list of issues, after taxes, gun violence and jobs. Several aides refer to the protesters as “activists” rather than students.

Asked for comment on the issue, White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden understands this is a painful moment for many communities and is listening. He has said too many civilians have died in the “heartbreaking” conflict and that more must be done to prevent the loss of innocent lives, Bates added.

Biden and Trump are nearly tied in national polls, and Trump has the edge in the battleground states that will decide the election, multiple recent polls show. On economic issues like inflation, Trump scores higher with voters overall than Biden.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Democrats deeply divided over Biden’s handling of both the war in Gaza and the US campus protests against it, with 44% of registered Democrats disapproving of Biden’s handling of the crisis, and 51% of his handling of the protests.

Young voters still favor Biden, but support has dropped significantly since 2020, polls show. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans aged 18-29 favored Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure if anyone would get their vote.

Two White House officials Reuters spoke to emphasized Biden’s support among young voters is not where it was in 2020 and said they worry the administration is not taking the drop seriously enough.

With over 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began in October, US support for Israel’s government could weigh heavily on the presidential election in November, they said.

“There is almost a level of defiance when it comes to some of the president’s closest advisers on this issue,” said a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the matter, who did not wish to be named. “They think the best approach is to simply steer clear and let it pass.”

BIDEN SPEAKS CAUTIOUSLY

Protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have broken out at more than 60 colleges and universities this year, disrupted Biden’s events around the country, pushed Democrats in key battleground states to vote “uncommitted” and divided the Democratic party.

Biden, who is known for saying what he thinks, even when it’s not politically beneficial, has been cautious on the issue of protests over Gaza. He spoke in early May on the importance of following the law, while defending free speech and later on addressed the threat of antisemitism on college campuses.

Both times, he mostly avoided the issue that has sparked the protests – how young Americans feel about his support for Israel. But he also said bluntly that protests will not change his Middle East policy.

Groups organizing the protests say that a recent halt to some weapons to Israel was too little too late, and are planning fresh demonstrations, though the summer break may quieten action on campuses.

Michele Weindling, political director of the climate-focused youth group the Sunrise Movement, said “young people are incredibly disillusioned, they are angry at the way the president has treated this conflict.”

“A huge risk right now is that young voters will completely stay out of the electoral system this November, or deliberately vote against Biden out of anger,” Weindling said.

That has the potential to cost Biden dearly, given 61% of the more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 that voted in the 2020 general election voted Democratic, a Tufts University research group found. The youth turnout was up 11 points from 2016.

GAZA NOT A TOP ISSUE

Republicans both overwhelmingly disapprove of the protests and Biden’s handling of the war, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published this week shows. Some Republicans have called for him to send National Guard troops on to campuses.

But until a day before Biden delivered his first speech on the protests on May 2, he remained unsure he needed to address the issue, two officials said. Biden asked his team to put together “something rudimentary,” so he could edit and change it, which he did that evening, one of the officials said.

He did not make the final decision to speak until the morning, after violence broke out on the UCLA campus, the official added.

The Harvard youth poll showing Israel/Gaza is low on youth concerns is being circulated at internal meetings at the campaign and the White House and is in line with private data the White House has seen, the first official said.

The president doesn’t speak about every issue in the news, on purpose, another White House official said. It “doesn’t always happen, no matter what kind of news it is, whether it’s the news of the day or the week or the month,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Anti-war demonstrations ceased this week at a small number of U.S. universities after school leaders struck deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, fending off possible disruptions of final exams and graduation ceremonies.

The agreements at schools including Brown, Northwestern and Rutgers stand out amidst the chaotic scenes and 2,400-plus arrests on 46 campuses nationwide since April 17. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.

Deals included commitments by universities to review their investments in Israel or hear calls to stop doing business with the longtime U.S. ally. Many protester demands have zeroed in on links to the Israeli military as the war grinds on in Gaza.

The agreements to even discuss divestment mark a major shift on an issue that has been controversial for years, with opponents of a long-running campaign to boycott Israel saying it veers into antisemitism. But while the colleges have made concessions around amnesty for protesters and funding for Middle Eastern studies, they have made no promises about changing their investments.

“I think for some universities, it might be just a delaying tactic to diffuse the protests,” said Ralph Young, a history professor who studies American dissent at Temple University in Philadelphia. “The end of the semester is happening now. And maybe by the time the next semester begins, there is a cease-fire in Gaza.”

Some university boards may never even vote on divesting from Israel, which can be a complicated process, Mr. Young said. And some state schools have said they lack the authority to do so.

But Mr. Young said dialogue is a better tactic than arrests, which can inflame protesters.

Talking “at least gives the protesters the feeling that they’re getting somewhere,” he said. “Whether they are getting somewhere or not is another question.”

Also Read | Campus protests over Gaza war hit Australia

Israel has called the protests antisemitic; its critics say the country uses such allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters were caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organisers — some of whom are Jewish — have called it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

Administrators at the University of California, Riverside, announced an agreement Friday with protesters to close their campus encampment. The deal included the formation of a task force to explore removing Riverside’s endowment from the broader UC system’s management and investing those funds “in a manner that will be financially and ethically sound for the university with consideration to the companies involved in arms manufacturing and delivery.”

The announcement marked an apparent split with the policy of the 10-campus UC system, which last week said it opposes “calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel.”

“While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses,” the system said in a statement. “UC tuition and fees are the primary funding sources for the University’s core operations. None of these funds are used for investment purposes.”

Also Read | Paris police remove pro-Palestinian students occupying Sciences Po university

Demonstrators at Rutgers University — where finals were paused due to the protests on its New Brunswick campus — similarly packed up their tents Thursday afternoon. The state university agreed to establish an Arab Cultural Centre and to not retaliate against any students involved in the camp.

In a statement, Chancellor Francine Conway noted protesters’ request for divestment from companies doing business with Israel and for Rutgers to cut ties with Tel Aviv University. She said the the request is under review, but “such decisions fall outside of our administrative scope.”

Protesters at Brown University in Rhode Island agreed to dismantle their encampment Tuesday. School officials said students could present arguments for divesting Brown’s endowment from companies contributing to and profiting from the war in Gaza.

In addition, Brown President Christina Paxson will ask an advisory committee to make a recommendation on divestment by Sept. 30, which will be put before the school’s governing corporation for a vote in October.

Northwestern’s Deering Meadow in suburban Chicago also fell silent after an agreement Monday. The deal curbed protest activity in return for the reestablishment of an advisory committee on university investments and other commitments.

The arrangement drew dissent from both sides. Some pro-Palestinian protesters condemned it as a failure to stick to their original demands, while some supporters of Israel said it represented “cowardly” capitulation.

Seven of 18 members subsequently resigned from a university committee that advises the administration on addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and expressions of hatred on campus, saying they couldn’t continue to serve “with antisemitism so present at Northwestern in public view for the past week.”

Michael Simon, the executive director of an organisation for Jewish students, Northwestern Hillel, said he resigned after concluding that the committee could not achieve its goals.

Faculty at Pomona College in California voted in favour of divesting from companies they said are funding Israel’s war in Gaza, a group of faculty and students said Friday.

The vote Thursday is not binding on the liberal arts school of nearly 1,800 students east of Los Angeles. But supporters said they hope it would encourage the board to stop investing in these companies and start disclosing where it makes its investments.

“This nonbinding faculty statement does not represent any official position of Pomona College,” the school said in a statement. “We will continue to encourage further dialogue within in our community, including consideration of counterarguments.” Meanwhile, arrests of demonstrators continued elsewhere.

About a dozen protesters who refused police orders to leave an encampment at New York University were arrested early Friday, and about 30 more left voluntarily, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said. The school asked city police to intervene, he added.

NYPD officers also cleared an encampment at The New School in Greenwich Village on the request of school administrators. No arrests were announced.

Another 132 protesters were arrested when police broke up an encampment at the State University of New York at New Paltz starting late Thursday, authorities said.

And nine were arrested at the University of Tennessee, including seven students who Chancellor Donde Plowman said would also be sanctioned under the school’s code of conduct.

The movement began April 17 at Columbia, where student protesters built an encampment to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

More than 100 people were arrested late Tuesday when police broke up the Columbia encampment. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside Hamilton Hall during that operation, but no one was injured, the NYPD said late Thursday.

Over 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel. (AP) GRS GRS

New DelhI:

As leading universities across the US continue to witness protests against Israeli military action in Gaza, India on Thursday said there has to be a right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety in every democracy.

Hundreds of students were arrested by the US authorities with an aim to quell the protests.

“We have seen reports on the matter and have been following related events. In every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

“Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. Afterall, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad,” he said replying to a question.

Randhir Jaiswal said neither the Indian embassy in Washington nor any Indian consulate in the US has been approached by Indian students or their family seeking assistance regarding any disciplinary action for participation in protests in the universities.

“We expect all our citizens at home and abroad to respect local laws and regulations,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Police deployed a heavy presence on US university campuses Wednesday after forcibly clearing away some weeks-long protests against Israel’s war with Hamas.

Dozens of police cars patrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles campus in response to violent clashes overnight when counter-protesters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian students.

At Columbia University in New York City, which has been the epicenter of the demonstrations, police were on standby after officers marched onto campus late Tuesday to end the protests there.

The sight of helmeted police at two of America’s most prestigious universities left some students dismayed.

“I don’t think we should have a heavy police force on campus,” UCLA student Mark Torre, 22, told AFP as he surveyed the scene from behind metal barriers.

“But more and more, day by day, I think it’s a necessary evil, to at least keep safety on campus.”

At Columbia and at the City University of New York, where police cleared demonstrators out overnight, some students decried “rough and aggressive” tactics used by officers.

“We were assaulted, brutally arrested. And I was held for up to six hours before being released, pretty banged up, got stomped on, got cut up,” one CUNY student who gave his name only as Jose told AFP.

A medical student offering treatment to student detainees as they were released described a litany of injuries.

“We’ve seen things like severe head traumas, concussions, someone was knocked unconscious in the encampment by police, someone was thrown down the stairs,” the student, who gave her name as Isabel, said.

About 300 arrests were made at Columbia and CUNY, Police Commissioner Edward Caban told a news conference Wednesday.

Mayor Eric Adams blamed “outside agitators” for ratcheting up tensions. Students at Columbia have denied that outsiders were involved.

The university’s president Minouche Shafik, who has come under fire over her decision to call in police, said Wednesday the turn of events “filled me with deep sadness.”

“I am sorry we reached this point,” she said in a statement.

Wave of campus unrest

Demonstrators have gathered in at least 30 US universities since last month, often erecting tent encampments to protest the soaring death count from Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints of criminal activity, anti-Semitism and hate speech.

The administration of President Joe Biden — whose support for Israel has outraged many protesters — has also tried to walk that line.

“We believe it’s a small number of students who are causing this disruption, and if they’re going to protest, Americans have the right to do it in a peaceful way within the law,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Biden’s rival in the November election, Donald Trump, voiced his full-throated support for the police response at Columbia.

“It was a beautiful thing to watch. New York’s finest,” he told a rally in Wisconsin.

“To every college president, I say remove the encampments immediately, vanquish the radicals and take back our campuses for all of the normal students.”

‘Unlawful assembly’

On Tuesday night, police had entered Columbia’s campus and climbed into Hamilton Hall — barricaded by protesters — via a second-floor window before leading out people in handcuffs. They also cleared the large tent encampment.

In Los Angeles, fireworks were hurled as counter-protesters sprayed chemical substances onto the pro-Palestinian encampment and attempted to tear down wooden boards and metal barricades before police eventually arrived.

On Wednesday, students on loudspeakers called for demonstrators to keep going at a camp blocking the entrance to one of the school’s main libraries, which bore graffiti reading: “Free Gaza.”

And students at Fordham University, a Jesuit institution also in New York, launched their own campus protest on Wednesday, according to US media.

Elsewhere, police moved in at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and arrested several protesters, TV footage showed.

Law enforcement in helmets and carrying batons arrived at the University of Texas in Dallas and began taking down parts of a student encampment there, according to TV images.

At the University of Arizona, police said they used “chemical irritant munitions” to disperse “an unlawful assembly.”

The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that left around 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pro-Palestine protests have spread to more college campuses in the US, denouncing the mounting deaths in Gaza. Over a hundred students have been arrested for campus occupation, which Jewish students claim to be antisemitic.

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