Donald Trump calls for an end to campus Gaza protests
Donald Trump issued an uncharacteristically restrained — though still all in caps — call for the Gaza student protests to come to an end.
Mr Trump frequently brags that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before,” and moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem during his administration.
The former president is not a fan of the ongoing demonstrations.
“STOP THE PROTESTS NOW!!!” he wrote.
Despite his disdain for student protest movement and his support for Israel, even he has become somewhat more critical of the war in Gaza, even if he reasons why are rooted in cynical politicking.
“And the other thing is I hate, [Israeli media} put out tapes all the time. Every night, they’re releasing tapes of a building falling down,” Mr Trump said during a radio interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. “They shouldn’t be releasing tapes like that. They’re doing, that’s why they’re losing the PR war. They, Israel, is absolutely losing the PR war.”
Even Mr Trump suggested that Israel should show a bit of restraint, at least in how its leaders present it to the world.
“I think that’s one of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback. If people didn’t see that, every single night I’d watch and every single one of those,” Mr Trump said in an Israel Hayom interview. “And I think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 07:00
Portland State University to pause gifts and grants from Boeing amid campus protests
Portland State University has said they will pause receiving gifts and grants from the Boeing Company amid campus protests, CNN reported.
The pause will be until the college holds a forum to debate the ethics of doing so, according to the school’s president.
According to Boeing’s website, the company says the Israel Defense Forces currently operates nine different Boeing products, and they contribute a $3.5 billion benefit to the Israeli economy.
“I have heard many students and faculty express that they would like to see PSU cut ties with the company. I initially found these demands confusing and arbitrary: PSU has no investments in Boeing but accepts philanthropic gifts from the company and, given that Boeing is a major employer in the region, many of our alumni work there,” PSU President Ann Cudd said in a letter to the campus community Friday.
“However, the passion with which these demands are being repeatedly expressed by some in our community motivates me, as a scholar of academic ethics and a university leader responsible for the well being of our campus constituents, to listen and ask additional questions.”
Boeing has not commented on the matter, CNN reported.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 06:00
ICYMI: US campus protest leader apologises for ‘kill Zionists’ comments
A student protest leader at Columbia University has issued an apology for his comments about “murdering Zionists”, made in an old video that has resurfaced amid growing pro-Palestine demonstrations across US campuses.
Khymani James, who has served as a spokesperson for the pro-Palestinian encampment as a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), apologised for saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” in an old video on Instagram shot in January this year.
Mr James had also said in the video: “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
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Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 04:59
Antiwar protesters' calls for divestment at universities put spotlight on how endowments are managed
“Divest from death” read the bubble letters written in chalk on the sidewalk on Tuesday outside of The New School in New York City.
The slogan articulates one of the demands of the antiwar protests on campuses which call on colleges or universities to divest their endowments from companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.
Campaigns to pressure universities to divest for political or ethical reasons go back decades, at least to the 1970s when students pressured schools to withdraw from investments that benefited South Africa under apartheid rule. More recently, in the early aughts, schools made rules barring investments in things like alcohol, tobacco and gambling, according to a report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and Commonfund.
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Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 04:00
UN official calls crackdown on student protest ‘disturbing'
A UN official says she’s worried by how Columbia University has responded to the scores of students who formed an encampment earlier this month to protest the Israel-Hamas war and the university’s financial ties to companies that do business with Israel’s defence sector.
“I’m hearing disturbing reports that students face suspension if they don’t end their peaceful protests in #Columbiauniversity in the USA,” Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, wrote in a post Monday on X. “This is a clear violation of their right to peaceful assembly.”
Josh Marcus30 April 2024 03:30
Donald Trump claims campus protests are worse than deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville
Donald Trump has claimed that the antisemitic, white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 was “peanuts” compared to the current pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.
“Joe Biden would say, constantly, that he ran because of Charlottesville,” he wrote, referencing the 2020 election.
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Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 03:00
At least 15 arrested in University of Georgia protest
At least 15 people were arrested at the University of Georgia on Monday for their involvement in an Israel-Gaza war protest encampment.
The individuals reportedly refused to relocate themselves and the tents and barricades they set up as part of a demonstration, according to the university.
The activsts were booked into Athens-Clarke County Jail on misdemeanor trespassing charges, the Athens Banner-Herald reports.
Josh Marcus30 April 2024 02:30
WATCH: Pro-Palestinian protesters camp in tents at 40 top US universities
Pro-Palestinian protesters camp in tents at 40 top US universities
Pro-Palestinian activists are taking over up to 40 US college campuses, pitching up tents in a bid to put pressure on the institutions to call for a ceasefire. Students at UC Berkeley have said they’re “not backing down”, and the number of tents on their campus has grown from just 12 on Monday, to over 70 by Friday (26 April). They’ve vowed not to leave until the university agrees to divestment. While they remain peaceful, hundreds of arrests have been made across the US, including at Columbia University, after protests turned violent.
Graig Graziosi30 April 2024 02:00
Wesleyan will allow encampment to stay if it remains nonviolent
Wesleyan University is among the many top US colleges where student activists have set up encampments to protest aspects of the Israel-Hamas war and US institutions’ ties to it.
However, the school, unlike most others, has said it won’t seek to clear the protest encampment for the time being, so long as it remains non-violent.
“As long as well all reject violence, we have opportunities to listen and to learn from one another,” university president Michael Roth said in an email to students.
Josh Marcus30 April 2024 01:40
Riot police use pepper spray as dozens arrested at University of Texas pro-Gaza protest encampment
Scores of heavily outfitted riot police descended on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin on Monday to clear out a protest encampment rallying against the Israel-Hamas war, the second time a large police presence has been called in response to students there in less than a week.
As of late Monday, campus, local, and state police had reportedly arrested about 50 people from an encampment gathering on the state university’s South Mall.
More details in our full story.
Josh Marcus30 April 2024 01:28
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