(TotalConservative.com) – While the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the radical Islamic group Hamas continues to destabilize the Middle East, students across America continue holding demonstrations over the conflict, most of whom are pro-Palestinian and calling for a cease-fire from the Jewish state.
One of the universities that’s been consistently in the headlines since Israel launched a counteroffensive operation against Hamas is Yale, one of the most prestigious schools in the US. On Tuesday, Jan. 16, a couple of hundred students walked out of their classes to pressure the university to publicly demand a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where thousands have been killed as a result of Israel’s military efforts to weed out Hamas.
The demonstration, which was called “There is No Back to School in Gaza,” was organized by Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine and Yalies4Palestine, who shared a post about the event and asked students to walk out of their classes. The activist groups said the walk-out is to recognize that Gaza does not have a normal “back-to-school” period and that there should be “no business as usual” as long as the Palestinian territory remains “under siege.”
Around 200 students walked out on their first day of class for the spring semester. According to the Yale Daily News, students and professors gave speeches at the event, “stood with flags and posters, and chanted that the university was complicit “in genocide and war crimes.” Other chants called for Palestinian “liberation” and denounced Israel as an occupying nation engaged in apartheid. Some of the demands from the protesters included calls for a cease-fire from Israel, funding for Palestine studies at the university, and defunding Israel.
Concurrent with the rise in pro-Palestinian campus activism is an increase in antisemitic incidents on campuses. Last year, presidents from MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard all testified before a congressional committee about antisemitism on university campuses. None of them would admit that calls for genocide violated their schools’ codes of conduct on harassment and bullying.
Two of those presidents have since stepped down following backlash from their remarks, although former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation was due to a plagiarism scandal.
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