Protests at some of the most prestigious universities in the United States continue to ignite campuses in one constant escalation. On Monday morning, a video spread of some protesters, complete with keffiyeh, replacing the American flags above the statue of the founder of Harvard University with huge Palestinian flagsthe. The protest did not last long, given that the university police removed the flags within a few tens of minutes but there was no shortage of reactions, making even more incandescent the climate.
Tension skyrocketing
According to what was reported by Crimsonthe Harvard student-run newspaper, around 6.30pm on Saturday evening, some students raised three large flags Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the statue of John Harvardtaking the place of the Star-Spangled Flag that usually flies above the university’s founder more ancient of the United States. Within minutes the police arrived to remove the flags and kefiya that had been wrapped around the statue’s neck only to be greeted with shouts of “Shame” to slogans, including the extremely controversial “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. In this case, the response of the prestigious University of Massachusetts was quickly and without hesitation: Harvard spokesman Jonathan L. Swain called the students’ actions a “violation of university regulations. Individuals involved will be subject to disciplinary action.”.
However, the prospect does not seem to have frightened the protesters: after the police arrived they started singing “Harvard, take my ID. Not you do it fear” before holding a vigil around the statue erected for a Palestinian victim of Israeli intervention. It was here that the university administrators showed up for identify students and present him with an unambiguous written notice. “Continuing to violate university regulations will result in sanctions increasingly severe. Anyone who has disciplinary proceedings underway will not be awarded a degree.”. An extremely serious threat, considering that a year at Harvard costs a whopping $82,866. The Crimson he then specified that the American flags were not damaged, given that are removed to 4pm on Friday to be displayed again the following Monday.
An explosive situation
The situation at Harvard risks get out of handdespite the administration having closed the doors leading to the famous courtyard: to prevent the creation of a field like that of rival Columbia, access to the campus is limited to those in possession of the university card and there are signs strictly prohibiting putting up tents or placing stalls without permission from the university. That didn’t stop a group of students from place 14 tents after a demonstration against the suspension of the solidarity committee for Palestine organized by the most radicalized students. Pro-Palestinian protests and the administration’s lax response are nothing new at Harvard, costing the university president his job Claudine Gaywho resigned at the beginning of January after a disastrous appearance before the United States Congress.
The situation at Harvard seemed to have returned to normal, until demonstrations began on several campuses of the so-called Ivy League. Last Thursday the police intervened to disperse the protests in Columbia, arresting 108 people, including the daughter of controversial Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Tensions and clashes between protesters and groups of Jewish students have risked transcendingespecially since, last Tuesday, students and professors at New York University had been clamoring for a academic boycott of all Israeli universities.
The authorities also intervened on Thursday evening in Austin, where 54 people were arrested to restore order on the University of Texas campus. If in Lone Star State it was also employed mounted policemany administrators fear the so-called “contagion effect”: one of the Nyu protesters had declared to the Daily Mail to have been “inspired by our classmates at Columbia”wearing a balaclava and a kefiya on her hair.
The fear of many is that such protests will reach Harvard first and then to the rest of American universities before the summer holidays.
