The anti-war protests in US campuses over Israel’s unrelenting assaults on the Palestinian folks have reignited the controversy on free speech. Paying homage to the anti-Vietnam conflict campus demonstrations of the Sixties, these protests have clearly divided American society. What started within the Ivy League Columbia College has now unfold to quite a few campuses throughout the US. The protestors are doubling down on their demand for the schools to chop off all ties with corporations which can be funding Israel. The crackdown on pupil activists is frequent to each the Vietnam period protests and the present scenario. What’s completely different is the present explosion of social media whereby the narrative is twisted and an agenda is perpetrated by each side of the divide. Whereas the Conservative foyer is crying foul and alleging rampant anti-Semitism, the liberal foyer is taking up the institution for its blatant help for Israel regardless of its inexcusable assault on harmless civilians in Gaza.
Campus demonstrations have typically been harbingers of change. Be it the 1968 pupil agitation in France, the Vietnam period protests within the US, the Tiananmen Sq. demonstration in China, the anti-apartheid stir of the Nineteen Eighties and even the Navnirman Andolan that originated in Gujarat in 1974 and finally led to the downfall of Indira Gandhi in India put up the Emergency, these occasions have had a profound influence on society. The idealism of youth is typically sturdy sufficient to tackle the cynicism of politicians and overthrow jaded political programs. What is going on within the US now in election season is certain to trigger extreme rifts within the social material. With the Conservative and liberal lobbies focusing on one another, college authorities must sort out the disaster with cool heads and a sane perspective. There is no such thing as a room for a violent strategy to the problem that’s roiling campuses throughout the US.