Biden Condemns Pro-Palestinian Agitators ‘Destroying’ College Campuses
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President Joe Biden has finally addressed the chaos caused by pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses across the country. “Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law,” he said Thursday from the Roosevelt Room. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, and closing campuses, forcing classes and graduations to be canceled. None of this is a peaceful protest.”
“There is a right to protest,” he continued. “But not the right to cause chaos.” The president has faced mounting pressure from both parties to address the destruction that has led to hundreds of arrests and damage to some of the country’s most prestigious universities.
He spoke for less than four minutes before leaving for a planned trip to Wilmington, North Carolina. As he walked out the door, he told reporters he did not want the National Guard deployed. Biden also said the protests did not change his thinking on Middle East policy.
Biden spoke after police scuffled with protesters as they smashed through barricades at the UCLA encampment in Gaza after hundreds of anti-Israel students defied orders to leave. “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or stifle dissent,” Biden said. “The American people are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to resulting issues.”
‘But, but we are not a lawless country either. We are a civil society. And order must prevail,” the president continued. At UCLA, California Highway Patrol officers wearing face shields and protective vests faced protesters dressed with shields. As of Thursday morning, the encampment was evacuated after a tense overnight standoff between anti-Israel protesters and police.
Officers tore apart an umbrella that an activist tried to use as a shield as the crowd chanted “peaceful protest.” ‘Leave the campus, this is a (power) school. This is a (expletive) school, what are you doing, this is a school, we (expletive) learn. I need to learn about public health,” one protester shouted. At Columbia University in New York, where students broke into Hamilton Hall and raised a banner reading “intifada” – a term that encourages violence against Jews and Israelis – the NYPD was called Tuesday.
Several White House spokespeople condemned the takeover of Hamilton Hall and criticized the anti-Semitism arising from the protest movement, but it wasn’t until Thursday that Biden delivered a speech. ‘Let’s be clear about that too. There should be no room on any campus. No place in America. For anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden said on Thursday.
“There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind. Whether it is anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s just wrong. There is no place for racism in America,” Biden reiterated. A top Jewish group on Columbia’s campus reported that Jewish students were told by pro-Palestinian protesters to “go back to Poland” and “stop killing children.”
“I understand that people have strong feelings and deep beliefs,” Biden said. “In America, we respect and protect the right to express that.” “But that doesn’t mean anything is happening,” Biden warned. “It must be done without violence, without destruction, without hatred and within the law.”
