The View host Whoopi Goldberg appeared to choke back tears as she defended students protesting at colleges across the country, claiming it was “one of the great rights of an American to stand up and say something is wrong.” is.’
More than 700 arrests have been made by police, breaking down the protests. The protests spread across the US last week to at least 76 universities and were growing. Columbia University warned protesting students on Monday. to disperse or be suspended while their encampment continues for the fourteenth day.
As Whoopi, 68, discussed the ongoing protests with her cohosts during Monday’s episode of the ABC show, the studio fell silent as she bowed her head and composed herself before saying, “Since I didn’t say anything, I’m sorry, I have to do this.
“It is one of the great rights of an American to stand up and say something is wrong. No matter what your skin color is, whether you are a woman or a man, it does not matter, and we must teach our people how to be on their guard. Part of our problem is that the media uses the best clickbait.”
Whoopi Goldberg appeared to fight back tears on The View on Monday as she defended students protesting at colleges across the US
Columbia University students gather to march and protest in support of an on-campus protest encampment in support of Palestinians on April 29
Many students camped out on the Columbia University campus last week
Protesters face off against NYPD officers outside the main entrance of Columbia University on April 24
She continued, “So you see the same posters or you see the same people, but you don’t see the people doing peaceful things and saying, ‘This is what we want to do.’
“I would caution the media to be very careful about what they do and how they handle this, because what they seem to be doing is pushing a narrative that people are pushing against, that students are pushing against, that I’m against. I think it’s great to see because I like it when students get angry and say, “We want something to change.”
It appears that Sister Act star Brian Teta, executive producer of The View, had initially promised not to give a speech. She then added, “Unfortunately, I see Brian giving me a sideways glance, and he’s starting to get annoyed because I said I wasn’t going to say anything,” before joking, “So he knows me for the liar that I am .’
However, Whoopi wasn’t the only one on the panel who felt passionately about the topic, as Sunny Hostin argued: “I think in my opinion we need to roll back the framework of these university protests.
“I think as far back as I can remember, college campuses have been the place for anti-war protests. I don’t think the recent protests have even reached the scale of the large student protests we saw in the late 1960s against the Vietnam War, or even in the 1980s against South Africa’s practice of apartheid.
“We saw calls during apartheid to divest South African companies, and that was very successful. Nelson Mandela said that he believed that in many ways this led to South Africa being freed from that system, and so I think these are anti-war protests, and I think it’s very poignant that we portray these as pro -Palestinian protests or pro-Israeli protests.’
Mother of two Sunny continued, “These are anti-war protests, and the students I’ve spoken to at many of the Ivy League schools tell me this is a humanitarian crisis.
“What we also don’t talk about enough is the fact that 35,000, mostly Palestinian women and children, have been murdered.”
At one point Whoopi bowed her head and seemed to take a moment to compose herself
Sunny Hostin argued that ‘we need to change the framework of these university protests’
Ana Navarro (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin also joined the conversation with Sunny
She added: “What I don’t think we’re also talking about is that for some reason the discussion about Israel’s policies, which the UN has called war crimes, and which the International Criminal Court is investigating as war crimes, which we do not. “I’m not saying: these are people, these are civilians, and we have to protect them.”
Previously, Whoopi had told the panel: “It’s clear, and let’s be very clear about this, no one supports anti-Semitic hate speech and students fear for their safety, but do they have the right to peacefully protest an end to the violence? ?
“Isn’t this part of being an American, and also part of standing up when you see something that’s not right?”
Former White House aide Alyssa Farah Griffin then decided to respond and have her say.
‘Well, that’s the basic question. There is the right to freedom of expression and the right to assembly, but Jews also have the right to feel safe on college campuses,” the 34-year-old began.
“Here’s what I want to say: As a Lebanese American, I am disgusted to see the flags of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, flying on American college campuses, and I understand that these young people are coming out to protest for peace, for a ceasefire the-fire.
“But I also want to say that there was a ceasefire before October 7. Israel has since proposed two, Hamas has rejected them, and Hamas’s own charter in Article 13 states that it rejects all peaceful solutions and all negotiated resolutions.
Sara Haines shared her frustration at the impact on students’ education and urged universities to ‘take action’
Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, issued a statement saying that many Jewish students have been expelled from campus due to the “intolerable” atmosphere created
Columbia University has asked protesters to sign a document agreeing to “voluntarily leave by 2 p.m.” Monday — or be expelled and suspended from the Ivy League
“And then we’ve seen this language evolve into something much more radical and anti-Semitic, saying that Jews have no place on campus.
“I talked to Alex Edelman’s brother, he had a yarmulke ripped off on campus, he had someone grab him by the neck just because he existed as a Jew.
‘People need to draw attention to this. Jews live in fear of white nationalists on the one hand and far-left people, who in some cases openly side with terrorists, on the other.”
Sara Haines intervened to share her frustration about the impact on students’ education, urging universities to “take action.”
“That’s the part that bothers me: There are parents everywhere who just want their kids to learn. Graduations are being canceled, in-session classes are being canceled,” she said.
‘The council must provide the forum, they should not put their finger on the scales. We need to encourage young people to be uncomfortable with thoughts, to think critically, to protest everything, but you also need to make sure that it doesn’t devolve into lawlessness, chaos and violence, and that is now . a lot of these campuses.”