Joe Biden comes out of silence after two weeks of mobilizations

UNITED STATES – As the situation becomes tense in American colleges, Joe Biden finally breaks his silence. The American president called this Thursday, May 2, for a return of order in the face of the mobilizations of pro-Palestinian students who have been agitating universities for two weeks.

This speech comes after a series of manu militari dismantlings by the police of pro-Palestinian encampments, the latest at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where they arrested dozens of students.

Trump accused him of inaction

Six months before the elections, in a polarized United States, the Democratic president has engaged on this issue likely to undermine his campaign to affirm that “order must prevail”. “We are not an authoritarian country that silences people”nevertheless assured Joe Biden during a short speech.

In the morning, his Republican opponent Donald Trump accused him of inaction in the face of the pro-Palestinian movement. “They are radical left weirdos and we must stop them now”he said upon his arrival at his trial in New York.

Since April 17, a wave of mobilization for Gaza has swept across American campuses, in around forty universities, from the Atlantic coast to California, evoking demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

Students in particular call on universities to cut ties with patrons or companies linked to Israel and denounce the almost unconditional support of the United States for their Israeli ally.

Nearly 2,000 arrests

The police have intervened several times in recent days to dislodge the protesters. Nearly 2,000 people were arrested, according to a report established by several American media.

At UCLA, the protesters were arrested one by one, handcuffed then taken outside after a tense face-to-face with the police, according to an AFP journalist.

After several warnings, “around 300 demonstrators left voluntarily while more than 200 resisted the order to disperse and were arrested”UCLA President Gene Block said in a statement.

The previous night, clashes had broken out on this campus when counter-protesters, many of them masked, attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment and tried to break down a barricade. Demonstrators and counter-protesters then clashed with sticks and projectiles.

Agreement at Brown University

Some 300 people were also arrested on Wednesday in New York on university sites, according to authorities. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the police had already chased away pro-Palestinian demonstrators barricaded in the prestigious Columbia University, the epicenter of the student mobilization.

The New York Police Department said Thursday that of the 282 individuals arrested on the Columbia and CCNY campuses Tuesday evening, 48% were protesters from outside the universities.

Unlike other institutions, Brown University (Rhode Island, east) agreed with the demonstrators to dismantle their encampment in exchange for a vote on a possible “divestment” of “corporations that enable and profit from the genocide in Gaza”.

A mobilization that inspires pro-Palestinian activists across the world, in France, as well as at Sciences Po, whose main premises will be closed this Friday.

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