Gaza protests: On the frontline of US campus chaos

 

 

 

Transcript

0:00

get back get back it is a protest

0:03

movement that's

0:05

spreading this is the University of

0:07

Southern

0:08

California one of many flash points

0:10

across the country the police have

0:12

issued a dispersal order on the USC

0:15

campus they've warned students that if

0:18

they remain here they will be arrested

0:21

the kids are getting killed iamas

0:24

terrorists Hamas

0:26

terrorist and bid jeez Sky News has been

0:31

following them witnessing the arrests

0:34

examining the motives why do you feel so

0:36

passionately about being here even

0:38

though the police are telling you to

0:40

leave because we know that we're on the

0:42

right side of this right now are you

0:44

scared uh no I think that the children

0:47

in Gaza are more scared than I

0:50

am from coast to coast do you believe in

0:53

Israel's right to exist as a country I

0:56

believe in all people's right to freedom

0:58

and Liberation we are talking about a

1:01

genocide it is cutting deep wedges or

1:04

exposing existing ones for both sides

1:07

these are pathetic low life scum bear so

1:11

what is going on at America's top

1:13

universities protests encampments anger

1:16

and arrests at campuses across the

1:18

country Gaza is the Catalyst Israel is

1:21

the

1:22

target you're calling for a complete

1:24

divestment by Colombia from any company

1:28

complicit in Israeli apartheid and

1:30

colonization in Palestine and we are

1:32

calling for amnesty for all of our

1:34

students it began at Columbia on New

1:37

York City's upper Westside the

1:39

University president had called in the

1:40

police she'd concluded that the

1:42

protesters in a college with a proud

1:45

history of protest represented a clear

1:47

and present danger to college

1:50

life they tried to clear the encampment

1:52

they arrested more than 100 student

1:54

protesters but it only emboldened the

1:56

movement

2:00

downtown at New York University more

2:03

arrests well it's the morning after more

2:05

than a 100 people were arrested here at

2:08

NYU in southern Manhattan and theyve put

2:10

up barricades now it's an attempt I

2:12

think to quell the protest to keep the

2:14

two sides apart it's also an attempt to

2:17

keep out agitators who are unaffiliated

2:21

with the student

2:23

movement but police and University

2:25

Authority policies are not working

2:29

is the University of Texas in

2:32

Austin again more

2:35

protests the presence of anti-Semitic

2:37

elements within a much wider series of

2:40

protests has made some Jewish students

2:42

feel deeply unsafe they've been

2:44

compounded by the violent threats of a

2:47

minority distilling what's happening to

2:49

its simplest most digestible form is

2:52

easy the reality is more nuanced there

2:55

are Jewish students among the protesters

2:57

at all the campuses as a Jewish students

3:00

I felt completely safe 100% of the time

3:04

the police showed up in big Force

3:06

obviously did not want us to be there

3:08

and they ordered us to break up or

3:10

they'd stop making arrest but back in

3:12

New York outside Colombia and we came to

3:15

our homeland and all of these lunatics

3:18

an angry offended and worried Jewish

3:20

Community as offensive as these people

3:23

are across the street agenda number one

3:26

is to free our hostages do not be afraid

3:29

of being Jewish especially in New York

3:31

City down with Hamas victory for Israel

3:35

the chaos of a war in the Middle East

3:36

has reverberated so far beyond Israel

3:40

Palestine an issue seemingly so

3:42

intractable it's now confounding law

3:44

enforcement and splintering the

3:47

politics here's America's third most

3:49

senior politician on campus with a clear

3:53

position if this is not contained

3:55

quickly and if these these threats and

3:57

intimidation are not stopped there is an

3:59

approprate time for the National Guard

4:00

we have to bring order to these campuses

4:02

we cannot allow this to happen around

4:04

the country even among faculty staff

4:06

there is a split some Jewish professors

4:08

worried for their safety others framing

4:11

what's going on in a very different way

4:13

uh so it's not a Jewish protest outside

4:15

it's a protest of those who support the

4:18

violence that is going on in Gaza

4:20

against those who wanted to stop there's

4:22

clearly a wide spectrum of views here

4:25

and by definition that's going to mean

4:27

extremism on both sides it also means

4:30

definitions of anti-Semitism of

4:33

islamophobia are distilled and open to

4:36

interpretation it is then a balance

4:38

between respecting free speech and

4:40

restricting it the fine line between

4:43

free speech and hate speech and it's

4:45

riling America