The police crackdown on protests against the Gaza War in American universities, where students were staging sit-ins to demand a rollback of policies seen to be supportive of Israel’s offensive that has left over 35,000 Palestinians dead so far, leaves one aghast.
Reminiscent of how the 1960s’ peace protests over the Vietnam War were thwacked back, cops used the sort of brutal force that makes the country’s claims of free-speech tolerance ring hollow across a globe that the US says is seeing a clash of democracy and autocracy, with America on the side of freedom. Liberty for Palestinians, though, is a cry that was sought to be silenced with stun guns, rubber bullets and pepper balls, with non-violent students and even professors being roughed up.
Social media has been buzzing with charges of US hypocrisy. India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar recently drew subtle attention to dissonance between US words and actions: “Democracies should display understanding in regard to other democracies. After all, we are all judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.” America’s claim to lead the ‘free world’ has long been contested. The wars it backs are a giveaway. Students get it.