The pro-Palestinian protesterwell, like has emerged at several universities in the United States, was subject to debate during last week. Several people believe that the protests may disadvantage US President Joe Biden ahead of the upcoming election in the country.
April 30 occupied a pro-Palestinian protesters Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in protest of Israel's violence in Gaza. As a result of the uproar, management decided to close the campus and switch to distance learning for the rest of the semester. Since then, the protests have grown and spread to several American universities.
The student movement can constitute one big challenge for Joe Biden and popular support for him will decrease before the American election, says Aftonbladet's columnist Wolfgang Hansson. He also writes that the protests should worry Israel, America's main ally, because young people in the United States have a different view of Israel than the older generation.
- Today's young people do not have the holocaust on their retinas and do not see Israel as a victim but as a superior military power that commits severe abuses against the Palestinians, writes Wolfgang Hansson.
That the students have occupied a building at Colombia University is not one peace protest, but has instead become a space to direct hatred against Zionists, writes Svenska Dagbladet's lead writer Tove Lifvendahl. She believes that many Jewish students fear for their lives and draws a parallel to the 30s when the Nazis expelled Jews from German universities. She also thinks that the American university management should be clear that you can discuss, for example, totalitarian teachings and racism.
- It is something different than letting the universities be occupied by forces that want to make them battlefields for unabashed racism, romanticism of violence and terrorist sympathies, writes Tove Lifvendahl.
Karin Eriksson, reporter at Dagens Nyheter, writes that if Donald Trump plays his cards right and benefits of the mass protests around the US, he has a chance to win votes for the upcoming election period.
- It is set for a repeat of the authoritarian messages, she writes.
Biden's headache refuses to go away
Wolfgang Hansson, Aftonbladet
These are not peaceful protests
Tove Lifvendahl, Svenska Dagbladet
This time, Trump may benefit from the protests
Karin Eriksson, Dagens Nyheter
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