By Athena Papakosta

Protests over the war on the Gaza Strip are snowballing in the United States of America.

It started at Columbia University in New York. Students pitched tents on the campus’s central lawn where they remained protesting in support of the Palestinian people, while demanding that the university distance itself from companies that sell weapons to Israel.

When the students were asked to leave, they refused, prompting the police to intervene and arrest more than 100 students in a few hours after university president Nemat Minous Shafiq called.

The images recalled the days of the Vietnam War in 1968 when hundreds of university students blockaded Columbia and police raided and arrested 700. Since those incidents, 56 years ago, 100 students and 15 police officers were injured.

Yesterday, Monday, it was announced that classes will not be held live while the protests continue. This time the students were joined by some professors, who joined their voices, condemning, at the same time, Shafiq’s actions and calling for her resignation.

What unfolded in Columbia stood out enough to spark a wave of protests almost across the country.

The baton was taken up by Yale in Connecticut where students rallied against the war on the Gaza Strip. Defying warnings to disperse, campus police arrested at least 47.

Protest gatherings are also recorded at NYU, which, like Columbia, is located in New York with more than 130 students and professors being arrested. At the same time, gatherings are recorded in Berkeley and MIT, which – as students complain – has not even asked for a ceasefire.

For its part, Harvard has closed the gates leading to its large courtyard (Harvard Yard) for the entire week in order to avoid an impromptu protest “camp” being set up on its own campus, while allowing entry only to those with university ID cards.

At the same time, some Jewish students complain that the university space is no longer welcoming or even safe for them, stressing that much of the criticism against Israel is directed at anti-Semitism.

Accusations of contributing to the tarnishing of the protests were also launched by Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Manning, who said that during her visit to Columbia she saw protesters calling for the elimination of Israel.

For their part, the students participating in the protests at Columbia and the organization “Justice for Palestine” – among them Jewish students – deny the accusations that their mobilizations are anti-Semitic, blaming any incidents on individual persons and insisting that they are demonstrating in a peaceful and inclusive manner rejecting all forms of hatred and bigotry.

Responding to a question about the events at the universities on Monday, US President Joe Biden stressed that he condemned “anti-Semitic demonstrations” as well as “those who do not understand what is happening to the Palestinians”.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, American universities have been under pressure regarding their funding from private and federal authorities, raising questions about their independence. Already, during the winter, the president of the University of Pennsylvania and the president of Harvard resigned. Red flag rallies, anti-war slogans, campus security, and a big question about the limits of free speech and the protection of students who felt threatened.

Today, the movement at American universities is heating up further with the New York Times noting that in a few days classes and exams will be over and they will give way to graduation ceremonies which will probably turn into new, even bigger, protest rallies.