The bombs fall on Gaza and their noise reverberates in the universities of the United States.
For years they have lived with each other. Suddenly, since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, two worlds in conflict have emerged in clear light, shaking the foundations of campuses due to the rampant increase in anti-Semitism. Although there is also Islamophobia, the ruling class seems to care much less.
On the Columbia University campus, north of Manhattan, tranquility reigns at this time of the afternoon when you sense that it is going to get dark. There is, however, background noise. Across Broadway Avenue, behind the gates of Barnard College (affiliated with Columbia), there is a demonstration. “Palestine will be free,” chant about 200 students under a banner that reads “Barnard for liberation,” with a Palestinian banner.
In a corner, touching each other but not mixing, a dozen young people wave Israeli flags and sing chants to silence or nullify opposing slogans.
“There is an ideological war on campus, we have never seen so much violence or this despicable anti-Semitism,” Davy S., a Belgian Jew who is in his second year of Political Science, responds next to the fence. “You feel like people hate you and it's not just your colleagues, but also teachers and administrators. You experience fear and there have been attacks,” he denounces.
Davy says they draw swastikas on them and tear down posters dedicated to those kidnapped by Hamas. “I decided to come to Columbia, rather than stay in Belgium, because it is a great institution and because of the existence of a vibrant Jewish community. Now I regret it,” he confesses. “When I hear them shout ‘from the river to the sea’, I understand that it is a genocidal cry, because it means the end of Israel, our death,” he emphasizes.
Two girls. K, a Palestinian-American, and L, an African-American, take to the streets with their identifying Arab scarves, after demanding the freedom of Palestine. “We are protesting because the director of Barnard has released a couple of statements in favor of Israel,” explains K, who takes the lead. “We (the people) are not anti-Semites, but rather we are against Zionism, political nationalism,” she explains. “From the river to the sea? It is nothing more than a statement against colonialism, they did take us from our land and kill us and take us to the diaspora,” she replies.
K maintains that they do suffer pressure from the vans that Jewish groups use to spread names and photographs of those who participate in pro-Palestine events. “They are constantly watching us,” she remarks.
The earthquake on American campuses impacts above all on elite universities grouped in the select group of the Ivy League.
The president of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Liz Magill, had to resign for not answering with a resounding “yes” when asked in Congress last week if she would condemn the cries in favor of Jewish genocide on her campus. On the other hand, the other two presidents who shared a session with her, Claudine Gay, from Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth, from MIT, saved their position due to the trust of her own teams.
The president of Columbia, Minoucre Shafik, would possibly also have been on the tightrope if she had attended that meeting on anti-Semitism. She excused her participation, citing a scheduling conflict.
The issue goes back a long way, especially since the right became obsessed with denouncing cancel culture, considering that conservative speech is suppressed and attacked, while diversity of race, gender or religion is favored. The war in the Middle East has only reinforced the question: Are universities centers of intellectual training or spaces for indoctrination?
It's noisy. Voices are heard in favor of a global intifada. At Yale, another Ivy League, the Jewish religious holiday of Hanukkah, which is celebrated these days by placing a Palestinian flag on the arms of the menorah (the candelabra), is desacralized and stained. So the Republicans smell blood in the controversy over anti-Semitism in these centers where the leaders of the future are trained.
Magill fell because UPenn's big donors already had it in for him. But Gay, the first African American to head Harvard, survives thanks to the mobilization of professors and students who came to her defense, despite the opposition of millionaires like William Ackman, who has been obsessed with Gay since he took office in early July. .
American universities are in the position of taking a public position on their position in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. But when they take a stand for balance, the right immediately considers it complicity with terrorists.
At night, the Jews of Columbia gather to light another candle in the menorah. Nobody interferes or bothers them at their party. “It's hard sometimes with everything going on on campus, but it's also a great time for the Jewish community to come together and show strength,” says Elisha Baker, a Middle East history student! “To be honest, I don't feel afraid – she emphasizes – although there are reasons for fear and anxiety with so much protest. “I do think it is a great moment to exhibit the pride of being Jewish.”
