Mojtaba Darabi, researcher and journalist
In 1968, Columbia University became a hotbed of dissent as students protested against the school's involvement with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a symbol of its complicity in Vietnam War research.
Occupying buildings and demanding the severance of military ties, the activists faced a harsh crackdown when the administration summoned police to intervene.
The ensuing conflict spurred significant changes; Columbia withdrew from the controversial partnership and reformed its governance to include student voices.
Over fifty years after its historic protests against Vietnam War affiliations, Columbia University found itself again at the epicenter of a nationwide movement—this time, rallying for Palestine. Sparked in April, this wave of activism spread rapidly, touching nearly 140 institutions across 45 states, including Washington D.C. Institutions like UCLA, University of Texas at Austin, USC, Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Brown, and Harvard joined Columbia in this unprecedented scope of demonstrations.
The fervor of these protests, however, met with considerable violence. Since April 18, over 2,200 arrests have occurred on university campuses throughout the United States, raising significant questions about the limits of protest rights.
Among those arrested were not just students but also academic figures, such as the head of the Philosophy Department and an Economics professor at Emory University, signaling a significant escalation in the stakes involved.
Columbia University itself took stern actions, banning a student leader from campus for making statements deemed critically offensive against Zionists, highlighting the intense and often contentious intersection of academic freedom, free speech, and campus politics. This chapter in Columbia’s protest history underscored not just a local but a national struggle over voice, identity, and justice in higher education.
The unprecedented wave of protests sweeping across U.S. universities marks a significant turning point, reflecting a complex and noteworthy global response.
The vigorous and sustained support from Western populations for Palestinians—amidst ongoing conflict with the Zionist regime—stands out as both a source of pride and a subject for intricate analysis. This support emerges in a cultural landscape traditionally inhospitable to such movements, making its breadth and intensity particularly remarkable.
In the United States, the daily bombardment of over 4,000 online advertisements encourages a deep-seated consumerism. In 2021, major American companies allocated $1.6 billion to target ads at young people, cultivating a consumerist mindset from a young age.
By 2018, this approach seemed to pay off, with American teenagers spending a staggering $77.2 billion on consumer goods.
Yet, against this backdrop, the widespread and passionate support for Palestinians—a predominantly Muslim and Arab population—by American and European citizens is both surprising and encouraging.
This phenomenon underscores a remarkable deviation from and potential challenge to the dominant cultural narrative of materialistic individualism.
This shifting narrative in the West is reflected starkly in recent polling data. A November 2023 NBC poll revealed a profound disapproval among younger Americans, with 70% of voters aged 18 to 34 critical of US President Joe Biden's handling of the Zionist regime's actions in Gaza. This sentiment aligns with broader American discontent, as a Gallup poll from March 2024 indicated a significant downturn in support for the Zionist regime's invasion of Gaza—55% of Americans disapproved.
The evolution of public opinion is further underscored by a notable drop in support; approval for the Zionist regime's actions fell from 50% in November to just 36% four months later. This polarization isn't just a recent trend. A YouGov poll from late October highlighted a generational divide: 28% of Americans aged 18-29 sympathized more with Palestinians than Zionists, the only demographic to show such a preference, compared to 20% for the Zionists. This ongoing shift and divide illustrate the complex and changing landscape of American public opinion toward the genocide in Gaza.
This shifting landscape has elicited concern among American officials. While the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to freedom of speech, a right U.S. leaders have long championed globally, the response to domestic protests has been starkly different.
In the face of widespread student protests against the Zionist regime's actions, American officials including well known senators have advocated for aggressive police intervention against demonstrators. They have called for the expulsion of protesting students from the country, and proposed raising taxes on universities hosting protests.
This tough stance is indicative of broader anxieties about the potential political consequences of these protests. Echoing historical parallels, New York Times columnist Charles Blow referenced the 1968 anti-Vietnam War protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which were met with police violence and significantly impacted the political landscape, contributing to Hubert Humphrey's electoral defeat. Blow cautioned that the upcoming convention, also set in Chicago, could see similar demonstrations, signaling potential repercussions for the Biden campaign if it fails to heed the lessons of history.
The stark increase in public awareness and concern regarding Palestine can be attributed to the severe and extensive impact of the genocide in Gaza.
The devastation has been profound: approximately 62% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed due to relentless bombings, with the Gaza media office reporting that the Zionist forces have dropped at least 75,000 tonnes of explosives on the region—about five times the explosive yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Furthermore, the human toll has been catastrophic. In just 200 days, more than 34,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza. This death toll is equivalent to the total number of people killed by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, across their terrorist activities from 2007 to 2020.
The scale and intensity of these events have significantly shifted global public opinion and drawn heightened scrutiny to the situation in Palestine.
In the harsh and tumultuous reality of present-day Gaza, the conflict manifests not merely as a geopolitical struggle, but as a stark delineation between righteousness and malevolence, laid bare for the global audience to witness.
This clear-cut battle between the forces of justice and a profound evil has sparked a wave of unprecedented awareness and solidarity worldwide. It has resonated deeply, not only in places previously engaged with the Palestinian cause but also in regions and among populations that had remained largely aloof.
This profound shift in perception has found its echo in academic institutions across the United States, where a new generation is scrutinizing and questioning longstanding narratives. The intense confrontation in Gaza has galvanized students and intellectuals, prompting discussions and protests that reach far beyond traditional activist circles.
This confrontation was emphatically addressed by Imam Khamenei during a gathering with officials responsible for the Hajj pilgrimage on May 6, 2024.
He depicted the situation in Gaza as a revealing moment for Western civilization, which he referred to as having spawned a "vampire."
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution considered the current events in Gaza to be a major sign in history. “The savage attacks of the rabid Zionist dogs on one side, and the resistance and oppression of the Gazans on the other side, will remain in history and guide mankind. The amazing and unprecedented effect that it has had in non-Islamic societies and universities of the US and other countries, are proof of its history-making and significant nature.”
This burgeoning awareness and critical perspective toward the Zionist regime's genocide in Gaza have resonated deeply in the West, particularly among younger generations.
Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, has noted a significant shift in the discourse surrounding the US-Zionist regime relationship.
Once a sensitive topic barely touched upon in mainstream media, the dynamics of the Zionist regime lobby, such as AIPAC's political influence, are now openly discussed.
Walt encapsulates the generational transformation, stating, "There's a huge generational shift going on in America, people who are much younger than us are growing up with a very different experience of the US-Israel relationship. What they see is Israel's occupation, they see the oppression of one group over another, even if they are not particularly interested in the Middle East."
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
