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Date: 2024-10-31 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00026607

GAZA WAR US COLLEGE PROTESTS US STUDENTS ARE PROTESTING THE WAY ISRAEL IS WAGING WAR AFTER OCTOBER 7TH Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/25/usc-cancels-main-commencement/ Peter Burgess COMMENTARY University officials got bullied into fear-based reactions by political figures and donors that conflated criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Those reactions just poured fuel on the fire. The best that can be hoped for is that the fire might shed some light on a subject that has too long been ignored: how can Israelis and Palestinians find a way to co-exist in a land they both claim as their own. Until that central problem is solved in a manner that allows both groups their dignity, the fuel for more fires both there and elsewhere will continue to feed the flames. How easy it must be for some people to forget Oct. 7. As a Cambridge student circa Easter 1960 I took part in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) march where around 40,000 protestors converged on Trafalgar Square. That was a serious protest! Today, I cannot believe the violent response of university administrators and the US police in response to this quite modest and reasonable student protest against the violence in Gaza!. I have been a supporter of Israel since it was established in 1948 but I am increasingly disgusted at the way Israel has treated the Palestinians. The treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been ignored by the media for years ... and now with more than 34,000 Palestinian dead in Gaza., it is perfectly reasonable for students to be upset and wanting something done! Killing Israeli Jews (civilians) is unacceptable. Killing Palestinians (civilians) is unacceptable Peter Burgess
USC cancels main commencement ceremony as campus is roiled by protests By Kim Bellware Published April 25, 2024 at 4:39 p.m. EDT ... Updated April 25, 2024 at 9:14 p.m. EDT The University of Southern California in Los Angeles. (Caroline Brehman/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) The University of Southern California has canceled its main commencement ceremony, citing new safety measures put in place in the days since the Los Angeles school has been rocked by student-led protests against the war in Gaza. Additional events are still planned for graduates. The university announced the cancellation of the May 10 main-stage ceremony — which typically draws around 65,000 people — on Thursday, one day after more than 90 students were arrested on campus. Skip to end of carousel College protests over Gaza war Waves of antiwar protests are spreading across colleges campuses, with growing police arrests as graduation season approaches. See the universities where protests are intensifying. Are you a college student? Tell us about protests on your campus. (Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post) End of carousel USC is among the dozens of colleges and universities where protests have unfolded on campus just weeks before commencement season; several have resulted in violence and arrests as police attempt to clear student encampments that have cropped up on school grounds. The cancellation of the main ceremony also comes more than a week after USC officials announced that they would not have valedictorian Asna Tabassum, who is Muslim and had shared pro-Palestinian views, speak at commencement, citing vague concerns over security. University officials had said news of Tabassum’s selection as graduation speaker had drawn responses that had “taken on an alarming tenor,” but they did not specify any threats. Amid backlash at the decision, the school also canceled a keynote commencement speech by film director Jon M. Chu, an alumnus of the school. The university said Thursday that it would still host dozens of other commencement events, including traditional ceremonies at individual schools. “We understand that this is disappointing; however, we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC,” the university said in its update. That may not satisfied all students. “I think that much like every major university, they need to say that it’s for safety. It’s a farce. It’s not for safety. It’s to shut down the voice of the students,” USC graduate student Leah King said, adding that when USC has right-wing pundits on campus, the university can guarantee their safety. Share this article No subscription required to read Share King said she was talking to a grad student Thursday afternoon whose entire family is coming to Los Angeles from China and now the student is scrambling, trying to figure out where to tell their family to go. Yvonne Condes in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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