Senate members of the United States rejected House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recommendation to take the National Guard to university campuses to suppress growing demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and American support for Israel.
” I do n’t know if you need to call in the National Guard, maybe you just call in the police”, said Senator J. D. Vance, an Ohio Republican and one of several lawmakers from both parties expressing reservations. Vance spoke on” Fox News Sunday”.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, stated on NBC’s” Meet the Press” that sending the National Guard to campuses would bring back painful memories of the violent era of campus protest against the Vietnam War, particularly at Kent State University.
In 1970, the National Guard shot into a group of activists at Ohio’s Kent State, killing four kids.
” I think that would be a very, very terrible idea”, Kaine said of deploying the National Guard. According to Kaine, there are ways to control the protests by using campus security as well as by “offering students more options to have legal and productive dialogue where people hear one another.”
Politicians argued that local authorities or school officials should be in charge of demonstrations, while others argued that universities should foster a constructive speech among students.
Speaker Johnson criticized pro-Palestine demonstrations last week while making a visit to Columbia University, claiming that the National Guard would have an “appropriate” position if the marches were n’t rapidly contained.
As criticism of the United States ‘ support for Israel’s military battle in Gaza grows, pro-Palestinian rallies have gotten worse. Activists are demonstrating across university campuses across the nation, setting up camps on the grounds of the institutions, and urging the government to renounce all support for Israel and the war.
Some schools have responded by bringing in officers, and occasionally detaining emphasizing students and professors. In response to rising protests, the University of Southern California canceled its principal initiation meeting last year due to safety concerns. Jill Stein, a Green Party member, was detained while attending a St. Louis opposition.
A pro-Palestine crowd chanted at politicians and reporters who were present at the annual black-tie dinner outside the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington on Saturday evening.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, claimed that the majority of younger people who protest on campuses are there out of defiance of the war and that the United States should defend their right to peaceful protest.
” In some of these school protests, there have been genuine threats to students on campus. And I think in those cases, school police or local authorities can and should solve those risks”, Murphy said on Fox News Sunday.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he would move to the college services initially when asked if he would support sending in the National Guard.
” Let’s see if these school president can get control of the situation. They had to be able to do that”, McConnell said on CBS ‘” Mouth the Nation”. What the purpose of a university education is supposed to be around is civil discussion.
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