New York Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis blamed Republicans for the supposed suppression of free speech on campus lately – as in, why aren’t pro-Hamas campus activists able to disrupt classes, occupy buildings, and harass Jewish students — in Tuesday’s “What Happened to Campus Activism Against the War in Gaza?”
The war in Gaza was started by Hamas when they invaded Israel and killed or kidnapped over 1,000 Israeli civilians. But there was no attempt at balance. The only quoted material came in support of the pro-Hamas campus activists, with no dissenters from the one-sided tone.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations swept through campuses across the country in the spring of 2024, leading to the arrests of more than 3,100 people. But in the more than a year and a half since, the protests have dissipated, even as the war in Gaza intensified.
Why the shift?
A major factor is the strict crackdown that universities waged on student protesters who built encampments on college campuses, beginning with Columbia and spreading across the country.