Right-wing Missouri politicians are throwing temper tantrums over free speech on college campuses. These snowflakes want Pro-Palestine protests silenced.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has doubled down on his calls for the federal government to “immediately expel” foreign student visa holders who “are found to have supported terrorist organizations.” Meanwhile, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) called on President Joe Biden to mobilize the National Guard against protestors.
Bailey claims he’s demanding action in response to “antisemitism” on college campuses and reiterated the call he initially put out in November, following Pro-Palestine protests by Washington University students.
Student protests calling on universities to divest from corporations they see abetting genocide in Gaza have swept the nation and reached a crucial boiling point in recent days as Columbia University arrested more than 100 protestors setting up a demonstration encampment on the school’s lawn, according to CNN.
Washington University joins a growing number of universities nationwide protesting Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Earlier this month, demonstrators at Wash U interrupted a university event for newly admitted students, calling for the school to divest from Boeing, which has been criticized for its weapons program that has developed bombs used in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. “As a result, the Washington University Police Department issued 12 protesters court summons for trespassing, disturbing the peace, and refusing to disperse, April 13,” reported Student Life, Washington University’s student newspaper.
Then, last Wednesday, Student Life reports approximately 30 people demonstrated in support of one of the three Wash U students who'd been suspended over the protests. Wash U ordered the students to disband about 30 minutes into the demonstration, the student newspaper reports.
Fittingly for a man who lives in Virginia, Hawley’s letter to Biden doesn’t mention anything happening at Washington University, but repeatedly mentions Columbia University and falsely calls the protests against Israel’s attacks on Gaza “pro-Hamas.”
“On college campuses across the United States, Jewish Americans are at risk. Most alarmingly, in-person classes at Columbia University have been canceled today — on the Jewish holiday of Passover — in response to a days long, illegal pro-Hamas demonstration,” Hawley says in the April 22 letter. “You must immediately mobilize the National Guard and any other authorities necessary to ensure the safety of Jewish American students and citizens.”
Hawley likened the protests to segregation in Arkansas in 1957 saying:
“President Dwight Eisenhower deployed the National Guard and 101st Airborne Division to ensure the safety of black students attending Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. I urge you to similarly mobilize the National Guard and other necessary authorities to protect Jewish American students on Columbia University’s campus, and any other campus where Jewish students are at risk. ‘Never again’ means never again.”
But Hawley’s letter got that history wrong.
As the National Archives demonstrate, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus actually summoned the National Guard to stop nine Black teens from entering the school. It was the subsequent deployment of the federal 101st Airborne Division that protected the integrating students.
Coming from an unpopular member of the party that’s not in power, Hawley’s posturing will almost certainly have no sway or say in whether the National Guard is deployed. Bailey may have a little more authority here, but only if the Biden administration chooses to listen.
He’s joined a coalition of attorney generals in 20 other states to call for the removal of international students who participate in Pro-Palestine protests. They argue that the Immigration and Nationality Act makes those who support a “foreign terrorist organization” ineligible for a visa.
“Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, college campuses have become a glowing hotbed of antisemitic activity,” according to a statement from Bailey’s office. “Threats of violence against Jewish students and people are also rising.”
“The Biden Administration must enforce federal law by immediately vetting all foreign student visa holders and expelling any who are found to have endorsed or supported terrorist organizations,” Bailey says.
Meanwhile many St. Louis students continue to stand in solidarity with Palestine, and another action is planned for Saturday on Art Hill in Forest Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This event is coordinated by multiple local student organizations including ones at Wash U, Saint Louis University, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Webster University, and St. Louis Community College, according to the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Students will create banners and posters for future demonstrations and will design their graduation caps to protest Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza.
Since October 7, more than 33,843 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Middle East Monitor. This number may be higher as the health ministry in Gaza struggles to locate the dead. Israel stands accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice, which issued a provisional order calling on the country to stop any acts that violate the genocide convention, according to National Public Radio. Israel is not heeding the order, according to Human Rights Watch.
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