Trump praises the attack on protesters at Columbia University and describes the university president as a coward
Former US President Donald Trump praised police intervention against pro-Palestine demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City.
This came during a speech, on Wednesday, at an election rally in Wisconsin, in which he claimed that “New York is under siege” due to the demonstrations at Columbia University.
He said, “The police entered and ended (the protest), and it was an incredible thing… They did a wonderful job and we will restore our wonderful police powers”.
He touched on the police intervention against the demonstrators, adding, “It was a beautiful thing worth watching”.
Trump also attacked university president Nemat Shafiq, accusing her of delaying in notifying the police and of being “weak and cowardly”.
Two days ago, New York police forces dispersed the solidarity camp with the Gaza Strip, which was set up by students at Columbia University.
Last April 18, students who rejected the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.
With the intervention of police forces and the arrest of dozens of students, the state of anger expanded and the demonstrations extended to dozens of universities in the United States, including leading universities such as Harvard, George Washington, New York, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and North Carolina.
Later, the unprecedented student movement in support of Palestine in the United States expanded to universities in countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of their counterparts in US universities and demands to stop the war on Gaza and boycott the companies that supply weapons to Israel.
On the same context, Trump said that he had fun watching New York police raid a Columbia University building where pro-Palestinian students were barricaded, and described the demonstrators as “reckless, angry people who sympathize with Hamas”.
According to CBS News, it had obtained internal government documents showing that US officials were discussing various options for resettling Palestinians displaced as a result of the fighting in Gaza after they passed a set of tests.
Aides to Biden say the president supports peaceful protests but opposes violence, hate speech and physical intimidation, with a particular focus on condemning anti-Semitism on college campuses.
