'False pretext' used by US police to target students opposing Israeli war

Universities across the US have turned into battlegrounds as pro-Palestine protests sweep college campuses.

Over 1,000 protesters, including students and staff, have been arrested over the last two weeks for pushing universities to divest from Israel and condemn its onslaught on Gaza, where more than 34,500 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority being women and children.

Noelle McAfee is one of the professors who was detained at Emory University in Georgia last week, and the video of her arrest went viral on social media.

She was arrested along with dozens more protesters who set up an encampment calling for divestment from companies tied to Israel, as well as “Cop City,” a controversial police training facility in Atlanta.

In an interview with Anadolu, McAfee, chair of Emory’s Department of Philosophy, emphasized she was at the protest “in solidarity with the students, their freedom of expression and the freedom to think critically.”

“My primary concern was that the administration would call in outside police on a peaceful student demonstration,” she said.

'False pretext'

Her fears were not unfounded as, despite Emory having its own police department, the administration called in Atlanta police, along with the Georgia State Patrol, which has “a reputation for being very brutal.”

“When outside police come in, they use tactics that are really very aggressive. It also means that they’re prepared to arrest and be difficult to our students,” she said.

“Suddenly, these police, state patrol and all just descended and started attacking the students who were in this little enclosed area.”

The law enforcers, she explained, were ordered to clear the encampment on the “pretext that these were outside agitators, not Emory students.”

McAfee disagrees with that claim, pointing out that 20 of the 28 people arrested were affiliated with Emory.

“So, their whole pretext to do this, that these were ‘outside people’ was false,” she said. McAfee herself was arrested as she filmed an attack on a student.

“I saw them beating up a student. They were just wailing on this student, beating them up. I knew they might arrest me if I intervened, so I stood back, was videotaping it, and screamed at them to stop, but they didn’t,” she said.

“Then one got up in front of me and said, ‘Ma’am, you need to leave.’ I said I’m not leaving, and then they arrested me.”

'Police attack students'

She was charged with disorderly conduct and will “have to show up in court in another few weeks.” While McAfee’s arrest was not violent, Caroline Fohlin, an economics professor, faced much more aggression, being slammed to the ground and pinned down by two police officers.

“She had no idea what’s going on. She saw the police starting to attack students. She stood between them and the students,” McAfee said about her colleague’s arrest.

“She was saying, ‘I’m a professor, I’m a professor, I’m a professor in the economics department,’ and it didn’t matter at all … I understand how police work, so I made a point to have a posture that was non-confrontational so they wouldn’t hurt me. She didn’t know to do that, or maybe she just didn’t care, and she got brutalised."

‘Split between administrations and faculties’

McAfee is critical of the way university administrations have been “brutally and unilaterally” handling the protests.

“I think what’s happening around the United States right now is a split between the administration parts and the faculty. At many universities, including at Emory, you’ll see the faculty aligning with students in their civic actions, whereas the administrations are clamping down on civic actions,” she said.

She believes students are being demonized and targeted for doing exactly what universities are supposed to encourage them to do.

“We bring students in and talk about the power of civil discourse and critical thinking and inquiry skills, about being an effective political citizen … and the ones who are doing that are then thrown in jail for doing that,” she said.

“That’s why I want to point out the discrepancy within universities between the different parts, the administration and the faculty.”

More than a crackdown

She acknowledged the double standards in the harsh treatment being meted out to pro-Palestine protesters.

“This was cracked down on much more than, I think if there had been a Ukraine-related demonstration,” she said.

McAfee also expressed concern over how all of this bodes for the overall situation regarding freedom of expression at US universities, but still sees a potential silver lining.

“I’m also optimist enough to think that this kind of attention to this matter, the civic engagement of our students … could have a very happy ending,” she said. “I am actually optimistic that this attention … will energize faculty to stand up more for their students … I think that this is really energising a more democratic process. It’ll just take a minute for that to come around.”