Hamas, Iran applaud college campus protests
Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly applauded the growing number of anti-Gaza war protests and encampments that have sprung up on college campuses from California to Massachusetts.
Izzat Al-Risheq, a member of the militant group’s Political Bureau, said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s administration is violating the rights of students and faculty members and arresting them “because of their rejection of the genocide that our Palestinian people are the subjected in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the neo-Nazi Zionists.”
The statement claimed “Today’s students are the leaders of the future.”
Plaudits from Iran and Hamas − the group that on Oct. 7 carried out the deadliest single assault on Jews since the Holocaust, slaughtering thousands and dragging hundreds back to Gaza as hostages − come at a boiling point in the U.S. Protests have embroiled college presidents, students, political leaders from both parties, and even Biden himself, as thousands of Jewish students denounce growing antisemitism on U.S. college campuses.
It should be noted that Iran and Hamas have come under fire for cracking down on their own protest movements. Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, documented the “excessive and lethal force” Iranian security forces used to repress widespread protests that erupted in 2022.
In Gaza, beatings and arrests of human rights defenders, journalists and demonstrators by Hamas in recent years reflect a systematic practice, a report by the watchdog organization found.
Some of the U.S. protests have prompted arrests and police intervention in recent days, showing a deepening dissatisfaction with the nation’s ironclad support for Israel, its most important ally in the Middle East, as it wages a war against Hamas.
Biden has faced increased scrutiny from both the American public and members of his own party over his stance toward Gaza. Nearly half of American voters, 45%, believe Biden should pressure Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll showed in March.
For the last few months, Biden has taken a more strident tone against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticizing the Palestinian death toll and his failure to protect civilians.
At the same time, the U.S. is working with Egypt and Qatar to broker a deal for months to secure a second temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in exchange for the release of 40 militant-held hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. But progress has stalled.
More than 100 hostages were released in November during a truce; more than 130 remain in captivity. In recent weeks, fears have risen that hostages have perished in captivity. And that Hamas would fail to bring forth the 40 women, elderly and wounded hostages as part of the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.