US Senator Bernie Sanders said on May 1 that the main focus should be on the Israeli genocide in Gaza rather than the "violence" in pro-Palestine protests across US universities. 

"It is time to not simply worry about the violence we are seeing on American college campuses, but to focus on the unprecedented violence we are seeing in Gaza, which has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000, 70% of whom are women and children," Sanders announced on the Senate floor.

"I suggest that CNN and maybe some of my colleagues here maybe take your cameras, just for a moment, off Columbia and off UCLA. Maybe go to Gaza and take your cameras and show us the emaciated children who are dying from malnutrition because of Netanyahu's policies," he added.

"Show us the kids who have lost their arms and their legs. Show us the suffering that is going on over there," Sanders stressed.

Addressing the protests, Sanders said that he condemns all forms of violence no matter who it stems from, highlighting the importance of condemning and stopping all forms of bigotry in the US. 

"We are seeing a growth of antisemitism in this country, which we must all condemn and work to stop. We are also seeing a growth of Islamophobia in this country, which we must all condemn and stop," Sanders said then stressed that holding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government responsible for their actions in Gaza is "not antisemitic".

Professors support pro-Palestine protests, risk livelihood, careers

After New York Police arrested students protesting at Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, urging their university to divest from "Israel" on April 30, its faculty staff have said that they were "horrified" by these arrests. 

A Lecturer at Columbia Law School, Bassam Khawaja, said on May 1 that he was "horrified to see Columbia invite police onto our campus for the second time this month to arrest our students."

"Columbia has chosen escalation at every turn here, with disastrous results," Khawaja added.

"The administration said that the protests were a disruption and presented safety risks, but it is the administration itself that has disrupted campus life by locking us out, relocating or postponing students’ exams, bringing in police to arrest students, and inviting police to remain on campus for the next two weeks until graduation," he stressed. 

In light of police violence against students and faculty staff members, a video online showed police forces pushing down to the ground an economic professor at Emory University in Georgia for attempting to verbally intervene during the arrest of a student. 

What is happening in USA universities is unprecedented. US turned into an oppressive state university, the police arrest Professor Noelle McAfee, head of the Philosophy Department at Emory University in Atlanta, during a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

pic.twitter.com/WXB3k9RWt9

— Moody (@Moody2145) April 26, 2024

Pro-Palestine protesters at New York City's Columbia University were subject to a brutal assault on May 1 after a large police force invaded the campus and dispersed demonstrators. 

Students and staff have been escalating their actions in support of Palestine, amid a blatant Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, establishing an encampment and occupying Hamilton Hall, which they renamed Hind's Hall on April 28.