The mass protests at dozens of US universities cannot be reduced to a stifling and misleading conversation about antisemitism.

Thousands of American students across the country are not protesting, risking their own futures and even their safety, because of some pathological hate for the Jewish people. They are doing so in complete rejection of, and justifiable outrage over, the mass killing being carried out by the state of Israel against defenseless Palestinians in Gaza. They are angry because the bloodbath in the Gaza Strip, starting on Oct. 7, is fully funded and backed by the US government.

These mass protests began at the University of Columbia on April 17, before spreading all round the US, from New York to Texas and from North Carolina to California.

The protests are being compared, in terms of their nature and intensity, to the antiwar demonstrations in the US against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. While this comparison is apt, it is critical to note the ethnic diversity and social inclusiveness in the current protests. On many campuses, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, Black, Native American and white students are standing shoulder to shoulder with their Palestinian peers in a unified stance against the war.

None of them are motivated by the fear that they could be drafted to fight in Gaza, as was the case for many American students during the Vietnam War era. Instead, they are united around a clear set of priorities: ending the war, ending US support of Israel, ending their universities’ direct investment in Israel,........

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