As American campuses face protests on a scale unseen since the Vietnam War, the media, politicians and some university administrators are mischaracterizing the nature of the demonstrations. 

TV and radio coverage focuses on a small number of encampments that have turned violent, ignoring the vast majority that have remained peaceful.  

Conservative politicians insist that pro-Palestinian demonstrations are inherently antisemitic and demand a crackdown on what they describe as lawlessness. 

Too often university administrators are framing the issue as merely one of balancing free speech with the safety of Jewish students. 

These portrayals grossly oversimplify what is happening.  

The violence began, not when unruly demonstrators stormed buildings or disrupted campus life, but when the president of Columbia sent in NYPD officers in riot gear to break up a peaceful encampment. 

The arrest of 108 students turned what had been a local effort into a national movement. 

Encampments have sprung up on 80 campuses across the country.  

Over the past few weeks, 2,300 people have been arrested on 39 campuses. However, at more than half of them, 20 or fewer students have been taken into custody. Arrests of more than 100 students have occurred at only five schools. 

Rather than indicating campuses in chaos, these numbers suggest that most students are protesting peacefully. 

There was violence at a few universities — most notably, Columbia, where students and outside agitators seized control of a campus building, and UCLA, where counter-protesters may have provoked violence.

On most campuses, though, demonstrators have behaved appropriately with the exception of a handful of unruly participants........

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