Colleges and universities have long been protected places for free expression without pressure or punishmentThe Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protestBERKELEY, Calif. -- Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. They were provocative in their times, products of an ideal that holds universities as sacrosanct spaces for debate, innovation — and even revolution. Administrators on some campuses have called in local police to break up pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that their schools divest from Israel in demonstrations that Israel's allies say are antisemitic and make campuses unsafe. The wave of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses took inspiration from demonstrations at Columbia that began on April 17. Will there be a reckoning of how administrators handle protests over a conflict with no end in sight?

Source: ABC News May 19, 2024 13:26 UTC