US support for Israel: what do you think?

the Pentagon.

A group of United Nations independent experts - including Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, and Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 - have condemned the continued and systematic onslaught of violence committed against Palestinians in Gaza. In particular, they note that most victims over the past seven months have been women and children. Accordingly, they have stated, "Israel must cease all hostilities and States must end the export of all weapons immediately."

Our students, students in the US and worldwide, are protesting. Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have reached boiling point at US universities, including Columbia, Yale, and New York University, leading to the arrests of hundreds of protesters on campuses across the country.

Police have been involved in clashes with pro-Palestinian protesters who have set up encampments on dozens of campuses. Students have issued calls for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to US military assistance for Israel, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and an amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting. President Joe Biden, who has been criticized by the protesters for supplying funding and weapons to Israel, told reporters on Monday that he condemned both "antisemitic protests" and "those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians."

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the 2024 election, called the campus protest situation "a mess" as he walked into the second day of his criminal trial in New York.

Australia's first pro-Palestine encampment was established at the University of Sydney last Tuesday. They have since spread to ANU, the University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Curtin University. And it's not just Australia. Students at some universities in the United Kingdom have also set up pro-Palestinian encampments in recent days. In France, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Sciences Po university in Paris last week and at the Sorbonne university Monday.

Are the students correct? Should the US stop arming Israel? Should Universities divest their investments in companies in Israel or that trade with Israel? The Columbia University Apartheid Divest group reading, "Divest all finances, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine."

To repeat: Are the students correct? This opinion piece will leave that decision to those who wish to comment on this article. But the writer's opinion is that we must take seriously the opinion of the younger people – those to whom we are leaving this world – a world with an impending climate crisis along with military conflicts world-wide, And that Joe Biden should listen to the opinions of the students at his universities – not arrest them.