Protests won't stop until bombs stop in Gaza: analyst
The growing wave of university campus protests around the world in solidarity with Gaza "will not go away" unless the bombs and bullets stop in the besieged enclave, a political commentator in Beijing said.  Speaking in an interview with RTHK, Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and chairman of Asia Narratives, said although the latest student demonstrations in Europe have been “milder” compared with the ones in the US, such movements will “only expand” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eyes a “full-scale” assault of Rafah in Gaza – despite US warnings. There are over one million displaced Palestinians currently in the southern city of Rafah. “You cannot expect students in these institutions to stand idly by. They watched 35,000 civilians killed, most of whom were women and children. These images are on social media and people are reacting to them”, said Tangen. “It’s not a question of ‘do I support Hamas or do I support Israel’. Here, the issue is, people are dying. And such reactions will continue to grow as students realise that it’s not just their individual feelings, but collective feelings about this brutality.” Protests that first broke out at the Columbia University in New York before spreading across some 140 campuses in the US, have now reached universities in Europe, Australia, as well as India.  Fuel was added to the fire when President Joe Biden signed into law a military foreign aid package last month, which saw US$17 billion in arms going to Israel.  Over 2,500 campus demonstrators have been arrested in the US so far. “The interesting part of it is, you now hear President Joe Biden and many other politicians talking about ‘well, free speech is fine, but you cannot have disorder’. Where was that attitude when for a year Hong Kong suffered under these protests which were disrupting business and threatening people’s lives?” Tangen said.  With many of the students calling for universities to sell off shares, assets, or other investments in companies linked to Israel and its war in Gaza, a move known as divestment, Tangen believes the students should be listened to.  “I think it’s very appropriate for the students [to make such requests]. They are not asking for armed intervention from the US in Gaza, they are simply saying ‘don't’ support an entity’ that’s [associated with] killing civilians. Stop sending bombs, weapon systems, and bullets to Israel, and then it [the protests] will stop.”