In solidarity with the Palestinians, university students in various cities across the US have started calling upon their university presidents to divest from companies that have been supporting Israel. These protests have been met with calls from presidents to law enforcement agencies to dismantle these encampments. Despite this, the number of students taking part in this trend is becoming hard for the West to ignore.

Police brutality is largely on the rise, with hundreds of students arrested and many instances of violations of free speech rights being seen. At Northeastern University in Boston and Columbia University in New York, authorities took a hardline approach and resorted to calling law enforcement agencies, with many forces clad in riot gear, to restore order.

It is surreal to witness a Western nation experiencing something so similar (and yet, so starkly different) to the scenes in Gaza. Food supplies to camps in various universities and in Gaza have been cut off. Harsh measures are being taken to silence students who are simply demanding for a war to come to an end.

The next step will be the use of rubber bullets and chemical agents against demonstrators in order to disperse them. Student safety is not a priority anymore – quelling dissent is.

Many are beginning to compare the scenes in these institutions to the Vietnam War protests that took place 50 years ago. Yet, the way American authorities are dealing with these protestors is not all too different from the past. Activism and peaceful protest cannot be silenced, especially in America where freedom of speech is seen as quintessential to the American way of life.

That being said, a suppression of students to this extent may actually generate even more publicity towards the protests themselves. Similar to how the media caused this issue to implode on itself, we can expect these aggressive tactics by authorities to further rile up those who are on the fence about the issue and force them to empathize with the plight of the Palestinians.

Needless to say, the events unfolding within US universities represent a critical moment in US political history. How the US proceeds to handle this crisis, may either put this fire out completely or provide even more fuel. Either way, the historical implications cannot be ignored.