Nearly seven months after the Israel-Hamas war began, the demonstrations convulsing college campuses nationwide are exposing fresh tensions within the Democratic Party over how to balance free speech protections and support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with concerns that some Jewish Americans are raising about antisemitism.
From New York and Los Angeles to Atlanta and Austin, Texas, a surge in student activism has manifested in protest encampments and other demonstrations, drawing significant police crackdowns and sometimes appearing to attract outside agitators. The protests also have emerged as the latest flashpoint in the internal Democratic debate over the war.
As scenes of campus turmoil play out nationwide in the final days of the school year, the moment also carries political risk for a party that has harnessed promises of stability and normalcy to win critical recent elections, and faces a challenging battle for control of the government in the fall.
“The real question is, can the Democrats again portray themselves as the steady hand at the helm?” said Dan Sena, a veteran Democratic strategist. “Things that create national chaos like this make that harder to do.”
Sena and other Democrats have argued that Americans have good reason to associate their opponents with chaos: Former President Donald Trump faces multiple criminal cases; the narrow, fractious House Republican majority has its own divisions concerning Israel and free speech; some Republicans have urged National Guard deployments to college campuses; and for years, Republicans have faced criticism over antisemitism in their own ranks.
But since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and the Israeli military response that has killed more than 30,000 people, according to local authorities, the fight over U.S. policy toward Israel has been especially pronounced on the left.
Most Democrats say they both support free speech and condemn antisemitism, and consider criticism of the Israeli government to be fair game. But in seeking to address an intractable conflict marked by competing historical narratives, debates over how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitic speech are fraught and reaching a fever pitch on campus.
To some lawmakers who have visited encampments and attended demonstrations, the students are part of a long tradition of campus activism, and their free speech rights are at risk. Incidents of antisemitism, they say, do not reflect a broader movement that includes many young progressive Jews.
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, went to the University of Texas to show solidarity with demonstrators, linking their activism to that of students who opposed the Vietnam and Iraq wars.
Other Democrats have sought to show solidarity in person with Jewish students who have described feeling unsafe. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., recently visited the campus with several other Jewish lawmakers.
In the meantime, some Republicans are seeking to paint the whole Democratic Party as extreme and overly attuned to concerns of Ivy League protesters.
Democrats “are demonstrating that they’re listening to a very small, very radical, very online segment of their base that is not representative of the broader electorate,” said Jack Pandol, a GOP spokesperson.
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