Crescent International
Freedom of speech and assembly are fundamental rights in the US.
Or, so the world is told.
These rights are even enshrined in the US constitution under the First Amendment.
Americans have freedom of speech and assembly as long as they do not exercise it.
When they want to exercise this right, there is no freedom of speech.
Tens of thousands of students at university campuses across the US are finding this out, yet again, in the most brutal way.
For almost two weeks now, students have organized peaceful sit-ins at campuses calling on university administrations to divest from Israeli and American companies supporting the zionists’ war on Gaza.
Even faculty members have joined these peaceful sit-ins.
What has been the response of university administrations?
First, they have declared these sit-ins illegal, in violation of the students’ fundamental rights.
Are students not allowed to question decisions made by the authorities?
Second, they have called the police to evict students.
Third, protesting students have been expelled from university.
One does need to convince anyone about how brutal the American police forces are.
They shoot first and ask questions later, if at all.
They even strangle people to death.
Who is unaware of the strangulation to death of George Floyd under the knee of Minneapolis policeman, Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020?
Floyd’s plea that “I can’t breathe” was dismissed by the white racist cop and his colleagues.
Passers-by who pleaded with the police to let go, were threatened.
Floyd was strangled for nine minutes until he suffocated and became unresponsive.
He was pronounced dead in hospital later that evening.
In the case of university students and faculty, the police have violently attacked them.
Videos of police brutality against students and faculty, even female faculty staff, have gone viral on the Internet.
Members of Congress who wax eloquent about alleged human rights violations in Russia, Venezuela, China, Iran etc., are in the forefront of demanding stern action against peaceful student protests.
Not surprisingly, such hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed in the US and around the world.
This was captured most graphically on April 27 at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Held at the Washington Hilton, while President Joe Biden extolled the virtues of “press freedom and democracy around the world”, he failed to speak about the suffering in Gaza.
He did not even mention Gaza, as if the enclave is on another planet.
There were noisy protests outside the hotel demanding an immediate ceasefire and end to Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Since Israel unleashed its genocidal war on Gaza last October, its occupation army has killed 142 media workers.
At least 40 Palestinian journalists have been arrested, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza is horrendous.
Since October 7, 2023, more than 34,500 Palestinians have been murdered by the “most moral Israeli army”!
Among the dead are at least 15,000 children.
Seventy percent of all deaths are women and children.
All schools and universities in Gaza have been destroyed.
Perhaps, students and faculty in the US should be thankful that their universities have not been bombed and destroyed.
At least, not yet.
More than 900 students have been arrested, others violently attacked.
The question that must be asked is: why is the US showing such deference to Israel’s well-documented crimes?
The US is addicted to war.
The military-industrial-banksters’ complex controls America.
Endless wars are essential to keep the industry running and raking in billions of dollars in profits.
If a few million people are killed somewhere, that is a small price to pay for profit.
They are dark-skinned and their lives are not worth much.
The US and zionist regimes are the greatest enemies of peace, and of humanity.
America’s political system is rotten to the core. A tiny parasitical class at the top—less than 1% of the population—was hitherto able...
