College Democrats of America, the student organization of the Democratic Party, endorsed pro-Palestinian campus protests on Tuesday and called on President Biden to support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
In a statement approved by the organization’s executive board by a vote of 8 to 2, the College Democrats praised student protesters for having “the moral clarity to see this war for what it is: destructive, genocidal and unjust,” and condemned college administrators for suspending and calling in the police to arrest them.
The statement came after two tumultuous weeks in which pro-Palestinian protests spread to campuses across the country in the wake of a police crackdown at Columbia University. Students who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza have set up encampments and, in many cases, kept them going after participants were suspended or arrested.
Overnight from Monday into Tuesday, protesters at Columbia took over a building on campus. Protesters have escalated similarly at two other colleges, Portland State University and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.
The statement denounced “MAGA Republicans and many other lawmakers for smearing all protesters as hateful.” It condemned rising incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia — saying, “We find all calls for violence, such as those against Jewish and Muslim students, wrong; those spreading hate have no place in the movement for peace” — but added, “Calling for the freedom of Palestinians is not antisemitic, and neither is opposing the genocidal acts of the far-right radical extremist Israeli government.”
And it criticized Mr. Biden and many other elected Democrats for not uniting behind calls for an immediate, permanent cease-fire — accompanied by the release of all hostages taken by Hamas — and for a rapid push to reach a two-state solution that recognizes an independent Palestinian state.
