FP Exclusive: What’s it like to be a pro-Israel American professor in times of anti-Israel college protests?

Encampments, chanting, protests, a cancelled graduation ceremony, police force clearing out demonstrations: All these words describe the past few weeks of Columbia University and other Ivy League schools.

Top US universities witnessed massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations that amassed thousands of students demanding their educational institutions to financially divest from Israel.

The protests came at a time when most colleges were in the middle of conducting final exams. The chaos was so profound that authorities had to take the extreme step of calling the police to quell the protests. This eventually led to the arrests of hundreds of students.

Amid all this, David Bernstein, Professor of Law at George Mason University, told Firstpost that students who are participating in these protests should instead take full advantage of their educational course, get a degree, start a company and be successful enough to have real influence over the world.

“Frankly, the amount of influence you’re going to have as a student protester relative to the potential cost to yourself in not taking full advantage of your educational opportunity is just I just don’t see how the calculus would be. Yes, I’m a physics graduate student, and I want to start my own tech company. But instead, I’m going to be living in an encampment on campus. I just don’t see the payoff there. If you feel very strongly about it, get your degree. Start your company. When you’re a billionaire, you can have a lot more influence on the world,” he said.

While Professor Bernstein firmly believes that students have the right to protest on campus, there should be a certain level of limitation that must be practiced in such cases.

“There’s a right to protest on campus, either from the US Constitution at public universities or through the student handbook rules of private universities. However, the recent protests have often violated school rules in a variety of ways,” the professor said.

Describing the on-ground situation, Professor Bernstein said that many student protestors were found blocking the paths of others or harassing or threatening students who did not wish to partake in protests.

“And more recently, we’ve had these encampments where students have basically taken over, usually a prominent part of campus, and often refuse to allow other students to enter without their permission. My position as a professor is you have every right to protest on whatever issue in whatever way you want, but you don’t have the right to break the rules or infringe on the rights of others,” he said.

‘Different elements of student bodies joining protests’

When it comes to understanding the purpose behind the protests, Professor Bernstein thinks there is more than just one student body at play.

“I think there are different elements within the student body. The protests are typically organised by a group called Students for Justice in Palestine. And these are the hard-core anti-Israeli. They support Hamas and while they don’t take direct instruction, Hamas would often reach out to these groups to organise demonstrations,” he said.

Professor Bernstein added that there’s another group of “political activist” students who join the protests without realising what the cause is.

“There are some students who are just, ‘This is what’s happening.’ They want to be part of it.  A lot of people, they’re just there. ‘This is a fun, interesting thing happening.’”

How do professors navigate during protests?

While questions have been raised on students’ right to protest and how a university should respond in such cases, professors are faced with a much bigger problem, evaluation and grading.

A lot of students have demanded the cancellation of exams and asked their professors to grade them A.

“It’s difficult for professors to evaluate students with so much ruckus on campus. I think I would distinguish between two groups of professors. One group of professors is overtly aligned with the protests. The ones who say, ‘I want to cancel classes or not have exams in solidarity.’ I think that’s wildly inappropriate,” Bernstein said.

The other group of professors, according to Bernstein, are the ones who are genuinely concerned about their students and cannot expect them to perform at their best especially when their campus is not accessible.

At the same time, it is virtually impossible for universities to alter their academic calendars in response to protests. Several reports suggest that the demonstrations were funded by pro-Palestinian groups, indicating that they were planned way ahead. However, Berstein says that educational institutions like Columbia cannot simply change their routines in the face of widespread protests.

“It’s been very difficult because you have to deal with dorm space and professors’ schedules. I do think that in Columbia’s case and other cases too, the universities were too tolerant of rule-breaking back starting in the fall,” he said.

The professor added, “I think what should have happened very early on is for all universities to make very clear statements. ‘You’re allowed to protest. You’re allowed to have even noisy protests but you have to do it within the reasonable time, place, and manner of rules that we already have.”

Does a professor’s bias affect teaching?

In times like these, when the entire campus unites on one side of the issue, it becomes particularly challenging for professors not to advocate their biases in their teachings.

Talking about this, Bernstein said, “I’m outspoken on one side. I’m on the pro-Israel side. I take it as some students feel like, ‘Oh, you’re somehow being anti-Muslim or anti-Palestine or anti-Arab.’ But I think that one should avoid trying to paint other groups with big brushes.”

“I saw someone I know who was a law professor, retweeted something, referring to students on their campus as “Zionist thugs.” And all the students were doing was a peaceful counter-protest. I’m not saying that professors should necessarily be punished, but I would think that one should not engage in rhetoric like that, especially about students who may want to stop by your classes because it’s very hard to imagine how you’d be a neutral professor, especially if you teach classes in that area,” he added.

What about foreign students?

At times like these, foreign students, including Indians, are the ones who become the most apprehensive about their participation. International students studying at leading US universities have a lot at stake, be it their visa status or finances.

“When you’re living with a student visa in the US, you have conditions on that visa. And the conditions in the US are very hard. You actually have to go to school, you have to not break the law and not support terrorism. And you have to agree to all those things,” Professor Bernstein said.

He said that more foreign students are found to be protesting and flouting rules might lead to a reduction in the issuing of student visas in the future.

“It’s often hard to avoid peer pressure one way or the other. But when you lose your visa or when you never get your PhD, they’re not going to be there to help you. So you have to take yourself outside the moment and think, well, what is best for my future or not? What are my friends pressuring me to do right now?” the professor said.