TEHRAN – Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London, says student protests in the U.S. against the Israeli war in Gaza “are also a protest against political authoritarianism”.

In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Professor Adib-Moghaddam also says police crackdown on students at Columbia University and other academic institutions is “outrageous”.

Anti-war encampments in the U.S. are spreading to campuses in other countries, including France, Britain, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Lebanon and Jordan.

Students are challenging their schools’ stances on the war in Gaza and ties to Israel, which is carrying out a scorched-earth war against the Palestinians in Gaza.

“Students are expressing their right of free speech as democratic citizens,” Adib-Moghaddam says.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: Aren’t the crackdown and arrest of students at American universities by police a violation of the right to protest and freedom of opinion?

A: First and foremost, the violent suppression erodes the principles of democracy itself, not only in the United States, but also elsewhere as autocratic governments will point to this assault on freedom in order to rationalize their own brutality towards people. 

Q: Do you agree with this view that the United States is manifesting a double standard approach in this regard?

A: The government of the United States is not an exception in applying double-standards. Of course, there is no comparison between innocent civilians being killed, maimed and tortured which recurrently happens in autocratically ruled countries and what is happening on the campuses of the United States. But the events at Columbia and elsewhere are particularly outrageous exactly because they happen in a country that claims to be the "leader of the free world". It is right that people all over the world hold their governments to account. In the end, they are exclusively there to serve us and we better make sure that they do so adequately or they should be booted out. 

“Netanyahu has wished a clash of civilizations between a "white West" and the rest.”

Q: Aren’t these moves “un-American” or a violation of the values that the United States claims it stands for?

A: The civil society always created dissent. I would compare the current spasm of resistance to the 68 generation, the anti-War movement at the time which was steeped in a global counter-culture against all forms of authoritarianism itself galvanized by the revolutions in the Global South in particular in Cuba. In the end, it was this resistance that ended the Vietnam war and even then Palestine was central to the discourse. This "un-American" behavior, then, is what the United States could be: A valuable addition to the global struggle for freedom and emancipation from oppressive governmental policies. 

Q: The brutality of Israel in Gaza has shocked the world. It has so far killed about 30 people in Gaza in response to every person killed in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.  However, the protestors are accused of “anti-Semitism” while a considerable number of the protestors are Jews. Why do you think politicians, including President Biden, are using such slanders against students and other opponents of the war?

 A: Undoubtedly, anti-Semitism is vile and it does exist beyond the platitudes that we are hearing. Anti-Semitism is the flip side of other forms of racism, including "Islamophobia", so battling it must be a part of any global resistance against injustice. In fact, the students in the United States and elsewhere are acutely aware of that responsibility. These students are expressing their right of free speech as democratic citizens. It is not in the interest of all of us who are truly appalled by all forms of discrimination that the US government is using labels that simply do not apply. No one is blind. The mass killings in Gaza by the Netanyahu government will go down in history as one of the most vile and brutal campaigns against civilians that the contemporary world has seen. The books are already being written including by the best and brightest Israeli scholars. 

The mass killings in Gaza by the Netanyahu government will go down in history as one of the most vile and brutal campaigns against civilians that the contemporary world has seen.

Q: Regarding the approach of police against students and professors, isn’t the U.S. putting itself in a dilemma when it comes to criticizing other countries for human rights violations and violence against citizens?

A: One of the most regrettable effects of the blind and unnuanced support of the brutal campaign pursued by the Netanyahu government is exactly that: It threatens to question some of the most fundamental aspects of our personal freedoms and human security. The current political classes, even in the most highly advanced democratic settings, are reminding all of us that freedom required constant vigilance. Who are these people who take it upon themselves to tell us what to think? Most of them are half-literate about the world and even the job that they are doing. They are paid by us to represent society. This is the yardstick that should be applied to all politicians all over the world. The ongoing demonstrations in support of justice in Palestine are also a protest against political authoritarianism. They show clearly that this demand continues to be voiced until the people get what they deserve.  

Q: What effects can these protests have on the Nov. presidential elections in the U.S.?

A: The protests are likely to backfire for the Biden team, firstly because he will lose votes among many liberal constituencies, and secondly because the right-wing gathered around Trump are already exploiting the narrative to propagate that the Biden administration doesn't know how to establish order. In this way, the blind support to the extremist Netanyahu administration is turning into a great gift for bigoted right-wing movements everywhere in the world. In fact, this is what Netanyahu has wished for in the first place, in the United States and Europe, a clash of civilizations between a "white West" and the rest. The effect of all of this could be a serious threat to democracy - and with a potential re-election of Trump, a push towards even more global instability.