‘Part of the American spirit’: Arrested student denies protests are violent | US News

Much has been said about the students whose protests took over the United States last week.

Their cause was framed in a polarizing way. A violent mob sympathetic to Hamas? Or peace activists fighting for equality?

Within a frantic spectrum of sights and noises, a young student sat down with me to talk.

Aidan Doyle, 21, is double majoring in philosophy and jazz at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

He was arrested on Thursday morning for being part of a camp at the university.

He told Sky News he was shocked that police had arrested so many student protesters despite failing to intervene in an attack on protesters by a pro-Israel group the previous day.

He said his arrest did not stop him from continuing his protest, which he compared to the Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s.

Mr Doyle rejected the notion, since President Bidenthat the protests are not peaceful.

“Graffiti, putting up posters, all of this is peaceful,” he said, commenting on the president’s statement at the White House.

“I also think that President Biden needs to really do some introspection and realize that maybe the reason why so many of these protests are happening is partially due to him.”

Doyle added: “Protests in general are part of the American spirit. They’re part of being American. And if we just stood in circles, singing and dancing, and pretending everything was fine, nothing would change and no one would care.

“Part of a protest is causing disruption and provoking at least a small level of chaos that, again, is not violent but actually disrupts things.”

See more information:
Why are college students protesting in the US?
Inside pro-Palestine protest as police break up UCLA camp

He denied any accusations of anti-Semitism, but admitted that there is a spectrum of opinion within the movement.

“If you’re going to criticize a movement, I think you have to look at the goals of the movement and its mission, and not what the fringe members of the group say or do.

“You have to really look at what we say, what the organizers say, and what is in the mainstream, and what our mission is and what our goal is: the peace and prosperity of the Palestinian people.”

Asked whether he believed in Israel’s right to exist as a country, he said: “I think Jewish sovereignty is incredible. I think it’s an incredible thing.”

He added: “I think if there is a country for the Jewish people that protects the Jewish people, that is of the utmost importance, especially with the vile and rampant anti-Semitism that exists throughout the world, that I see every day and that I try to fight. as much as possible.

“But by doing that and at the same time repressing another group of people, dehumanizing them and brutalizing them, then the question of whether your state has a right to exist becomes secondary.”