Washington, D.C. – A Gaza-focused campus protest movement in the United States has highlighted a generational conflict in Israel, experts say, with young people’s willingness to challenge politicians and college administrators on display across the country.
The opinion gap – with younger Americans generally more supportive of Palestinians than the generations before them – poses a risk to 81-year-old Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election chances, they argue.
It could also threaten the bipartisan support that Israel enjoys in Washington.
“We are already seeing signs of a generational divide over Israel, and that will be a long-term problem for the Democratic Party,” said Omar Wasow, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
“These protests are widening the generation gap,” Wasow told Al Jazeera.
Students at Columbia University in New York set up a Palestine solidarity camp last week and have since faced arrests and other disciplinary action after university officials called on police to break up the protest.
But despite the crackdown, similar camps have sprung up across the United States and other countries.
Footage of students, professors and journalists being violently arrested by officers on various campuses sparked outrage but did little to slow the momentum of the protests, which continued to spread.
“Turning moment”
In particular, students are demanding that their universities disclose their investments and withdraw all funds from weapons manufacturers and companies linked to the Israeli military.
Politicians from both major US parties, as well as the White House and pro-Israel groups, accused the students of fomenting anti-Semitism – allegations that the demonstrators vehemently deny.
Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, said younger people are increasingly frustrated with the status quo on domestic and foreign policy issues.
“I think there is a real dissatisfaction with the older generation, but more importantly with the system they run,” Abdelhadi said.
She added that the protests mark a “turning point” in U.S. public opinion generally.
“In American history in general, major shifts in public opinion have either coincided with or been sparked by major student movements,” Abdelhadi told Al Jazeera.
She said campus activism can be the foundation for political change. “There’s kind of a feeling that this is the future.”
Biden’s woes
For years, public opinion polls in the United States have suggested that younger people are more likely to sympathize with the Palestinians and be critical of Israel.
Overall, however, Americans have become more critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including in the ongoing war against Gaza.
Multiple polls suggest that a majority of U.S. respondents support a permanent ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian enclave, where Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since the conflict erupted on October 7.
But Biden continued to strongly support Israel, the U.S.’s most important ally in the Middle East, even during the war.
The 81-year-old president’s stance could be politically costly as Biden faces a tough re-election fight in the November election, where he is expected to face his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Polls suggest Biden will need to appeal to his base in the Democratic Party, which is not as united in support of Israel as the Republican Party.
Angus Johnston, a historian of U.S. student activism, said the generational divide on Israel was particularly pronounced among Democrats.
“At the national level, we have seen this for some time as a disconnect between the values of young voters and most Democratic politicians,” Johnston told Al Jazeera.
“And what we’re seeing now is a similar divide between young people on campus and many of the administrators who run those campuses, along with alumni and donors.”
Abdelhadi, the sociologist, added that law enforcement’s heavy-handed approach to solidarity protests in Gaza had undermined Democrats’ argument that electing Biden would protect the nation from Trump, whom they accuse of authoritarianism.
“The reality is that Democrats have told us that young people have to save democracy and that people of color have to save democracy and that all arguments with this current administration have to be put aside to save democracy,” she said AlJazeera.
“But where is democracy when state troopers beat students and faculty for protesting and the White House says nothing about it?”
Wasow also said the protests and crackdown could increase apathy toward Biden.
“Democrats can’t really afford to give people any more reasons to vote against Biden, and this is actually one.”
Policy change
However, the student protesters do not interfere in US partisan politics. Instead, they have emphasized that their demands are aimed at helping to protect the human rights of Palestinians.
So can the demonstrations help bring about changes in US policy and enforce its divestment demands?
Johnston, the historian, said it was unlikely that U.S. universities would divest from major corporations and the defense industry in the short term, but calls for transparency in their investments were legitimate.
He added that long-term changes are possible, but they won’t happen overnight.
“We have seen time and time again that student organizing changes policy, not always quickly and not always in the way students would have hoped,” Johnston said.
“But we see that when student organization reaches a certain level of intensity, it can have a significant impact.”
For example, he said college activism against apartheid in South Africa began in the 1950s and increased over the years.
“I think there is no doubt that the anti-apartheid campus organization in the 1980s was an important part of what changed American popular and political opinion toward the South African regime,” he said.
Wasow, who studied the civil rights protests of the 1960s, also said demonstrations can change public opinion, help build political coalitions around an issue and build civic capacity to advance an issue.
“If what’s happening now leads not to some kind of policy change, but to a generation of young people developing some kind of civic engagement in activism around these issues, I think that would continue to have an impact in the long term.”