Many people in the United States and observing the scene from abroad over the last several weeks may be asking themselves, "What's going on?"

The title of the 1971 song by soul legend Marvin Gaye spoke to an era of civil unrest sparked by war, racism and political disillusionment when students and young people were putting themselves at the center of demands for major change.

If he were still alive today, Gaye would likely find just as much reason to produce that hit. Once again, US youth are turning their university campuses into stages to spotlight what some have described as "genocide live-streamed on their phones and a Democratic president who is fully in support of that," Leigh Raiford, a professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, told DW.

"There is a whole generation of people who will not vote for the Democratic Party, will not vote for Joe Biden," she said, explaining that Israel's treatment of Palestinians would be on the ballot for some voters in November.

That starkly contrasts with four years ago, when Biden defeated former US President Donald Trump partly by appealing to young people engaged in nationwide protests linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. The catalyst for that election-year turmoil and this one differ, but the pursuit of social justice overlaps.

Whether the election outcome will also differ in 2024 remains a matter of debate among pollsters and campaign strategists. Biden has tried to show a balance between his unwavering military support for Israel and an interest in alleviating the civilian toll. In recent weeks, he has more vigorously pushed for a cease-fire.

What are the protesting US students demanding?

"Anti-genocide encampments" have popped up on dozens of campuses across the US, with participants calling for an end to Israel's seven-month bombardment of Gaza. Its military campaign, which has killed nearly 35,000 people, began following Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The German government, the European Union, the US and some Arab states classify the group as a terrorist organization.

Nearly half the dead are children, according to the United Nations, which uses figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Many aid organizations have said the toll is likely an undercount.

The demands vary, but the protesters on university campuses broadly want the US, as the largest supplier of lethal aid to Israel, to end its "ironclad" commitment to the state, as Biden has often described it.

The president has said the protests will not alter his stance. However, his administration paused a shipment of ammunition to Israel this week, according to a report by Axios, a US news platform. It was not immediately clear why, but this marks the first such hold in the current round of escalation.

Students also want their universities, some of which maintain endowments worth billions of dollars, to divest from financial holdings in the weapons industry and Israel-related business.

With final exams and commencement approaching and under pressure from wealthy donors and politicians allergic to criticism of Israel, many universities have cited safety issues and other violations of campus policies as reasons to bring in police to clear out the protesters. At least 2,000 people have been arrested at universities across the country so far. 

Myriad reports, such as from campuses in Georgia, Texas and New York City, appear to show police using excessive force. Yet at University of California, Los Angeles, they were criticized for doing too little as masked pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the Palestinian encampment there last week. Social media posts captured protesters chanting, "Where were you yesterday?" as law enforcement moved in to dismantle the encampment following the attack.

US has long tradition of trying to discredit activist groups

"This is yet another example of suppression from colleges and universities of students' pro-Palestinian speech," Amr Shabaik, the legal director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement condemning the escalation.

Mindful of the roughly 1,200 people killed during Hamas' October attacks, many of them civilians, pro-Israel supporters have pointed to incidents of harassment or threats directed at Jewish students. They have presented circumstantial evidence alleging a connection between protest groups and foreign entities.

Many Jews have expressed solidarity with the protests, joining encampments and hosting traditional seder meals during last month's Passover holiday. The nuanced picture of who falls on what side has further complicated the universities' response.

For example, of the 282 arrests made at Columbia University and City College of New York on April 30, New York City police reported 71% and 40% had campus affiliation, respectively. Unlike Columbia, CCNY is a public college and remains more open to outsiders.

"These kinds of calls of 'outside agitation' are really dangerous, and they're also really disingenuous," said Raiford, currently in Germany as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

She pointed to a long tradition of trying to discredit activist groups in the US, from the Red Scare of the early and mid-20th century to civil-rights and anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s and '70s, all of which opponents accused of Soviet or communist influence. Now, Raiford said, these movements have been seen as falling on the "right side of history."

"They called Martin Luther King an 'outside agitator,'" she added, referring to segregationists dead set against equal rights for all Americans.

There have been plenty of allegations to go around. A coordinated effort between pro-Israel groups in the US and the state of Israel has worked to quash pro-Palestinian voices, especially on campuses, according to reports by the US monthly magazine The Nation and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel.

Freedom of speech vs. order

Universities have found themselves caught between competing pressures. Freedom of speech enjoys greater constitutional protection in the US than in many other democracies. Safety and access to education are also guaranteed rights.

While they have "legal obligations to combat discrimination and a responsibility to maintain order," Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in an open letter to university officials, "it is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected institution."

That mission, of teaching social and moral ideals to students so that they can "go out and change the world," Raiford said, clashes with US higher education that often serves as "spaces of consolidating the power of the ruling class."

Major institutions such as Columbia and the University of Chicago, both currently in the national spotlight, benefit from their student body's reputation for taking part in social and political change, which may be vilified in the moment but lauded in hindsight. When police in riot gear entered Columbia's Hamilton Hall last week, it was hard to miss the uncanny timing: They did the same thing exactly 56 years earlier, during anti-war and civil-rights protests.

Learning from history or doomed to repeat it

"We are in an equally divided time," Gregory Payne, the chair of communication studies at Emerson College in Boston, told DW. "As we had in 1970, we have now — a failure of leadership from the top all the way to the bottom."

Although one of the smallest colleges in the Boston area, Emerson has been the site of some of the city's biggest protest actions. Boston police arrested more than 100 people near its campus at the end of April, breaking up an encampment that authorities said was on public property and violated city ordinances.

The situation across the US could still escalate, with Biden and state governors under pressure to call in the National Guard to confront protesters. Payne said it was already a minor miracle that nobody has been killed.

That would only add to the historical parallels. In May 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on an anti-war protest at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding another nine. It wasn't the only fatal encounter between demonstrators and authorities at that time, but it is the one burned into the memories of many Americans like Payne, who has spent much of his career teaching it.

"Fundamentally, what's important and what's needed now, just as it was then — something we need every day — is dialogue," Payne said.

Edited by: Anne Thomas