By Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden welcomes peaceful protests at the university’s commencement ceremonies at which he and other administration officials will speak, the White House said Tuesday as pro-Palestinian demonstrations spread across the country.
Columbia University canceled its main graduation ceremony Monday after weeks of unrest rocked the Ivy League university’s campus, but it will still hold smaller school-based events.
The protests at Columbia inspired similar demonstrations at dozens of universities across the country. Students called for a ceasefire in Gaza and demanded that their schools divest from companies with ties to Israel.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden welcomed peaceful protests on campuses and elsewhere, but would continue to condemn hate speech, anti-Semitism or violence.
“It doesn’t matter where he is, where he speaks. It doesn’t matter if it’s a commencement or one of his events. He welcomes peaceful protests,” she said.
“We have been very clear. We believe that all Americans should have the right to peacefully protest,” she added. “What we don’t want to see is hate speech and violence.”
Biden is scheduled to deliver a commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19.
Biden warned Tuesday that the threat of anti-Semitism is growing in the United States, including on college campuses, joining a heated American debate over Jewish security, Zionism, free speech and support for Israel, in the country with the largest Jewish population after Israel.
Biden addressed campus unrest last week, saying Americans have the right to protest “but not the right to cause chaos” through vandalism, breaking windows or closing campuses.
Jean-Pierre reiterated the White House position that it should be up to universities to decide how to respond.
She condemned behavior captured in video at the University of Mississippi over the weekend as “disgraceful and racist,” after a student was accused of mocking a black protester by making noises. monkey during an anti-war demonstration.
“The actions in the video are unbecoming of any American,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.
The Democratic president, who is seeking re-election in November, has taken a cautious line in denouncing anti-Semitism while supporting the right of young Americans to protest and trying to limit long-term political damage.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal; writing by Andrea Shalal; editing by Alistair Bell)
