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Columbia University on Monday canceled its main graduation
ceremony after weeks of unrest roiled the Ivy League college's
campus, but it will still hold smaller, school-based events.
The protests at Columbia have inspired similar demonstrations at
dozens of universities around the country. Students have called
for a ceasefire in Gaza and have demanded their schools divest
from companies with ties to Israel.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden welcomed
peaceful protests on campuses and elsewhere, but would continue
to condemn hate speech, antisemitism or violence.
"It doesn't matter where he is, where he's speaking. 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 all Americans should have
the right to peacefully protest," she added. "What we don't want
to see is hate speech, violence."
Biden is due to give a commencement speech at Morehouse College
in Atlanta on May 19.
Biden warned on Tuesday that the threat of antisemitism is
growing in the United States, including on college campuses,
joining a heated American debate about Jewish security, Zionism,
free speech and support for Israel, in the country with the
largest Jewish population after Israel.
Biden last week address the campus unrest, saying Americans have
the right to protest "but not a right to cause chaos" through
vandalism, breaking windows or shutting down campuses.
Jean-Pierre reiterated the White House position that it should
be up the universities to decide how to respond.
She condemned behavior captured in a video at the University of
Mississippi over the weekend as "undignified and racist", after
a student was accused of mocking a Black protester by making
monkey noises during an anti-war demonstration.
"The actions in the video are beneath any American," Jean-Pierre
told reporters.
The Democratic president, seeking re-election in November, has
walked a careful line of denouncing antisemitism while
supporting young Americans' right to protest and trying to limit
longer-term political damage.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrea Shalal; writing by
Andrea Shalal; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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