University of Mississippi: ‘abhorrent’ counter-protesters condemned

A group of dozens of young white men and women, laughing and with hands raised, with two men wearing no shirt under coveralls designed like the American flag. Photograph: Stacey J Spiehler/AP

Dozens of students at the University of Mississippi gathered this week to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and to call for the state’s flagship university to be transparent in its potential dealings with Israel.

There were hundreds of counter-protesters, in contrast to the few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters. The scene evoked memories of the resistance to the civil rights struggle in the US south six decades earlier.