Making sense of the news: pro-Palestine college protests
No, the encampments were not for nothing.
College campuses are having a moment.
Between April 17 and April 30, both students and non-student protesters have rallied, prayed and fended off riot gear-donned law enforcement at over 150 colleges and universities across the country — a scale not seen in decades, as reported by the Washington Post.
Many of the encampments have been taken down and more than 2,000 protesters have been arrested, but whatever your stance is on the Israel-Hamas conflict, one thing is certain: these protests have your attention. And that’s nothing to scoff at.
Varying from school to school, protesters have demanded that universities:
- Divest from companies linked to Israel or businesses profiting off of the conflict
- Call for a ceasefire in Gaza
- Disclose their investments
- Sever academic ties with Israeli educational institutions
- Grant protection for students punished for participating in protests
When universities try to censor or repress demonstrations and voices that are speaking on issues of this scale, the incident often blows up and falls to the Streisand effect, which is when attempts to hide, remove or censor information inadvertently draw even more attention to it.
Take the incident at the University of Southern California, for instance. Some overpaid administrator decided to cancel the commencement address of pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum, citing unnamed “safety concerns” after pro-Israel groups labeled her views as “antisemitic.”
This move made national headlines. Why’d they do that? For a university that claims to champion free speech so zealously (and charges nearly $70,000 a year for tuition), why choose now to restrict a voice? And now they’ve canceled commencement, too?
Some might say that USC’s “security concerns” were valid, and that having such a politically charged speech at graduation would build tension and escalate. Others say that the institution silencing one voice has silenced all, and that it has failed its Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students.
For some campuses recently, the latter just might be the case.
The Protests
Perhaps two of the biggest stories this past week were at the University of California, Los Angeles and Columbia University.
Like any escalated protest, accounts and perspectives can vary wildly; one end of the spectrum might believe in the oppressed rising up against their oppressors, while the other end may stand for maintaining order against the chaos. Some things, however, are undisputed.
Protesters were met with vitriol; counterprotesters at UCLA assaulted pro-Palestinian demonstrators, unchecked for hours. Before the mob attack, UCLA’s police chief was ordered to make a security plan but didn’t, according to a report by the LA Times.
Columbia students took over Hamilton Hall as their predecessors did in 1968 in opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and many who participated in those nationwide protests see this as a repeat. Then, much like 56 years ago, the cops came in.
Interestingly, the University of California rewrote its campus policing policy after the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020, emphasizing non-violent engagement at protests. We can see how that worked out at UCLA, where Highway Patrol fired bean bag shotgun rounds into the crowd.
Though a lot of demonstrators were arrested, many will probably get off free as prosecutors would have to have evidence against each and every one of them.
It’s unclear whether non-students will face tougher punishment than students, but scores of cases have already been dropped and universities will have a lot to deal with after the dust settles.
Divestments would be difficult but not impossible, as it’s been done before. Some campuses have agreed to post public information on investments among other forms of semi-accountability, and although it’s not exactly divestment, it’s a start.
With graduation season right around the corner, some say it’s going to be a controversial year for commencements, especially as more universities are canceling theirs. And it probably will be.
What’s next?
The facts still stand:
- The Hamas attack on Israel in October resulted in nearly 1,200 deaths and around 250 hostages, many of which are still in custody. This is the worst violence against Jews since the Holocaust.
- More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry (debate remains around this number, but science says the number is actually an undercount).
- People in Gaza are displaced, starving and are being denied humanitarian aid. If this continues, 1.1 million people could suffer a “catastrophic” lack of food by mid-July, according to a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
- More than 97 journalists have died covering the conflict, making it the deadliest for press members since 1992 when the Committee to Protect Journalists started data collection.
- Joe Biden recently signed off on $15 billion in military aid to Israel.
Some are starting to say that this is “Biden’s Vietnam,” and it indeed might be if history repeats itself. And make no mistake — if you pay taxes to the U.S. government, you have skin in the game.
It’s going to be an interesting election year. Democrats are split on how Biden has handled Israel. There’s an abundance of political analyses and speculations out there, but the thing is, we’re pretty bad at predicting elections and how people will vote. We’ll have to wait and see.
Anyway, politics is diabolical. War is atrocious. That should go without saying, but even that isn’t agreed upon when it comes to this intractable conflict.
Some think it’s absurd to support Hamas, which they see as a terrorist group that has committed atrocities and are oppressors in Gaza. Some see them as freedom fighters who are taking up arms to oppose Israel’s occupation of their state.
Antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents have surged in the West (some particularly at college campuses). It can be very upsetting to see what is portrayed in the media and claim that others with opposing perspectives are the ones instigating conflict and calling for violence.
There’s even a fundamental misunderstanding of how each side perceives each other’s messaging. Many Jews fear “from the river to the sea” means an erasure of their people from Israel — another genocide, even.
Palestine supporters may assert that Israel is the one committing genocide, humanitarian violations against the people of Gaza. They’d say the chant is an “aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” said U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib in a Tweet.
Of course, it’s not black and white and there’s a whole gamut of perspectives on the slogan and other stances, but there cannot be constructive discourse until things like this are mutually understood.
Through all this, though, you may find comfort in knowing that the vast majority of Americans are against calls for violence against Jews or Muslims, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
While I write this, Israel continues an attack on Rafah as talks of a truce are stalled. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shutting down Al Jazeera operations in Israel, removing one of the few international media outlets still in the war. It’s difficult to see an end in sight.
But there’s hope. Colombia recently cut diplomatic ties with Israel. Netanyahu’s approval rating is abysmal. The International Criminal Court seems to be planning to get arrest warrants for the prime minister and his officials on suspicion of war crimes.
It’s also undeniable that millions of eyes and ears across the country were on the university protests. They’ve propelled the Gaza conversation back to the forefront of American minds. It might take months, years even, to enact a ceasefire. To enact change. But those students are heard.
I hope this little breakdown was helpful. Have thoughts? Anything to add? Did I miss the mark? Let me know. I want to do more of these news discussions and will try to strike a balance between brevity and nuance. Helps me understand stuff better, too. Cheers.
