Campus chaos
Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, the conflict in the Gaza strip and Israel’s combat against Hamas has intensified and is now also involving major U.S. universities. Most students seem to be supporting the Palestinian people and an independent Palestinian state. A few are celebrating Hamas, seen as a terrorist group by the West, but the majority is showing respect and support for the Palestinian people.
This has caused an outcry in media, and they are portraying the protesters as Jew-haters and are calling for the firing of school leaders and professors and for students to get expelled. Some rich donors have demanded a list of names of the protesters so they can be blacklisted so corporations won’t hire them after graduation. Donors are also withholding donations as they demand that the protests stop. Columbia University, one of the country’s most prestigious Ivy League universities, sent in the police force to remove the protesting students, but it kind of back-fired as it looked like fascist-era Sturm troops cleaned up peaceful demonstrators.
What happened to the first amendment and the right to peacefully demonstrate? Why would it be wrong to demonstrate against Israel? The country has so far killed more than 34,000 people of Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, about 14,000 of them children. There seems to be an ongoing genocide, supported by the Biden administration, so why would it be terrible to protest this and support a free democratic Palestinian state? The media calls the demonstrations Jew-hating protests, but they are not. They are simply protesting the genocide and showing support for the Palestinian people. This seems reasonable given the circumstances.
Students are supposed to be radicals and be vocal about their opinions. It is difficult to understand how anyone can openly support Hamas, a terrorist organization that recently killed around 1,200 Israelis in the October 7th attack. It is also difficult to understand the support, and the U.S. government’s support, for the ongoing genocide by the Israeli regime with more than 34,000 deaths. The Israeli government is also encouraging more settlers to occupy land and property in the West Bank. After all, the Israeli constitution is only for Jewish people and therefore, the Palestinians are by default second class people and citizens.
The fight against terrorist organizations seems appropriate, but the ongoing killing in the Gaza strip is not. Nor is the treatment of Palestinians in Israel and in the occupied West Bank. Therefore, it seems reasonable that students are protesting the war and against the Israeli killings. How can that be a violation against anything? It is perplexing how the U.S. government can keep supporting the killing, but the geopolitical importance of Israel should not be underestimated. Nor should the Jewing influence on media and U.S. politics.
The semester is more or less finished, and the universities are closing for the summer break. It does seem logical that students demonstrate and voice their support for a Palestinian state and for the people. It also seems rational to demand a ceasefire in Gaza stop the killing. It is surprising that western democracies are quiet, and it is even more surprising that the Biden administration openly supports the ongoing killings and the Israeli apartheid regime. This might cost him dearly in the November election.