Universities all over America holding massive Palestine demonstrations

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Its really getting serious. First it started in (the University of) Columbia, when students set up tents in the University's main yard and encamped there for a few nights. Then it spread to just about every top University in America. And now its spread to top Universities not in America.

[Leo Gura]

I am so glad I'm not in universities.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Why not? Isn't it a good thing that so many students are taking it up on themselves to protest an injustice?

I'm personally resentful that I attend a small local commuter school and I can't join, but is that really a good thing for me.

Edited April 28 by Husseinisdoingfine

[Sabth]

@StarStruck Rab is God. In Arabic. 

[Nivsch]

" Hamza Hawidi, a resident of Gaza City who defines himself as a Palestinian peace activist, sharply criticizes the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses across the United States and Europe:

"The students are outside in tents because of hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel. As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the demonstrators and the organizers of the demonstrations to know that their hate speech hurts us. If the demonstrations were about achieving sustainable peace and justice - the Jews or the Israelis could be our partners. We in Gaza do not accept hate speech or  Calls for terror, and all these foolish dreams of eliminating Israel are disgusting - and will never be achieved. We both, Palestinians and Israelis, are here to stay.

The way many gather to express their support for the Palestinians does more to hurt.  Do you know what will help the Palestinians in Gaza?  Condemn the atrocities of Hamas.  Instead the demonstrators routinely call for 'making the intifada global'.  They do not understand that the intifadas were also disastrous for the Palestinians, just as October 7 was devastating for the residents of Gaza.

Some of the protesting groups blocked Palestinian peace activists like me, and I dare you.  They should invite us to join these demonstrations and let us guide them in the right direction, call for the release of the abductees who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 200 days.  If the protesters cared about us they would demand that Hamas surrender.  This is the only way to reach a ceasefire.

The hate speech has reached frightening levels.  I saw people shouting at Jewish students to 'go back to Poland'.  It's not just the anti-Semitism that makes me despair, it's the hypocrisy.  Where were they when Hamas took over Gaza and massacred us?  Or when he held us captive for more than 17 years?  They don't talk about the fact that Hamas led the Gazans into conflict, Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it, and that its failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds"
https://bit.ly/3UfsDKF

Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes "

You can translate the original article from here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TAPbXJA7sbzkdi3P/?mibextid=oFDknk

Edited April 28 by Nivsch

[Karmadhi]

If governments wont do anything to stop a genocide, It is up to the citizens to do it.

Beautiful thing they are doing.

Massive support

Israel needs to be cancelled as a country and left alone

[Scholar]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/campus-left-university-columbia-1968/678176/

 

Good article to put this into context.

[nerdspeak]

Netenyahu is prolonging the war for domestic political reasons, and is completely indifferent to civilian casualties. 

That said, what’s happening is war, not genocide. 
 

Calling it genocide is to inflate the term beyond any real meaning.

[Jodistrict]

 

The website "Democracy Now" has good coverage of this.    These protests were peaceful and they were met with a heavy handed response.   What ever happened to freedom of speech?     It reminds me of the beginning of the protests during the Vietnam War.  The violent response of the state just led to the spread of protests.  

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/23/columbia_university_joseph_slaughter

 

[Heaven]

Terror funding their tuitions. Obviously they need to give back to the propaganda.

[Jodistrict]

The New York Times had an interesting article which claims that the Arab countries are also cracking down harshly on the pro Palestinian protestors.

“For decades, Arab activists have linked the struggle for justice for the Palestinians — a cause that unites Arabs of different political persuasions from Marrakesh to Baghdad — to the struggle for greater rights and freedoms at home. For them, Israel was an avatar of the authoritarian and colonialist forces that had thwarted their own societies’ growth.”

“What’s happening to the Palestinian people clarifies the foundation of the problem for Arabs everywhere, that the problem is tyranny,” said Abdurrahman Sultan, a 36-year-old Kuwaiti who has participated in sit-ins in support of the Palestinian cause since the war began.”

So the leaders of the Arab countries fear the protestors because they are afraid that the protestors will also demand freedom for their people.  

This illustrates more of the context and real complexity of this issue.  The Jew vs. Muslim narrative is a shallow diversion of the real issue:   freedom for all vs. tyrannical rule by a few.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/world/middleeast/gaza-arab-protests-crackdown.html?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAQmoPN_OHShf3lARjVoubzwJqW54QBKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzw&utm_content=rundown&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=ARTJ-U-LqKaMelytTCiLZMJT4KlPK2Lm3X30Sa384fEzmLTW3RgXPWL3au1TvP6tvZFqG8RuhE6F4gCnyLRPEzOTLZJLFver3Q%3D%3D&gaa_ts=662fbe60&gaa_sig=4gguJ_buqHNT7Dhr2yI7ODUoQkJ0frLbKgmyYgLycMo-Stl0vboCSO354iER3l5wGJyjcrBQVO48gYvbfz3Kpw%3D%3D

[zazen]

Shahid Bolsen:

"I said it before, they should have seen the writing on the wall in 2020 when this same generation was going around knocking down statues of slave owners and colonizers.

They let you know then how they feel about that, what their stance is about that.

They want nothing to do with colonization; they want to disavow that history.

So if they want to distance themselves and disown colonization in their history, what makes you think that they'd be fine with being associated with colonization that's going on today?

This generation didn't have a chance to oppose slavery and colonization a century ago or two centuries ago, so they just pulled down all the icons of slavery and colonization, everything that they could find, they tore it down.

But right now, today, they have the opportunity to actively oppose and fight against present-day colonization in Palestine, and that's what they're doing.

I mean, seriously, how could you not see this coming. Were they subtle in 2020?

Of course, this generation is going to fight you; of course, they're going to reject Zionism; of course, they're going to oppose genocidal colonization.

This is their chance. This is their chance to prove that their anger and their guilt about America's crimes in the past, that their anger was genuine.

This is their chance to prove to you, to themselves, and to the world that they meant it in 2020 when they knocked down all those statues.

This is their chance to manifest the virtue that they were signaling four years ago, and that's what they're doing.

And the knee-jerk reaction of your so-called civilization, your so-called culture that's so addicted to colonization and so addicted to brutality—their knee-jerk reflex response is to turn vicious, to turn ugly, to turn oppressive and violent against anyone who's trying to cure them of that addiction.

But this time, you're attacking your own future leaders; you're attacking your own precious babies of the elite, and this is just how wild and incurable your addiction is.

This is just how morally bankrupt and how corrupt your so-called society, your so-called civilization is.

You're willing to sacrifice your own young, your own heirs to power, your own successors to the imperial throne because of your insatiable thirst for the blood of the colonized.

You're too drunk on the blood of your victims to know that you are too drunk to lead anymore.

These students are trying to tell you that friends don't let friends commit genocide, but then you just turn your blind fury against them.

I'm telling you, your power structure is cannibalistic; we're witnessing an American meltdown in real time.

It's a tectonic shift; the epicenter is in Gaza, but the shock waves are shaking the foundation of American power.

Every time the Israelis launch a missile, I'm telling you, it lands in the United States, and if things keep going the way they're going, before too long, there isn't going to be anything left standing in that country."

[zazen]

To add nuance to above regarding past wrongs and tearing down of statues: it would probably more productive to self actualise from past history, rather than become self loathing about it.

Historic symbols can be reminders - cautionary tales or lessons not to be repeated as well as the good to be repeated and built upon.

Understandably younger generations want to tell a new story in their time and dissociation from ‘negative’ old ones - but negating the negative can mean it’s repeated. It would also be wise to not learn history in a way that elevates what is rightfully seen as immoral in today’s time, or learn it in a way that re-traumatises groups and sows more division.

[Basman]

Seems like another wave of stage green type protests, similar to Occupy Wallstreet. Doubtful that'll achieve much.

[Butters]

Universities have always had a strong protest culture, nothing new. 

[Jodistrict]

6 hours ago, zazen said:

To add nuance to above regarding past wrongs and tearing down of statues: it would probably more productive to self actualise from past history, rather than become self loathing about it.

Historic symbols can be reminders - cautionary tales or lessons not to be repeated as well as the good to be repeated and built upon.

Understandably younger generations want to tell a new story in their time and dissociation from ‘negative’ old ones - but negating the negative can mean it’s repeated. It would also be wise to not learn history in a way that elevates what is rightfully seen as immoral in today’s time, or learn it in a way that re-traumatises groups and sows more division.

But wouldn't that same reasoning apply to the monuments constructed by the Third Reich?