Why do college students protest? They know truth about Israel's genocide in Gaza | Opinion
Why are students at countless universities around the country creating peaceful encampments to demand their universities disclose and divest from companies that invest in Israel’s oppression of the indigenous Palestinian population? (And it is important to note that students are leading this rapidly growing movement.)
Students are keenly aware of the information divide between them and their parents and grandparents. A socially conscious generation with global access at their fingertips, they watch a genocide take place in real time. They participate in a global discussion and movement. That’s why they protest.
Students know the Israeli-imposed genocide in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 civilians per the official count. They know an additional 10,000 dead Palestinians lie under the rubble and close to 100,000 are injured. They know thousands more may soon die due to forced starvation and dehydration.
Mainstream media often have biased coverage of Palestinians
In contrast, their parents and grandparents grew up getting their news from the same mainstream sources, often with biased coverage that leads to group think. The older generations regard questioning our government’s foreign policies, or even discussing how those policies affect people around the world, call one’s patriotism into question.
Students, on the other hand, believe it is actually patriotic and ethical to be concerned about our taxes being used to support governments that oppress people and ethnically cleanse an indigenous population of a country.
A new antisemitism takes root. Hatred of Jews led to 6 million deaths in Holocaust.
As these students helplessly watch every university and school in Gaza be bombed to the ground, hundreds of beloved professors massacred and thousands of their peers killed or starved by Israel simply for being Palestinian, they draw upon lessons they were taught growing up. Ingrained in this generation is the knowledge that we live on native lands that once belonged to many thriving tribes with a rich culture, people who were ethnically cleansed to make room for European “settlers.”
They learned about the injustices of slavery that wreaked havoc on a continent, with the impact reverberating on our Black community to this day. They learned about the horrors of the Holocaust reading the Diary of Anne Frank. They watched films about the civil rights movement and memorized quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They wrote research papers on McCarthyism and tactics of political repression, silencing and persecution. They were taught about racism practiced in apartheid South Africa and the global movement to end it. Many of their classrooms had posters with personalities like the late President Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, leaders once branded as terrorists as they fought for justice.
Most important, this generation had the First Amendment rights of free speech ingrained in their education. They learned silence is complicity. They were often asked, “What would you have done if you were alive then?” Now we are asking them to forget all of those lessons. We are telling them that a bunch of tents on college campuses is more problematic than the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, including more than 70% of whom are women and children, done with our tax dollars and military support. We are telling them any means can be used to silence you if you try to bring attention to the complicity of our government and our universities in supporting a settler-colonialism state created 76 years ago in the middle of the Arab world by Europeans wanting to get rid of their “Jewish problem.”
We are telling our students that unless you obediently accept our unethical policies, we will brand you as troublemakers or worse; we will suspend you from your universities; we will make sure no one will hire you; and we will bring law enforcement to brutally attack you because everything we taught you is actually a lie.
Jewish supporters refuse to conflate beautiful faith with genocide
We will call you “antisemitic” as a way to silence you in spite of the fact that young, justice-oriented Jews are at the forefront of the movement for Palestinian rights and liberation. These Jews refuse to have their beautiful faith conflated with the genocidal actions of a racist apartheid government and are actively speaking out against Israel. These young Jews believe “never again” means never again for everyone, not just Jews.
These young Jewish activists are increasingly repulsed by the Jewish Federations, the ADL and other institutions that are PR machines for another government at the expense of upholding the true tenants of Judaism, particularly Tikkun Olam, or the requirement to mend the world. These are justice minded, confident, outspoken Jews who refuse to employ perpetual victimhood tactics as a method of silencing criticism of Israel’s horrific treatment of the indigenous Palestinian population.
What has become incredibly clear is that the world is a new place. In spite of the horror in Gaza, it will never be business as usual again. This amazingly diverse and committed movement of young people is holding university leaders and elected officials accountable. They are demanding investments and policies that prioritize human rights, dignity and justice for all people. They are willing to risk so much to demand ethical and responsible decisions, and they are not swayed by donors, funders, special interests or threats.
They are the leaders we have been waiting for. They learned their lessons well.
Janan Najeeb is Founder and Executive Director of the Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Student protestors taught truth about settler-colonial state of Israel
