The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Mary Dunn, Breanna Norris and Katie Saunders are members of the Maine Coalition for Palestine.
Amy Fried’s May 7 opinion column discusses the voices of those who are protesting on college campuses. The youth are demanding a dismantling of the system that supports what the UN Special Rapporteur has called “acts of genocide.” In doing so they are demanding justice for the Palestinian people, which is a precursor to peace.
While we disagree with the framing of the column, something we’d like to point out is the lack of mention of the large contingent of Jewish-Americans that have featured prominently in these nationwide protests. Accusations of antisemitism have become a popular tool to silence those who are speaking out against this genocide. Sadly, criticism of protests often include an overly broad accusation of antisemitism. It couldn’t be further from the truth.
Protests, at the time they happen, are often disliked by many. Disrupting the status quo is uncomfortable; that is the point. The Montgomery Bus Boycott protests are hailed as a great moment in civil rights history but at the time they were considered disruptive. Martin Luther King was criticized and called an “outside agitator” for his support.
For those who see themselves behaving morally during a Holocaust, do they also believe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 should have been a peaceful protest and not disrupt any business or schools from operating as usual? Organized disruptions, such as we see on college campuses, implement change by shifting mindsets.
Nelson Mandela was also once labeled an agitator. Yet his protests eventually overhauled the apartheid system. Students demanded that their universities divest from South Africa, and in 1985 Columbia University did in fact divest, which was a major milestone in the anti-apartheid movement. Today, students continue this legacy using tried and true disruption methods to call on their universities to divest from Israel.
Some of our most inspiring historical references are of protests and are often celebrated. One has to wonder, if the Boston Tea Party were happening today, would they be violently arrested? As the world and protests change, the need for them has not gone away. Along with the need to protest there will always be people who miss the point by complaining that the protests are performing as designed, to disrupt the status quo.
When the lives of over 600,000 children in Rafah are at stake, we cannot wait 70 years to soften the idea of protesting. Those who think people shouldn’t chant too loudly or set up a tent on a campus lawn are missing the goal of protesting. While students cause disruptions on college campuses, we should not forget that in Gaza there will be no graduating class of 2024. Many of its students and professors are dead. Most who have survived are displaced. Many have lost limbs or have debilitating injuries, not to mention the psychological pain and grief from losing family members and all normalcy of life. There are no university campuses remaining; Israel has destroyed them all.
At a time when some think young people are self-absorbed, we have found the exact opposite on college campuses. Years from now as we watch and read documentaries of how students organized themselves we likely will be reminded of the outside agitators and disruptions. Someday we may call the students heroes, but today critics may not be ready for that just yet.
