TIP OF THE HAT: STUDENT PROTESTERS

    Chicago, 1968

This month’s Tip of the Hat goes to the brave university and college students who have been demonstrating in growing numbers their opposition to the Israeli government’s almost textbook case of genocide it is currently conducting in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of campuses in the United States and elsewhere (including Canada) have seen student demonstrations and occupations denouncing Israel’s murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocidal purges of Gaza’s Palestinian citizens. Israel’s months-long destruction of the enclave has turned to rubble Gazan infrastructure, its hospitals, schools and universities, its civic and cultural sites, its residential homes, and agricultural lands, and internally displaced nearly two million of its 2.3 million citizens, corralling them into a narrow strip of land along the border with Egypt. Since 7 October, Israeli bombs and missiles have killed over 35,000 Palestinians, of which 75% are women and children, along with an unknown number of Hamas fighters. In addition, there are over 78,000 injured, many needing hospitalization from a health care system that is mostly non-existent after months of targeted, Israeli bombing. Over 10,000 Gazans are thought to be missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble. UN aid organizations report that famine is a growing concern given that Israel has imposed a blockade of Gaza and allows a far from adequate number of aid convoys to enter. 

THE GOAL is clear: to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian inhabitants and claim the land as theirs. Israel is committing war crimes and the whole world is watching.

 

   "March on  Washington" Rally, 1969

STUDENTS on campuses throughout America and abroad are demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to the blockade. But, unlike the protests against the Vietnam War during the 1960s and early 70s, where students had ‘skin in the game’ in that they were subject to the draft and could be called up to join the fighting in Vietnam, today’s students are siding with the Palestinians because it is simply the right thing to do—even if they suffer the consequences like being expelled, or are heavily fined, or denied access to their residences, or made to forfeit their degrees, or even to be arrested for peacefully protesting Israel’s apartheid regime and its criminal treatment of the Palestinians. Already, many universities are cancelling classes, graduation ceremonies and enlisting police forces to clear protest staging areas and arresting students using increasingly heavy-handed tactics.  It remains to be seen whether the protests will continue through the summer. If they do, the Democratic National Committee's presidential convention, held in Chicago this August, which is set to inaugurate President Biden (AKA "Genocide Joe") for a second term, may prove to be a turning point in the Justice for Palestine movement, just as the anti-Viet Nam war movement was galvanized at a similar Chicago venue during that long ago, hot August of 1968. ⁺

    Campus Protests, May 2024

 IN CHICAGO THAT SUMMER, anti-Vietnam war protesters clashed with police amid riots that were televised daily to a transfixed nation, igniting the peace movement in the United States that would eventually see the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam. [1968 also saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in April and Robert F. Kennedy in June, as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination. That year, the nation was disturbed, deeply divided and unsure of the future, much like it is today. Ed.]      

 

👉Will 2024’s student protests against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza elicit enough support to change policies in the United States and its ever-shrinking coterie of compliant client states, like Canada? It should be noted that last week’s vote in the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) saw 143 in favour, nine opposed and 25 abstentions (incl. Canada) calling for Palestine to be recognized as a sovereign state and a full member of the United Nations family of nations. The vote fell short of granting Palestine full membership, but it did gain the right to speak on all issues, not just on Palestine, and to debate, join UN committees, and propose agenda items. And while the motion failed to grant Palestine full membership in the international body, in that it does not yet have the right to vote, it is a step up from its “observer status”. At the end of the day, it is the Security Council that must approve Palestine’s membership bid, but the United States, in its blind support of Israel, continues to veto this crucial initiative. For now.   

 

 👉I THINK it's safe to say that politicians in many countries have been put on the back foot by the recent rash of student protests. I'll go so far to say they are, in fact, scared of where these pro-Palestine demonstrations may be heading. Of late, their authority is being challenged; their pronouncements and decrees questioned, and their legislative records more carefully examined. And there is a new sound on the wind, distant but growing: It's the tittering chirrup of nervous laughter echoing down the halls of power. And that's a good thing, if ever there was!😃

SO, for drawing world attention to the plight of the Palestinian people by peacefully demonstrating on their campuses, these brave, young people are giving the world hope that real change within our necrotic political systems is still possible. 

Thank you.

 

Cheers, Jake. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

* Following the 7 October attacks by Hamas that killed 1200 Israelis in nearby kibbutzim and military posts, nearly 500 Palestinians in the West Bank region of Israel have been murdered by Israeli settlers. The West Bank is governed by the Fatah Palestinian administration and was not involved in the Hamas uprising in Gaza. That Israeli settlers can murder Palestinians there with impunity speaks volumes about the true intent of the Israeli government (and sadly a majority of Israeli citizens), which is to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians “from the river to the sea,” i.e., from Greater Israel.

 

+ Recently, DNC (Democratic National Committee) officials are working to have some speeches, vote counts and other procedural matters at the Chicago convention done virtually or as prerecorded video to cut down on the disruptions, chants and demonstrations pro-Palestinian protesters (many of them students) will, no doubt, attempt on the convention floor and outside the “United Centre” stadium where 5,000 delegates, 20,000 volunteers and 50,000 visitors are expected to attend the 4-day event in August to choose the Democratic party presidential nominee. Stay tuned!

 

 

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