My Jewish college kid is protesting the war in Gaza. And I’m proud.
In the last 48 hours many of Y’s friends have been arrested for being part of an anti-war encampment at their college. I am shocked by the large number of college encampments across the US, but I knew this was coming because Y (who goes by they) has been discussing it for months.
We are Jewish, and like many Jewish families, our sense of activism is strong. But it wasn’t as easy for me to get my head around the pro-Palestinian rallies 0ver last six months.
My extended family has a wide range of views on the topic — there are Zionists on one end and Y on the other. I am somewhere in the middle, which is to say I think the Israel-Hamas conflict has become horrifying and I have no idea how to fix it. This disappoints Y because the ethical discussion is so clear to them.
Before Y was born, Nino and I opened our home to a Palestinian kid who was 16 years old in NYC with nowhere to go.
His name was Tariq. It was just after 9/11 and Nino was working full time to help illegally detained people from the Middle East. Tariq’s dad was detained and Tariq had no relatives in the US.
Tariq’s dad was in the US raising money for Palestinians. I wasn’t sure what I thought about that cause, but I knew it was wrong to have the dad imprisoned for 9/11, and I knew Tariq needed a place to live until he could get back home.
Tariq had no life skills. He had spent his entire life fighting for his homeland. He learned everything about the fight from his dad, but no one taught Tariq how to make himself breakfast. We thought maybe it was that our food was unfamiliar, but actually, he had never used a stove.
He was on high alert at all times. Totally traumatized. We tried our best to support him, but we really had no idea how to cope with the level of trauma he had. Finally, someone took him back to his family in Gaza.
Periodically Nino would try to figure out where Tariq and his dad were. How they were doing. But it’s not like you can stalk them on Facebook.
Now, 25 years later, I still see no grand solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But I am sure there’s another generation of Palestinian kids never learning to cook or shop for food, because their childhood will be consumed by fighting and recovering from fighting and fearing the start of more fighting.
This is why I can support Y in their endeavors to stop the war in Gaza. Because we didn’t know if Tariq’s family was on the right or the wrong side but we knew he was a kid who needed help. And I see Y looking at the human destruction and I am not surprised by their reaction.
What did surprise me is that while Y protested their school’s financial support to Israel, Y’s Jewish identity grew.
Y’s school organizers have been careful all along to show that Jewish kids were organizing; that a person can love being Jewish and hate the war in Gaza. So when Passover came around, the kids had a seder in the encampment. Y had never gone to seder at school, so this is their first student-led seder. They said they’ve never been more proud to be Jewish. They were happy to know all the prayers and all the songs. They were happy that non-Jews participated as well. This is from the kid who announced God is not real during their bar mitzvah.
At the seder each kid had written the phone number of a lawyer on their arm in case they got arrested. But the intent was to be peaceful, so arrests were unlikely. That is, until a pro-Israel student shouted “kill the Jews” and then the state police arrested everyone because the protests had become anti-semetic. This speaks to tension on campus, for sure. But also it speaks to how savvy today’s kids are about protesting.
Anyway, the kids got out of jail fast enough to get back to campus the same day. They reorganized right away, including rotating shifts to study for finals. I love that what my kid is learning in college is how to protect free speech, how to stand up for what matters, and how to shape their own identity.
That night the group planned a Havdalah service at the encampment spot. I don’t know if Y has ever even done Havdalah. But now Y talks about it like it’s an essential part of the Jewish week: I’m kvelling.
Students. Young and easy to impress. The war will end when the money will end, not because kids speak their minds. Also protesting at this level, and i include pro-palestinians, is an incredible “white” privilege. But from what you describe, protest participation is the new fraternity college era.
I, too, have thought about the privilege part of the protest. Kids have to be able to risk the school’s disciplinary action, and not all parents can help with the possible financial cost of that. Also, kids on full scholarship can’t risk losing their financial support. So it’s true that only some kids can protest with a safety net. But there are a lot worse ways to use privilege.
Please add your student’s discussion with the protester and/or others regarding the kill all Jews and other seemingly ‘casual’ normalizing of the violence against Jewish community. Understanding WHAT and HOW the Jewish community imbedded within the protests would help us understand.
NOT RELATED to investments. The Disclose and Divest movement is probably a DECADE old – the IMMEDIACY of the issue
while these protests are actively being touted by those involved who are holding HOSTAGES WITHOUT ANY ACCESS by charities and medical professionals
is unfathomable
Journalist Caitlin Johnstone reported the following:
“Northeastern University brought in the police to break up a pro-Palestine demonstration, claiming antisemitic slurs and hate speech were being used by the demonstrators, but witnesses say it was actually pro-Israel counter-demonstrators who’d been shouting the antisemitic slogans, and a video confirms this.
The pro-Israel agitators got some 100 demonstrators arrested by standing near them and shouting “Kill the Jews”, but they themselves were not arrested.”
Max Blumenthal posted the video on his X account.
Thanks, Lorri, for finding this.
You’re welcome.
VIDEO: https://twitter.com/Tori_Bedford/status/1784222169746063773
Caitlin Johnson simps for China and has spent two years defending Putin. She’s not a good person.
She does not “simp” for China, nor does she defend Putin. She points out WHY they take certain actions. Your comment is disingenuous.
While I don’t condone the pro Israel’s agitators’s behavior and I personally would not retort to yelling such things to get a protest shut down, their actions are not happening in a vacuum. Kill all the Jews is not only the explicit aim publicly stated by Hamas, who proudly claimed responsibility for the atrocities of Oct 7th, but more over, there are plenty of examples of ill-informed young pro-Palestinian activists making such all encompassing claims, for example the student at Columbia whose inflammatory social media video from January just recently got him suspended
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/nyregion/khymani-james-columbia-suspension.html
This article doesn’t actually go into the full details of how inflammatory his comments were in that video. Sadly, he is not the only one in the pro-Palestinian camp feeling at liberty to express themselves in that way.
On the other hand, other voices from Palestine proper, including the son in exile of a Hamas leader and various responsible Palestinian people speaking from the ground in Gaza, call attention to how much of the civilian casualties are caused by Hamas’s own terrorist behavior towards their own people (using them as Human shields, sabotaging the distribution of aid, etc) The voices of reason always get drowned in the noise of the loudest agitators, to everyone’s detriment.
I am not claiming the IDF and Israeli government behavior are pristine or always well-intentioned. No war ever is. But I do think the strongly anti-Israel position predominant in this post and thread is tremendously naive and ill informed.
The US is building a massive port right now, right there in Gaza. There are actual actions that need to take place STAT to alleviate the pain of this situation all around. Including Hamas releasing hostages and dead bodies that have been held now now for over six months. These campus protests are doing zilch to help anyone’s pain.
I really appreciate how reasonable and thoughtful this comment is. It’s hard to see this conflict from many different viewpoints; you do that successfully.
Penelope
The “human shield” trope could be leveled at Israel.
Evidence has come out that prior to Oct. 7th, the Israeli military had long been targeting members of Hamas as they moved around. They knew exactly where they were walking around and had the capability to take them out. Instead, they waited until they arrived home and then bombed their home, killing their entire family along with them.
And the idea that Hamas is stopping aid from getting in? There are videos of Israeli civilians who organize nearly every day to stop aid trucks from entering Gaza. In one video they stood and looked right into the camera and said they wanted to starve the people of Gaza. Go to YouTube and you’ll find these videos.
Happiness that memories of prayers looked up of heard weekly or many times in their lives is nice but very SAD 😢 when used as a window dressing & means for justification of political ends to protest and to specifically support and cause the segregation of subgroups of students (those at risk or feeling unsafe – aka by choice or those who are or ‘look’ Jewish – can attend courses remotely) of political
This is really wonderful. I went to a Jesuit university where the focus was on faith and social justice being intertwined. I wasn’t Catholic when I went there, and was really worried about going there. But, when I left, all of the things that I experienced about those two things being so linked had an incredibly deep impact on my life. I am really grateful for those experiences, and everything they taught me.
From Hillel:
For far too many Jewish college students, this Passover has been marked not just by the celebration of age-old traditions, but also with anxiety and trepidation. On dozens of college campuses across the U.S., anti-Israel encampments and protests have broken university rules and codes of conduct, and spawned antisemitic threats, harassment, and even violence directed toward Jewish students.
No student, Jewish or otherwise, should be targeted and harassed because of their religious identity. No student should have to hear chants calling for the destruction of Tel Aviv, or endure shouts promising that the horrors of October 7 will be revisited on Jews “10,000 times over.” And no student should be confronted with violence and stabbed in the eye with a flagpole, as happened to one Jewish student who was simply trying to cross her university quad.
While we continue to be inspired by the pride, courage, and resilience of our students in the face of this avalanche of hate, college and university presidents and administrators must do more to uphold their own rules, and restore order to their campuses.
I don’t know for sure, but I read that the “stabbed in the eye” story was false.
Wrong. The sources you follow will reinforce your bias. If you want other sources who will refute what you’re “hearing” you can email me.
It wasn’t a “source” I follow. It was a sub-Reddit board and it was mentioned in passing by some Jewish people there. That is why I said “I don’t know for sure.” They didn’t go in great depth.
They were discussing it because of a particular Jewish convert who constantly reposts debunked stories, and they are forever correcting the record on her posts.
I finally got confirmation the “stabbed in the eye” story is false. There is a video that shows the Jewish student was walking right next to a line of protesters. A protestor just happened to be turning around with a flag pole and they accidentally collided.
Bingo!
Thank you. So proud of you all. Natanyahoo is like our Trump. Pending charges and using more violence to cover military and economic failures. Democracy isn’t perfect. Israel is suffering too. Praying for peace.
I’m proud of you son too.
Too bad about the other kid protesting against all Jews. That’s just ignorance and I hope someone talked to him.
Eh. May I suggest that both you and your son watch Bill Mahers latest – “collective narcissism” – on YouTube. He nails it.
This is a fascinating interview with the son of Hamas founder.
https://twitter.com/GadSaad/status/1785035493479965077
As a senior citizen I still try to keep my ideals, but without having illusions about students.
To use students as activists, I have decided, it is best to ignore their ability to document and footnote and discuss nuance and be future leaders. Better to treat them like an ancient Roman mob who could do something very simple with no nuance.
Hence if students are protesting higher tuition, then you won’t see them auditing the finances and making huge charts and graphs to explain things. Not even if the dean offers to help them with access to the books.
Circa 1970 a dean said he wouldn’t oppose a sit-in protest, saying he wouldn’t figuratively give students that wall to bounce their ball off. So I suspect the recent arrests were a bad idea.
As for whether a significant percentage of protesters are non students: Yes. At my campus student newspaper I once read that the last five bar assaults, including a guy going to his truck for a pick ax handle, were all by non students at the student bar. Perhaps passing classes requires a certain level of functioning.
One may remember that famous picture from the Kent State riot, “Four dead in O-hi-o,” of a distraught girl by a body. She was literally a “girl.” From off campus: She had been “playing hooky” (skipping out) from high school.
One thing Vietnam taught me was the practicality of narrowing a topic depending on the word count, written or verbal, as in a class paper or an idealistic student-to-student conversation. Rather than announce a large thesis for a discussion of only five minutes, I would ask,”What narrow part could we fruitfully discuss?” Of course if a student was uninformed then we wouldn’t reach a “contract” to discuss, but still, it would be worth asking because I might find a “non mob” student.
In my day we said, “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.” I find it sad when 21st century students don’t trust each other.
The girl in the Kent State photo was recently interviewed. She wasn’t playing hooky. She had run away from a difficult home and was 14-years-old. She just happened to walk up when a student protest was happening. She was watching the protests with the boy when he was shot through the mouth by the authorities.
Regardless, it doesn’t make the photo any less powerful. It captured the horror of the government shooting students for protesting.
Palestinians were driven out of Palestine by the Zionists in the 1948 Nakba. Zionists are not the victims. They’ve been perpetrating violence and occupation against the Palestinians for 75 years.
I’ve been to the West Bank twice. I ran into IDF on multiple occasions and they are sociopaths. Who dresses up in Palestinian women’s stolen lingerie and posts it on TikTok? Six of them waving their guns around followed us through Hebron’s Old City Market trying to intimidate us into not buying anything.
Re young Palestinians, I met a young man through the race director of the Palestine Marathon who has a dream to represent Palestine in the Olympic Games. I’ve stayed in touch with him. He is currently not able to train at all because it’s not safe due to the IDF killing Palestinian youth in the West Bank.
I’m glad that the university students have taken a position against genocide and university investment in war profiteers like Lockheed Martin and Elbit Systems.
It’s not a war. It’s a genocide. The United States Inc. Joe Biden and Anthony Blinken, as well as, the AIPAC-funded Congress are complicit. Yet many will still vote for Genocide Joe Biden.
So righteous, so energized, so young, so naïve, so ignorant of history. Having such a grand adventure. Being arrested – so exciting!!!
All the “theys” so passionately advocating for the very people who would kill them.
The disconnect is astounding.
I can see (to a degree) both sides of the actual conflict, but this college thing is ridiculous.
Globalize the intifada? Do they have ANY CLUE what that means? We are Hamas – what does THAT mean? Well, it’s catchy and we can even make it rhyme. So it’s all cool!
I have never heard anyone say we are Hamas. This seems purely incendiary to me. And it’s definitely over the top to put they in quotations.
As for ignorant of history, I think you’ll be happy to hear that Columbia kids took over the same building kids took over in 1968.
Penelope
While I stand by the content of my comment, I apologize for the use of quotes around the word they. I am not used to working with they as a singular pronoun and was hoping to making my comment clearer, not to diminish Y or you in any way. I am sorry for that.
A better sentence would be “To see members of the LGBTQIA+ community so passionately advocating for the very people who would kill them – the disconnect is astounding.
That’s a nice apology. Thanks. I understand what you mean about the disconnect. How I think about it: we probably don’t have to agree with everything about a person in order to support them.
All protests are cool and are the same.
So are all wars.
If you break the law pay the price. All the protestors ask not to be prosecuted. They want pizza and chicken sent. Losers.
All protests are cool and are the same.
So are all wars.
If you break the law pay the price. All the protestors ask not to be prosecuted. They want pizza and chicken sent. You know humanitarian aid. The elites are anything but
The protestors are not peaceniks. They carry Hamas and Hezbollah signs. They call for the end of Israel. While gaslighting and saying Israel is committing genocide. The soldier to combatant death ratio is better than America in Iraq and what any western country has achieved. Try fighting urban soldiers who have constructed an elaborate tunnel system with foreign aid instead of building a Society. And hide behind civilians. They aren’t savages. They are evil. Watch what they teach their kids. No such analog exists in Israel. Ignore the schools lose the long war. They need to be denazified
As Hamas loses their support in Gaza wanes. Increases in West Bank. What does that tell you.
All protests and causes aren’t the same. Palestinians had three chances for a state said no each time. Destroying Israel is a better goal apparently.
Jews lived in Israel for millennia even after a mass expulsion. Palestinians never had a country ever. Their brothers not only refused to absorb them the way Israel absorbed the same number of middle eastern Jewish refugees. The Palestinians were expelled from Jordan with limited rights in Lebanon. But the judenrein no Jews in Middle East the abundance of moslem countries the affront of ONE Jewish majority state shows the double standard
I support Israel because it’s a free western democracy.
I’d never allow my gay son to ally with a group that hangs gays people. Israel hosts one of the biggest gay pride parades in the world and the religious have to tolerate it. That’s pluralism. 20% Arabs with full rights. Most of them do NOT support Hamas
Heaven forbid anyone advocate for the hostages. Women. Babies.
Oct 7 wasn’t just murder. It was rape. Torture. Of civilians. Mostly peaceniks.
What you’re proud of I don’t know. Your son is not progressive. He’s a mindless drone following the herd. Heaven forbid you provide some moral instruction over what looks cool
Your “history” is very one-sided. It does not matter one iota whether Palestine was a country. Palestinians had lived there for hundreds of years before the state of Israel was formed. They literally had houses and farming land taken from them. The UN allocated more land to Israel than to Palestinians even though there were far fewer Jews than Palestinians. It is no surprise the Palestinians didn’t accept such an unjust situation.
I bet you’d fight too if someone took your house and land from you.
Also, the early Zionist leadership wrote letters to each other discussing the difficulty of settling in Palestine because it was already populated with Palestinians. They were scouting multiple places for a settlement like South America and Africa.
Zionist scouts reported back from Palestine, “The bride is beautiful, but she’s already married.” referring to the land being occupied by Palestinians.
The protestors knowingly or unknowingly are doing Marxist’s work with the flavor du jour. Last election year it was BLM, this time its Palestine.
The protestors are protesting a CIVILIAN GENOCIDE. Half the population in Gaza are children and almost half the deaths, maiming, and starvation are happening to children.
That’s what they think they are doing, yes.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/people-setting-america-on-fire-soros-tides-wespac
What is what the Chinese do to ughurs. Or Syria to millions. But you protest Israel. How many Gaza a have died according to HAMAS? 30k. That’s a pretty lame genocide. Populace quadrupled. But you’re ok with their anti semitic schools. That’s all they teach. Go online. It’s all available. That hatred is on this blog including self hate
I could talk about how deluded I think your son is, but that would be pointless. Caring about the plight of the Arabs in the Palestinian territories is one thing; acting in such as way as to increase the likelihood that Hamas will survive their war, and the likelihood that Trump will be re-elected, is another. I find it very sad that so many well-meaning kids, through their historical ignorance and the machinations of a cadre of professional agitators (the majority of the people arrested at Northeastern were not students), have been sucked into fighting against the West and liberal democracy. Putin and Xi and the Ayatollahs are surely having a great laugh about it.
I remarked to my son yesterday that I’m glad he goes to a college that does not have a quad – it’s just buildings in the city – because otherwise it would be occupied by these fools. He already has had to deal with harassment in the street outside his college just because he “looks Jewish.” (As my son is contrary to the bone, that caused him to investigate what Jewish heritage he has, and to start going to Temple). Add to that having Israeli friends (both Arab and Jewish), and it was already sometimes uncomfortable at college – the Jewish students groups were the only ones who had to hire security for their meetings, even before October 2023. So not having a quad is a blessing for him.
My daughter is still years away from college. All this will have blown away by then, along with most of the more extreme DEI insanity. That will be one result of this: it gives the lie to years of lip-flapping about “micro-aggressions” and such when college leaders won’t even keep people who say all Zionists should be murdered off their campuses. I expect colleges will be relieved to get back to the business of education by next decade.
I got called all kinds of anti semitic things at the protest visiting bc I wear a Star of David. Keep dreaming it isn’t anti semitic. No one calls to divest from China. As if.
Penelope, if you want to be even prouder of your son, listen to Norman Finkelstein, the foremost scholar on Gaza. He is a Jewish professor and his parents both survived concentration camps in the Holocaust. He’s written books on the situation in Gaza. There are interviews with him all over YouTube.
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu4OMmoo5mw
Do you really think Penelope does not know who Norman Finkelstein is? Get off your high horse and stop “educating” others. Worry about yourself and your life as a (woman? I am assuming) who is free to say what she wants when she wants and how she wants. It is a very Jewish thing to do as we Jews never agree on anything. Have you ever heard the saying where there are two Jews there are three synagogues. We think it is either great or hilarious.
Hence people like Norman Finkelstein walks around saying whatever he pleases. How often do you see Palestinians actively criticizing their own leadership? HINT: The reason it is not super common is not because they don’t disagree with their leadership.
Israeli Holocaust scholar spends time with college student protestors and finds them reasonable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie3InYIVXF8
Of course they are. They don’t know any history
This is fukkin beautiful. You should be proud, I knew you could pull through, Penelope.