Over the past few months, we have watched an increase in pro-Palestine student protests and calls for boycotts and divestment on college campuses, primarily here in America. In light of intensification of police presence and force on campuses, it’s incredibly important we remember the importance and history of students standing up against oppression at home and abroad.
With the college protests and encampments for Gaza have come aggressive counter-protesters, violent police force, and condemnation from the Zionist public and celebrities. This speaks to the hyper-militarization of America’s police force and normalization of Zionism, which are both racist and white-supremacist in their natures, having roots in both colonialism and oppression.
Many people have vocalized their belief that political protests and demonstrations have no place at colleges, or any other academic institutions. However, student activism has long been a part of the college student’s culture, be it on or off campus.
Here in North Carolina, in the beginning of the Civil Rights era in the 1960s, Black students from Bennett College and North Carolina’s A&T participated in the well-known February sit-ins to protest segregation. Even decades prior to these famed Greensboro Sit-ins, Bennett Belles picketed at the Carolina Theatre in protest of the stereotypical and dehumanizing portrayal of Black people.
College isn’t just about getting your degree and furthering your academic education, it’s about growing as a person and learning what mark you want to leave on this world. Protests and demonstrations like the ones we’re seeing today are a fundamental part of, not just college student’s culture, but student’s culture and development as a whole.
During the Vietnam war, college students in America hosted many demonstrations on campus, with some having similar outcomes to the pro-Palestine campus protests and encampments today.
On May 4, 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on anti-war and anti-military protesters, fatally wounding 4 students and injuring 9 students. This tragedy initiated a ripple effect that led to the eventual closing of many institutions due to nationwide strikes.
Time and time again, we’ve seen how the police and military have come to serve as malefactors whenever demonstrations and protests condemning horrific acts of the nation-state happen.
Columbia University, which has very strong ties with Zionist institutions and weapon manufacturers selling to Israel, has drastically increased the police and military presence on their campus in response to student’s pro-Palestine protests and calls for Columbia’s divestment from Zionist organizations and corporations.
Many college students, such as ones at MIT, have walked out of their graduations to show solidarity with Palestinians. It’s important to note that many students have protested in this manner specifically because of the indiscriminate destruction of every university in Gaza and how many educators and students have been martyred by Israeli warfare.
All 12 universities in Gaza have been leveled, with over 5,000 students and 95 university professors in Gaza murdered by Israeli warfare (as of April 2024).
For a lot of students at colleges with links to Israel and it’s occupation, they’ve been completely denied their diploma and graduation ceremonies for protesting against the genocide of Palestinians. This has been an especially frequent occurrence with Palestinian students who are standing up for their people.
The actions of students here in America, as well as across the globe, should come as no surprise to anyone. During the height of apartheid in South Africa, it was the political efforts of students to boycott and protest that put more eyes on the racism and colonialism in apartheid South Africa. The same is true for all the students that loudly stated their distaste for America’s war on Iraq.
Now is a time where students everywhere have to ask if their universities values align with their own, what value does a diploma from a genocide-aiding institution have?
Students protesting the genocide of Palestinians refuse to accept their diplomas as usual when they know their institutions play an active role in the martyring of Palestinian students. They are refusing to make receiving a blood-stained education the norm for their generation.
Once again, we are all witnessing America (as well as other Western powers) use constituents’ tax dollars and the military to aid and participate in disgusting acts of war, and once again students are showing the world they won’t accept that.
