The Naked Truth/Jamala Rogers
Youth Voices are Ma(r)king History
The response to the Oct. 7 attack that reignited the Israel-Palestinian war continues to escalate, both in terms of numbers and intensity. Young people, especially those on U.S. campuses, are playing a critical role in organizing protests, vigils, encampments, and rallies. Their demands include a ceasefire, the end of U.S. military aid to Israel and the divestment of university funds that benefit Israeli aggression. The efforts of the students are helping to document this moment of history as to what this country did in response to the genocide in Gaza.
In the initial attack last fall by Hamas, it was reported that 1,200 Israeli citizens lost their lives and hundreds injured. The retaliation by the well-trained, well-armed Israeli army has resulted in nearly 35,000 Palestinian deaths, thousands of injured and tens of thousands displaced.
Civilian casualties on both sides include women and children. The penetrating trauma of war respects no geographical boundaries, no racial or religious groups, and no political agendas. War is ugly.
According to reports by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and World Health Organization, the devastation is unparalleled. Over half of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed or uninhabitable, 90 percent of school buildings have been hit and a third of the thirty-five hospitals are inoperable. Sacred spaces for refuge and worship are not exempt from the bombings.
This heavy-handed approach has motivated even more protests around the world. Those who initially sought to remain neutral have been knocked off the fence. We have witnessed the unholy alliance between the Zionists in Israel and the white right-wing in the US who have gone after DEI with a vengeance. Visuals from the war-torn areas of Gaza and the West Bank are powerfully convincing that Israel will not stop until the nations of the world intervene.
Spirited student protests are going on from coast to coast from Columbia University to the University of Southern California. (USC has already canceled graduation ceremonies.) Accusations have been made by Jewish students that they do not feel safe on campus or that support of the Palestinian cause is equivalent to anti-Semitism. This has only added to misinformation and to the belief that First Amendment rights are being stifled on both sides.
Campus groups at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Milwaukee are part of the national swath of outrage and anger that have resulted in arrests, injuries, and student suspensions.
The UW students who support an end to Israeli military aggression have additional demands. They want to rename the Golda Meir Library and to stop the study abroad trips to Israel. One UW-Madison student has forced the state Department of Education to open a Title VI investigation into whether the university failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and harm. The complaint came from Zachary Marschall who is editor of a conservative news outlet on campus. The complaint is based on an online video in which many — intentionally or not — asserted protesters at a campus rally were chanting “glory to the murders.” In fact, they were chanting “glory to the martyrs” in a call and response chant.
I wish we knew the ending to this saga. We certainly could not have predicted Iran’s actions in the region. However, we can predict that as the academic year comes to the close, student protests will dissipate. Their voices and actions have energized the militant responses and elevated the unjust war in righteous ways that only young people can do. They have made their mark on contemporary history.