by Ellen Isaacs
May 6, 2024
I suspect that many of our readers have either visited, participated in or in some way supported these wonderful student encampments to protest the genocide in Gaza. Over 2500 students and faculty have now faced arrest, suspension or other penalty and, in some cases, injury. They have been maligned by administrators, Zionists, law enforcement, the media and many politicians. But most important, they have courageously exposed the murderous Israeli onslaught and the complicity of the American government and institutions for all to see. Many demonstrators have also been educated themselves about the nature of this collusion and the nature of imperialism itself. They have had to ask themselves why is Israel so important to the US that it tolerates, that it enables, such heinous behavior, and they have had to consider the importance of this sole nuclear ally in the Middle East to US rulers.
But we must wonder what will happen to this movement once the school year ends? What will happen when the military conflict in Gaza ends, as it will? As the thousands chant “Free Palestine,” do they actually believe that this will happen? I think many do because it seems so right, so necessary. I do not. Zionists have been dedicated to eradicating Palestinians since the late 1800s, be it by displacement or destruction, a position held by every one of their leaders of the right or “left” through the present. When the expulsions of 1948 failed to displace one out of seven Palestinians from their new state, the Israelis created a second class citizenship and, not long after, a military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Now that Palestinians have come to outnumber Jews in the overall territory, the drive to decrease their number is amplified. So I foresee that a great number of Gazans will be killed or maimed or scarred physically and psychologically, perhaps forced into a much smaller enclave, perhaps exiled to the Sinai, but not free. Meanwhile, killing, arrests and seizure of land continue in the West Bank, as the Zionists and the US promote the survival of their corrupt Palestinian Authority (PA) partner. There is not a working class based movement in Palestine that can lead Palestinians nor a strong enough movement in other countries to achieve a better ending.
Continue reading “What Follows the Wondrous Student Encampments?”