{"id":52950,"date":"2024-05-13T16:07:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T16:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/rs\/?p=52950"},"modified":"2024-05-29T15:14:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T15:14:52","slug":"four-lessons-from-palestine-solidarity-student-encampments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagingnonviolence.org\/rs\/2024\/05\/four-lessons-from-palestine-solidarity-student-encampments\/","title":{"rendered":"4 lessons from the Palestine solidarity student encampments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States is in the midst of a generational uprising in higher education. The Palestine solidarity encampments and associated academic divestment campaigns are a powerful expression of the drastic transformations taking place in American society. Students around the world are challenging the attempts of state, military and financial interests to reduce politics to an armwrestling match between forces of coercion and mechanical destruction; the campaign of genocidal mass murder led by Israeli forces in Gaza is an acute manifestation of this global order.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The encampments are a bold response from below by students who are relying on their knowledge, audacity and literal physical bodies. Naturally, they face a number of challenges, obstacles and issues which ought to be addressed in the pursuit of strengthening the movement in the face of repression from authorities, university administrations and counter-protester thuggery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning from this experience is just one step towards contributing to the creation of sustainable movement organizations not only within the universities, but also in the cities which surround them. Beyond pressuring our administrations to divest, these protests have the potential to create a massive ripple effect which may well alter the American \u201ccommon sense\u201d on the Palestine question. Here are four long-term lessons demonstrators and advocates should consider as encampments and protests develop to sharpen their messaging and strengthen their solidarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Interconnected global solidarity must be upheld <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestine-solidarity movement is not merely building on its own isolated movement; it is directly benefiting from and enhancing a wider political ecosystem within the U.S. context, including movements protesting the carceral state<\/a>, gender-based violence, war and neoliberal economic structures<\/a>. In that sense, the movement is part of a wider web of decentralized yet more-or-less organized \u201cpolitical workers\u201d building locally and speaking globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These workers are simultaneously building local communities and generating a transnational public opinion which is attempting to rethink and counter ongoing colonial violence, which in turn is quite clearly protected by authoritarian and securitized systems of policing and economic systems of inequality and exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light of the wider movement community of those opposing U.S. imperial aggression, state violence and economic inequality, Palestine\u2019s friends can be found amongst feminists, abolitionists, anarchists, unionists and progressives challenging systems of exploitation, authoritarian governance and bodily coercion. Nevertheless, it\u2019s not easy to sustain that ecosystem when the movement in of itself becomes larger than any organization, collective or group; consequently, it has the capacity to attract voices who want to break that solidarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Palestinian flags bearing the names and ages of those killed in Gaza at the University of Pittsburgh encampment. (X\/Brock Bahler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From antisemitic right-wingers to Stalinists with a soft spot for their preferred autocrats in Damascus, Tehran and Moscow, it is not difficult for these voices and forces to find their way into the wider movement \u201cpublic sphere.\u201d They are interested in challenging the foundational assumption of intersectional solidarity in favor of protecting authoritarian regimes and reinforcing a \u201cfascist investment in Palestine.\u201d This is characterized by 1) interpreting the Palestinian cause as part of a \u201cgeopolitical football\u201d in which one ought to take the side of supposedly \u201cpro-Palestine\u201d states using the cause as symbolic capital to reinforce their own rules and structures of oppression, and 2) misrepresenting the central issue of Israel and Zionism by resorting to antisemitic conspiracy theories which \u201cglobalize\u201d the conflict and dilute its key local specificities. Crowding these voices out is absolutely necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Speak to the majority <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

True solidarity does not rely on reproducing a language of activism which is only intelligible to a subset of professional intellectuals and organizers. Solidarity in practice needs to intersect with the silent majority of American<\/a>s who want the war to stop but are not equipped with highbrow social science discourse on social movements and decolonization.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans, like all peoples, know what they want; the polls all show it. Most want jobs, healthcare, infrastructure, a sustainable future and an end to violent conflict. The Palestine movement here in the U.S. is mainstream because it naturally intersects with the values of Americans who hope to see a ceasefire, i.e. an end to the killing. Speaking to the majority does not mean diluting the movement\u2019s ambition and high ceiling (which accompanies the political messaging of intersectional solidarity); it means highlighting slogans (such as \u201cCeasefire NOW\u201d) which resonate with most Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestine movement also cannot restrict itself to a specific constituency, particularly the constituency of progressive Democrats and radical leftists. Again, solidarity as elaborated by progressive political workers is the spirit, but sound tactics and strategy ought to accompany it if we plan to make it an effective oppositional force, and not merely a marginal political statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a need to intersect with Americans who want a less belligerent foreign policy and the prioritization of state investment in those living in the U.S. Producing a discourse which is inherently antagonistic to \u201cpatriotism\u201d is to isolate oneself from the silent majority, meaning the majority who don\u2019t entirely understand the heavily problematic foundations of the United States, but are at least open to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. We must remain confident in the vision <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critique is necessary. Crowding out fascist voices is absolutely essential. However, we shouldn\u2019t let anyone convince us that this movement, built by Arabs, Jews and allies from a variety of backgrounds, is anything but a cosmopolitan and inclusive anti-racist movement for justice, freedom and democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics come in different forms \u2014 not everyone is interested in advancing the movement. Since the start of the encampments, we\u2019ve been hearing comments, even from many progressives and liberals, suggesting that the movement hasn\u2019t upheld \u201csafety,\u201d particularly the safety of Jews on campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one delves deeper into this concern, they are mostly referring to the loud, robust and even vitriolic debate and conversation taking place between protesters and the pro-Israel counter-protesters. In response to students from a plethora of ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds facing imprisonment due to their courageous stand against their country\u2019s complicity in genocide, counter-protesters proudly raising the flag of a country committing mass violence are complaining about safety. Meanwhile little thought is spared for the safety of Palestinian students on U.S. campuses, nevermind in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not \u201cwhataboutism.\u201d Palestinians aren\u2019t complaining about safety because they understand the implications of practicing politics under a government and authority which is financing their extermination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pro-Israel crowd is using \u201csafety\u201d \u2014 which is supposed to be a legitimate critique stemming from the first lesson (\u201cIntersectional solidarity must be upheld\u201d) \u2014 to threaten the safety of protesters, even calling on the carceral state to punish them. Safety is thus cynically utilized as a tool which exploits the legitimate fears sensed by Jews amid a rise in antisemitic attacks over the past few years. Such an interpretation of \u201csafety\u201d is not entirely separate from its usage in the context of Palestine, particularly where Zionism was seen as a project of \u201csafety\u201d from the \u201cdangers\u201d of the Indigenous population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the context of these malicious attempts, critique cannot blind us. What has been created is one of the most noble, courageous, and politically sophisticated movements in the past few decades. The Palestine encampments are being led by people who will be remembered decades later to have caused a paradigm shift in the direction of progress towards a just and inclusive future for both the U.S. and the region.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n