The Atlantic has some of the best coverage on campus protests. The first link is by Jill Filipovic, criticizing other media for its misrepresentation. She notes that some media whitewashes pro-Hamas demands while conservative media ignores that some students are generally anti-war and not there because they are antisemitic. Some of the counter-protesters, especially the violent ones, have their own opportunist reasons rather than pro-Israel ones.
Iddo Gefen is a Columbia grad student from Israel. He believes Netanyahu “will go down as one of the worst leaders in the history of the Jewish people.” He grew up in Israel during the Second Intifada. Hearing cries of “intifada revolution” on campus concerns him. He recognizes it as protected speech, but worries about what violent rhetoric does for public discourse as well as for achieving peace. (He says it benefits the far-right in the USA and Israel.)
@MariaHill Peaceful protests are part of a healthy democracy; bigotry and threats are quite another and may fall under protected speech but that doesn’t make it immune from criticism.
Everyone has a right to protest and schools and the public have a right to judge those actions.
Most of this is just removing attention from the actual issue at hand as well as numerous domestic issues. If that’s the intent, it’s not a great one. If it isn’t, that’s the effect it is having.
I come from a family of protesters and have been at a lot. There’s demonstrating for a cause and then there’s harassing people and I can guarantee you that harassing people who don't share your views does nothing other than guarantee they will never share your views.
@MariaHill I am really over the Washington Post. Every time I say it, someone usually comes and tells me why I shouldn’t be so I don’t really have an interest in opening a dialogue on it. I am personally just done.
Just getting that out of that way before I write another response.
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