Don’t mirror the ugliness. It’s a tough thing to do. In the face of those in power supporting a brutal genocide with absolute disregard for every rights organization, international court, UN vote, and the protests of their own people.
With over 40,000 Palestinians dead, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues his violence unabated with no willingness to negotiate for the release of his own country’s hostages, while he takes thousands more Palestinians hostage and grabs more land in Gaza and the West Bank. Meanwhile, the United States, his sole unwavering ally supplies endless weapons and support, despite the illegality of that under US law (Leahy Law). What should people do?
Protest. Disrupt. Demand.
Perhaps if we truly learned about rights movements and the way they organized and pushed for change, we would be more able to recognize them as they occur in front of us. If only we understood that those in power have always sought to delegitimize popular protest as fringe elements, acting in bad faith with no knowledge, goal or practical sense.
Today there was a huge Zionist counter protest to the UCLA Palestine Solidarity encampment. Here’s an article that talks about how it started over night, that gives you an idea of its nature. I visited the protest site a couple of days earlier, prayed in solidarity, created some art and soaked in the importance of what was being done there. It was very peaceful despite some belligerent voices outside the encampment trying to incite and disrupt our prayers and sermon. We were surrounded and protected by pro Palestine protestors, many visibly Jewish.
When the call came to support these students in the face of a Zionist counter protest, I was there, like many others. As I reached, I saw a friend and their child in a stroller. We walked to a group with banners chanting slogans, reiterating the need for not engaging with harassment, and centering on Gaza and the Palestinians. During this, some guy drove up and was pointing and shouting angrily at a group he could not control. People on the protest side spent a great deal of energy deescalating and handling this undeserving, entitled man with patience and decency. People accustomed to getting their way in life are losing their minds over this.
We then started a short march to the encampment. Since I had last been there, it had expanded and right next to it was a largely empty, barricaded space with a professional looking audio and video setup. Bro-ey guys hi fived one another as they got a few seconds of sound out before the audio would cut out again.
Meanwhile, we gathered, between them and the pro Palestine encampment with signs and chanting slogans. There were a small number of people with Israeli flags, pushing their way towards us, being belligerent, demanding that their will be done. It was clear that these were people accustomed to bullying politicians and corporations into compliance, but when you have a group of people, not swayed by greed for corporate profits, and no truth to back your stance, how do you deal with those who won’t bend to your will?
Apparently, by talking of being America loving, peaceful humanitarians while speaking over the sound system, as pompous men and women, holding flags, push, threaten with rape, dismemberment and try to stab with their little flags in frustration when not acknowledged.
It struck me that many of these people are not used to being refused or called out. I realized that the greatest affront to them was to not be heard or acknowledged in any way. They could shout and wave their flags. They rushed into the midst of the supposedly anti-Semitic crowd without fear, swore at people, tried to get a rise out of them and continued back to their group seemingly satisfied by way of all their self congratulatory hi fives, though perhaps not so from their anger.
The Zionists were quite unhinged on the mic. They bounded between telling us that we had said “Fuck you to America”, to about themselves, “We are lovers of peace and America”, to the “LAPD is on the way”, to “If you would all quiet down for a few minutes, we can talk. We’ll speak and then we’ll let you say a few words on the mic.” This was all within a span of maybe 30 minutes, while their people with Israeli flags pushed, shouted and threatened us. As a Muslim in the US, we’re somewhat accustomed to having a bunch of nut jobs harass us when we’re celebrating Eid, cursing at us, about our revered figures and humanity by way of right wing Christian extremists. To our kids, we have the delightful task of explaining that while people can inspire all kinds of greatness, there are also these ones.
More Zionists joined over time, as did Palestine supporters. I watched as an elderly Palestinian man, saw people of all varieties, supporting, validating and caring. There were amazing Jewish youth with watermelon crochet yamakas, not in my name shirts, people of every background in solidarity. People lead chants, endlessly, those who handled security from the Palestine solidarity side, placed their bodies between Zionists and pro Palestine protestors, protecting and de-escalating.
What I saw, while I was there, was an organized effort by the Palestine side to make our demands clear that the university needed to divulge their investments, as students had a right to know how their tuition was being used and to divest it from arms manufacturers and other entities supporting a genocide.
This is how change happens. Universities around the US offer no other way to challenge the support of investments in arms manufacturers and other war and occupation profiteers, as they seem to believe themselves, in their powerful circles, to be above question, even as the world screams for ceasefire, an end to this genocide and freedom for Palestine. The fight is just and it must disrupt, as other movements have before it. If this seems new to you, perhaps you should look into how previous struggles have prevailed.