My Sentiments, Exactly

Guest Post By La Somnambula

Watching the news media coverage about the college campus protests even by liberal media outlets such as MSNBC, I might be led to believe these young people are responsible for creating a culture of anti-Semitism and that police force is necessary to quash their movement and their misguided views. Yet, I don’t believe that. Many of the activists around the country, and not just student-led activism, are Jewish. They are protesting a war that has devolved and that we, the United States, have supplied weapons for to kill innocent civilians including thousands of children. Jewish Voice for Peace is one organization whose chapter in Columbia University was suspended. Why?

Civil disobedience has a storied history and should continue to be part of our arsenal of peaceful means to protest our differences and bring attention to matters of importance. The Civil Rights movement brought attention to apartheid happening in this country. The Vietnam War protests brought attention to a war young men didn’t want to die in. Black Lives Matter continues to bring attention to the racial divide and how black and brown people are treated differently by authorities than their white counterparts. Now the protests against the war in Gaza are helping to drive the discussion of whether we should continue to support an ally no matter the cost in human lives.

I don’t doubt that there are people who take advantage of this flashpoint to drive a wedge of hatred between us and use this to promote an agenda of anti-Semitism. I just don’t think that students who set up tents to protest a war are driving it. There are deeper questions to be asked. What about Palestinians who feel waves of hatred directed against them simply for wearing a keffiyah? Did we forget about the young men in Vermont shot for nothing more than that?

My husband is Jewish. My children are part of that heritage. We see the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and think, why isn’t our President doing more to stop it? Why are we still giving arms to help this happening? Why doesn’t Joe Biden go to the tent enclaves on the campuses and engage student leaders in discussion like he went to stand with auto workers in their strike? Why do we have to have police in riot gear breaking up civil disobedience? Why are the students then suspended or kicked out of their schools and their whole futures threatened so they will “behave”? Who decides what is proper “behavior”? Why does the media lump the protests with the rise in anti-Semitism? I believe they are two separate things.

Why do we hate? Why can’t we engage in discourse and examine issues that divide us? Why can’t we begin to embrace the words of Rodney King: “Can’t we all get along?” Yes, the answer is complicated, but can’t we begin to try? Can’t we start with at least listening to what our young people have to say?