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Three Simple Tests to Weigh the Protesters’ Legitimacy
For example: The Israeli government is murdering tens of thousands of innocent, defenseless women and children. Is that acceptable? If it is not, then the students’ protests are legitimate.
May 05, 2024
The media is doing all it can to de-legitimize the students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the U.S.’ complicity in it. It is a sign of just how fragile, and threatened, is the existing order that promotes the genocide.
Besides diverting attention from the genocide itself, the media is calling the protests “Pro-Palestinian,” instead of “Anti-genocide.” That framing, itself, is revealing of the need to obfuscate. The media are also suggesting the students are being led by outside agitators, that they are antisemitic, even “terrorists.” Anything except the fact of the genocide.
There are three simple tests we can conduct to answer whether the students’ protests are legitimate. They start with this: “Does a government—any government—have the right to murder tens of thousands of its own innocent, defenseless women and children?” Because that is undeniably what is happening in Gaza.
The Israeli government is murdering tens of thousands of innocent, defenseless women and children. And it is doing so without any remorse and with the seeming conviction that it is going to get away with it; impunity. Is that acceptable? If it is not, then the students’ protests are legitimate.
A second simple test of the students’ legitimacy is this: “Should a government be able to ethnically cleanse millions of people from land their ancestors lived on for 2,000 years so that it (the government) can steal that land and keep it as its own?” Because that is undeniably what is happening in Gaza.
Israel was granted 55% of Palestine by U.N. resolution 181, in 1948. It took 78%, making itself immediately in violation of international law. And then, in 1967, it took the rest. That’s why the Palestinians now live in what are termed “occupied territories:” Gaza; the West Bank; East Jerusalem. Those were all seized by an illegal—and still illegal—military occupation. Is that acceptable? If it is not, then the students’ protests are legitimate.
A third simple test of the students’ legitimacy is this: “Should the U.S. government be assisting in this, the most open and notorious ethnic cleansing and genocide of the twenty-first century?” Because that is undeniably what is happening in Gaza.
The U.S. government is doing everything it can—providing money, weapons, diplomatic cover, military cover, media cover—to help the government of Israel murder tens of thousands of innocent, defenseless women and children and ethnically cleanse millions more so that the Israeli government can steal the land and keep it as its own. Is that acceptable? If it is not, then the students’ protests are legitimate.
Those are the only three tests you need to ask to determine whether the students’ protests are legitimate.
The reason the students are being savaged in the media is because their protests are spotlighting, as the media itself will not, the horrific immorality of what Israel is doing, the craven complicity of the U.S. government in helping them do it, and the deep entwinement of so much of U.S. society in those immoral, craven acts: the government; the universities; the military-industrial complex; the media; and more. And, to be clear, it is not antisemitic to say this.
It is not antisemitic to say that a government cannot murder tens of thousands of innocent, defenseless women and children. It is not antisemitic to state that no government has the right to ethnically cleanse millions of native people from their land so that it can steal that land and keep it for itself. It is not antisemitic to say that the U.S. government should not be helping a government—any government—commit such savagery.
The students are one of the few classes of actors remaining in the society that are not bought, or sold out. Congress is laughably, tragically bought by money from the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). The travesty is that everybody knows this but is not supposed to say it, and most do not. But it is not antisemitic to say it. It is simply a clinical description of how money and power works in a society that has abandoned its ideals and principles and worships only money and power.
The universities are bought by their dependence on large donations from wealthy Jewish donors, which we saw when the presidents of Harvard and Penn were run out of their jobs because wealthy Jewish donor demanded their heads. And no, it is not antisemitic to say that. It is simply a clinical description of how money and power works in a society that has abandoned its ideals and principles and worships only money and power.
In these ways, as it was in the Vietnam War, the students may yet be the society’s salvation. Back then, the U.S. government was “bombing back to the stone age” a society of pre-industrial-age rice farmers who simply wanted to be left alone to choose their own form of government, which the U.S. government was determined they would not be allowed to do.
Four million Vietnamese were killed against 58,000 Americans. That’s a 69-to-1 kill ratio. That’s not a war. That’s an industrialized slaughter. It’s the same in Gaza, today, except worse.
The Israeli government has herded the Palestinians into what is called “the largest open-air concentration camp in the world” and is massacring them with surgically targeted, industrial abandon. It is the Holocaust redux, lacking only the gas chambers. And, this time, all the world is watching.
The problem the students pose to the Powers That Be is that they will not submit to and recycle the Officially Sanctioned Narrative, which holds that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Israel does have the right to defend itself—within its internationally recognized legal borders. Gaza is not within those borders. It is an illegally occupied territory, so that “right to defend itself” does not apply.
Let’s be clear. Israel is the fourth mightiest military power in the world. For more than seven decades it has been carrying out the ethnic cleansing which it is now hoping to finish. Its actions have nothing to do with defense. It is simply slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent, defenseless women and children so that it can steal their land.
Thank God for the students back in the Vietnam era. They pulled the U.S. back from an abyss of apocalyptic violence, suicidal immorality, and industrialized genocide. We can only hope that the students, today, can do the same. But that depends on our willingness to listen to simple truths, and the courage to abide by the obvious answers.
Whether we have such willingness, and the courage to do what the answers compel, is not at all clear. What is clear is that the media will do everything it can to prevent us from arriving at the right answers, and the right action.
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Sanders Rips Colleagues for Attacking Student Protesters Instead of Netanyahu
Maybe it’s time to not simply worry about the violence we are seeing on American campuses, but focus on the unprecedented violence in Gaza.
May 02, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday night spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the student protests taking place on college campuses across the country, and the ongoing, horrific humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched live here:
LIVE: A reminder to my colleagues about a document called the U.S. Constitution and, specifically, the First Amendment. https://t.co/yBa9pj9APm
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 1, 2024
President, some of us have been out of school for awhile and we may have forgotten our American history. But I did want to take a moment to remind some of my colleagues about a document called the U.S. Constitution and, specifically, the First Amendment of that Constitution.
For those that may have forgotten, here is what the First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Let me also take this opportunity to remember our late colleague, the former congressman John Lewis for his heroic role in the Civil Rights Movement.
I know it’s very easy to heap praise on Congressman Lewis and many others decades after they did what they did, but, I would remind my colleagues them that Mr. Lewis was arrested 45 times for participating in sit-ins, occupations, and protests – 45 times – for protesting segregation and racism.
I would also remind my colleagues that the Lunch Counter protest at Woolworths and elsewhere desegregating the South were in fact sit-ins and occupations where young Black and white Americans bravely took up space in private businesses, demanding an end to racism and segregation that existed at that time.
I find it incomprehensible that members of Congress are spending their time attacking the protestors rather than the Netanyahu government which brought about these protests and has created this horrific situation.
Further, as I hope everybody knows, we have also seen in recent decades protests — some of them massive protests — against sexism, homophobia, and the need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels in order to save this planet.
In other words, protesting injustice and expressing our opinions is part of our American tradition. And when you talk about America being a free country, whether you like it or not the right to protest is what American freedom is all about. That’s the U.S. constitution.
And, M. President, let me also remind you: exactly 60 years ago, student demonstrators occupied the exact same building on Columbia’s campus as is taking place right now – ironically, the same building.
Across the country, students and others, including myself, joined peaceful demonstrations in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Those demonstrators were demanding an end to that War.
And maybe – just maybe – tens of thousands of American lives and countless Vietnamese lives might have been saved if the Government had listened to those demonstrators.
And I might also add that the President at that time – a great president — Lyndon Johnson, chose not to run for re-election because of the opposition to him that occurred as a result of his support for that Vietnam War. And further, let us not forget those who demonstrated against the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe those protestors should have been listened to as well.
Shock of all shocks, government policy is not always right.
President, I noted recently that a number of my colleagues in both parties, as well as many news reporters, TV, newspapers, are very concerned about the protests and violence we are seeing on campuses across the country.
So let me be clear: I share those concerns about violence on campuses, or, for that matter, any place else, and I condemn those who threw a brick through a window at Columbia University. That kind of violence should not be taking place on college campuses.
I am also concerned and condemn about the group of individuals at UCLA in California who violently attacked the peaceful encampment of anti-war demonstrators on the campus of UCLA.
President, let me be clear: I condemn all forms of violence on campus whether they are committed by people who support Israel’s war efforts or those who oppose those policies.
And I hope we can also agree that in the United States all forms of bigotry must be condemned and eliminated. We are seeing a growth of antisemitism in this country which we must all condemn and work to stop.
To stand up for Palestinian rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people does not make one a supporter of terrorism.
We are also seeing a growth of Islamophobia in this country which we must all condemn and stop. And in that regard, I would mention that in my very own city of Burlington, Vermont, three wonderful young Palestinian students were shot at close range on November 25th of last year. They were visiting a family member to celebrate Thanksgiving, walking down the street, and they were shot.
President let make an additional point, I have noted that there is an increasing tendency in the media and on the part of some of my colleagues here in the Senate to use the phrase “Pro-Palestinian” to suggest that that means “Pro-Hamas.”
To my mind, that is unacceptable and factually inaccurate. The overwhelming majority of American people and protestors understand very well that Hamas is a terrorist organization that started this war by attacking Israel in an incredibly brutal and horrific way on October 7th.
To stand up for Palestinian rights and the dignity of the Palestinian people does not make one a supporter of terrorism.
And let me also mention something that I found rather extraordinary and outrageous.
And that is just a few days ago Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing extremist government in Israel, a government which contains out-and-out anti-Palestinian racists.
Netanyahu issued a statement in which he equated criticism of his government’s illegal and immoral war against the Palestinian people with antisemitism.
In other words, if you are protesting, or disagree, with what Netanyahu and his extremist government are doing in Gaza, you are an antisemite.
That is an outrageous statement from a leader who is clearly trying – and I have to tell you, he seems to be succeeding with the American media — trying to deflect attention away from the horrific policies that he is pursuing that created an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
So, let me be as clear as I can be: It is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that in almost seven months Netanyahu’s extremist government has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children.
And to protest that or to point that out is not antisemitic. It is simply factual.
It is not antisemitic to point out that Netanyahu’s government’s bombing has completely destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than one million people homeless – almost half the population. No, Mr. Netanyahu it is not antisemitic to point out what you have done in terms of the destruction of housing in Gaza.
It is not antisemitic to realize that his government has annihilated Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers. At a time when 77,000 people have been wounded and desperately need medical care, Netanyahu has systematically destroyed the health care system in Gaza.
It is not antisemitic to condemn his government’s destruction of all of Gaza’s 12 universities and 56 of its schools, with hundreds more damaged, leaving 625,000 children in Gaza have no opportunity for an education. It is not antisemitic to make that point.
It is not antisemitic to note that Netanyahu’s government has obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure – there is virtually no electricity in Gaza right now, virtually no clean water in Gaza right now, and sewage is seeping out onto the streets.
It is not antisemitic to make that point.
President, it is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the Gaza area in saying that his government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza.
They have created the conditions under which hundreds of thousands of children face malnutrition and famine. It is not antisemitic to look at photographs of children who are starving to death because they have not been able to get the food that they need. It is not antisemitic to agree with American and UN officials that parts of Gaza could become famine districts in the not very distant future.
It is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization that functions in the Gaza area in saying that his government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza.
Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people for hundreds of years, including my own family. But it is outrageous and it is disgraceful to use that charge of antisemitism to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies that Netanyahu’s extremist and racist government is pursuing.
Furthermore, it is really cheap politics for Netanyahu to use the charge of antisemitism to deflect attention from the criminal indictment he is facing in the Israeli courts.
Bottomline, M. President: it is not antisemitic to hold Netanyahu and his government for their actions. That is not antisemitic. It is precisely what we should be doing.
Because among other things we are the government that has supplied billions and billions of dollars in order for him to continue his horrific war against the Palestinian people.
President, I would also point out while there has been wall to wall coverage of student protests, I think that’s about all CNN does right now, I should mention that it is not just young people on college campuses that are extremely upset about our Government’s support and funding for this illegal and immoral war.
The people of the United States – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children.
And I would point out that just last week this Senate voted to give Netanyahu another unfettered $10 billion for his war.
Let me quote just a few polls:
April 14 – Politico/Morning Consult: 67% support the United States calling for a ceasefire. This is at a time when Netanyahu is threatening to expand the war into Rafah.
April 12th – CBS: 60% think the U.S. should not send weapons and supplies to Israel as opposed to 40% who think the U.S. should. And for my Democratic colleagues, those figures are disproportionately higher among Democratic voters.
April 10th – Economist/YouGov: 37% support decreasing military aid to Israel, just 18% support an increase. Overall 63% support a ceasefire, 15% oppose.
No, M. President. This is not just protestors on college campuses who are upset about U.S. policy with regards to Israel and Gaza. Increasingly the American people want an end to U.S. complicity in the humanitarian disaster which is taking place in Gaza right now.
The people of the United States – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – do not want to be complicit in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of children.
Maybe, and here’s a very radical idea, maybe it’s time for politicians to listen to the American people. Maybe it’s time to rethink the decision this body recently made to provide Netanyahu another $10 billion dollars in unfettered military aid.
Maybe it’s time to not simply worry about the violence we are seeing on American campuses, but focus on the unprecedented violence in Gaza which has killed 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 77,000 Palestinians – 70% percent of whom are women and children.
So, I suggest to CNN and some of my colleagues here, take your cameras off of Columbia and UCLA. Maybe go to Gaza and show us the emaciated children who are going to die of malnutrition because of Netanyahu’s policies. Show us the kids who have lost their arms and their legs. Show us the suffering.
President, let me conclude by saying, I must admit, I find it incomprehensible that members of Congress are spending their time attacking the protestors rather than the Netanyahu government which brought about these protests and has created this horrific situation.
Thank you and I yield.
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Student Protests Present Biden With Chance to Do the Right Thing on Gaza
The Biden camp continues to dismiss polls showing the President losing support among young and “minority” voters. This is a dangerous miscalculation.
Apr 29, 2024
University student protests against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza have spread like wildfire. At last count, there have been sustained demonstrations on over 200 campuses. More recently, students have taken to establishing protest encampments in the center of some campuses. This began last week at Columbia University in New York. Ten days later there were encampments at almost four dozen universities.
What’s been most striking is not only the way this effort has spread, but also the amazing diversity of the students involved in the demonstrations. There are Arab American students, to be sure, who’ve been joined by fellow students of every race and creed.
The leadership of the protesting students have been disciplined and eloquent in their demands for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza. Many have also called on their universities to divest funds from entities contributing to the Israeli war effort.
The protesters have been peaceful, though purposefully disruptive. At times they’ve occupied central locations on campus. They’ve also chanted, as demonstrators are wont to do. Yet, as noted by respected observers who’ve visited the protest sites, the protests have been peaceful and orderly.
As primary elections in several states have demonstrated, there is a hemorrhaging of support for the President’s reelection. And as repression against student demonstrators continues, that opposition is solidifying.
Goaded by Republican congressional leadership and a few pro-Israel Jewish organizations, there’s been an effort to paint these demonstrations as antisemitic and a threat to the safety of Jewish students. The members of Congress have latched onto this, exploiting it as a wedge issue and portraying the protesting students as liberal elites, captive to anti-Israel groups.
Both the Republican leadership and the small but influential group of Jewish leaders have used their respective platforms to repeatedly argue that chants used by some of the students are inherently antisemitic. For example, they’ve said that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is actually a call to commit genocide against Jews in Israel. They recently passed a Congressional resolution making that very point. Using such deliberately distorted interpretations of the slogans used by the students in support of Palestinians, they've pressured some university presidents to resign and have made life uncomfortable for others.
What’s been ignored is that in most of the encampments a disproportionately large number of the protesters are Jewish students. Ironically, while one Jewish leader was advising Jewish students at Columbia University to stay home and not come to campus because it was unsafe for them and was urging New York’s governor to call in National Guard units to restore order on campus, the Jewish students in the encampment were holding an interfaith Passover Seder.
Later, New York City police were ordered onto campus to disband the encampment. This was followed by similar police actions in Texas, California, and Georgia where disturbing levels of violence (tear gas, rubber bullets, tasers, and baton beatings) were used against the peaceful protestors.
Instead of dampening the students’ commitment to continuing these protests, the actions by the police, elected officials, and university administrators have hardened the protesters’ resolve. And so the day after the encampments were forcibly disbanded, the students returned, reestablishing their protest sites.
With the ire of the students directed not only at Israel’s genocidal behaviors in Gaza, but also at how the Biden administration has enabled this war to continue, the way these campus protests are playing out does not bode well for the President during this election year.
Comparisons are being made to the 1968 anti-Vietnam war protests and the role they played in costing Democrats the presidency. Having been a participant in the protest politics both in that period and the current one, I can attest to the similarities, as well as some important differences.
Vietnam was the first war that was televised, bringing it into American homes. We saw the impact of napalm on civilians and learned of the use of torture against prisoners. In addition to opposition to the war for moral or political reasons was the more personal and unsettling concern with the national draft that required young people to register for military service.
The Vietnam era was also a time of broad national ferment that witnessed the emergence of several other protest movements: civil rights, environmental concerns, women’s rights, etc. There was limited overlap in the participation in these diverse movements.
Today is different. There is a significant overlap in the movements for women’s rights, Black empowerment, environmental justice, and now opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza. And because of the impact of social media, today’s young people, whom my brother John Zogby calls “the first globals,” are experiencing the war in Gaza non-stop, up close and personal, and are deeply disturbed by what they are seeing.
There were no Vietnamese students on campuses in the 1960s, but today empowered and organized Arab American and progressive American Jewish students have taken the lead in mobilizing opposition to Israel’s Gaza war—with the former saying “Not to our people” and the latter saying “Not in our name.” Because they have found allies in the other movements in which they too were participants, the anti-war effort has grown.
Through it all, the Biden White House has demonstrated only limited concern, apparently convinced that they’ll weather this storm and still defeat Donald Trump in November. They dismiss polls showing the President losing support among young and “minority” voters. This is a dangerous miscalculation. As primary elections in several states have demonstrated, there is a hemorrhaging of support for the President’s reelection. And as repression against student demonstrators continues, that opposition is solidifying.
Should the war continue for several more months and the scene at this summer’s Democratic Convention in Chicago be as ugly as it was in 1968, many young voters will be hard pressed to vote for Mr. Biden. They won’t vote for Mr. Trump. Most likely they’ll either vote for a third party or not vote at all.
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