A generation’s roar

The times appear to be changing once again. A new generation of young people in the US, more diverse, well informed and digitally savvy than their predecessors, has taken the reins and is demanding major change. Pro-Palestine protests have erupted across university campuses in the US since last week, with students demanding an end to a genocide that will conclude its eighth month in less than two weeks. But this is no timid plea for a return to a pre-October 7 status quo with its illegal occupation, blockade and periodic murder of an oppressed people. The calls for a permanent end to the Zionist imperialism in Gaza and the West Bank are loud and clear. Tensions have been slowly building on US campuses since the end of last year and are now too big to contain.

The American establishment has responded to this outpouring of conscience among young people in the US by borrowing every conceivable weapon from the authoritarian arsenal. Batons, arrests, zip ties, arbitrary suspensions, de-platforming and general censorship, doxing and threats of retaliation. Apparently, protesting for your university to divest from businesses that profit from genocide is beyond the pale but profiting from genocide is not. Other calls protesters have made include the condemnation of the killing of Palestinian civilians and the protection of the rights of protestors. Yes, people have the right to protest. Not just against theocracies, dictatorships, majoritarianism, and other forms of authoritarian rule but against liberal democracies and their policies too. Remember this the next time a US politician or official or rights activist starts to berate anyone from the Global South about their country’s human rights record. Revolution, it would seem, is something the US is all for exporting – but there is no licence to import.

What is indisputably a state-sponsored crackdown on the constitutional right to free expression is being disguised in the name of protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitism. The veneer is both thin and patently absurd. Not least because the names of some of the groups protesting include Jews Against Zionism and Jewish Voice for Peace, along with the fact that Jewish students tend to be overrepresented among those protesting. Those university administrators who want to protect Jews should perhaps say something about the police baton charging, tying up and arbitrarily arresting Jewish protesters. In fact, this whole tarring of all anti-Zionists as anti-Semitism is arguably the most anti-Semitic aspect of these protests.

Parallels are being drawn between the protests today and those against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and South African apartheid in the 1980s. It is, however, hoped that today’s protests will go beyond what those movements accomplished. This means not just an end to localized Zionist imperialism but global neo-colonialism. And unlike the protesters of the past, those of today enjoy far better-developed political muscles. These have already been flexed via the uncommitted campaign. The obvious factor here is an increasingly powerful Muslim voter demographic finally making its interests known on the national stage. But there is also the fact that the Gaza protests go beyond that, with a third of Americans under 30 saying that their sympathies lie mostly or entirely with Palestinians. This is a political migraine for Biden. Muslims and young voters will be key to his reelection bid and, thus far, they have proven to be loyal supporters. Perhaps they have even been taken for granted.