University students have been in the news lately because of their protests on campuses and in the streets. Unfortunately, the mainstream media often convey false impressions about the intentions of the protesters. As a result of such misreporting, the meanings to the students of the encampments is widely misperceived. For instance, I recently heard one misinformed person talk about the encampments as if they were a colony of bonobos doing it all day in those tents.
As a political scientist who studies all sorts of political behavior, I would like to add a little clarity to our understanding of the mental state, or intentions, of the protesters.
The compassion felt by these protesters includes the feeling of such abhorrence for the slaughter they see going on in Gaza that they must do something to try and stop it. All they can do is to protest.
People who lack such strong feelings of compassion often can’t understand what’s moving the protesters. They can’t understand the student’s point of view.
Somebody might say, for example, “what about the people who were killed by Hamas on October 7th, don’t they deserve compassion, too?”
Yes, of course. What Hamas terrorists did on that day is a terrible crime. It never should have been done.
But the protests are over what is happening right now. What happened in the past is tragic, and wrong, but the protests are about the present horrors.
Somebody might say “what about antisemitism?” Aren’t these students acting out of antisemitism? And doesn’t Israel have a right to defend itself? And, like President Biden says, people getting killed is what happens in war. Why should the enemies of Israel be given compassion?
These are important questions, but they should not be allowed to confuse the issue.
First, it is unhappily true that there are antisemites all over the world. But that is not at the heart of the student protests. The protests are primarily about the love of humanity, and not about the hatred of any group of humans.
Secondly, all the leaders of the Civilized World agree that Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself. The student protests are not a threat to the existence of a Homeland for the Jews, nor are the protests against the right of the IDF to defend Israel against terrorists.
The protests are focused on the non-combatants who are being killed in the 10s of 1000s, including, as we all know, thousands of children and their parents who are innocent by-standers and who just want to live their lives with their families in peace. These humans are the ones about whom the protesters feel an urgent need to save.
One major problem for understanding the motivations of the student protesters is the American media. Because of its obsession with the sensational, and its lack of human compassion, it is incapable of explaining the motivations of the protesting students.
For example, the media call them “pro-Palestinians.” It’s as if this were a soccer game, with the pro-Palestinians vs the pro-Israelis.
But that misses the point. There is not a binary choice here. The urgent desire of the protesters is that the slaughter of their fellow human beings be stopped, and right now. Having such compassion for your fellow humans is not like a hooligan’s loyalty to a soccer team, nor a partisan’s devotion to a political party.
The media also try to present the protests as a kind of business negotiation. Its as if what the students really want is to have a strong bargaining position so they can force the universities to divest from Israel and from businesses that do deals with Israel.
But the protests are not like a shareholders meeting. They are an effort to stop the mass murder of our fellow human beings. The calls for divestment are intended to pressure Israeli politicians to cease the current killing, and to reform their treatment of Palestinians in the time of peace.
There are also calls for American universities to divest from US arms manufacturers and sellers that profit highly from the death they make possible. In addition, demands are being made that the United States government stop aiding and abetting in the massacre. These tactics derive their saliency from the compassion the protesters feel for their fellows in Gaza.
Slogans, such as "from the river to the sea," are merely efforts at attention getting, and not statements of some evil intent. In the urgent desire to save human life, flags, symbols, and slogans are chosen primarily as aids in helping the core message to be heard.
In conclusion, for its own self-serving reasons, the US media is misinforming everybody about the current rash of student protests. To counter such selfishness I have tried to clarify why the students – all over the US, and in other countries around the world – are protesting. I hope this helps.
Post Script:
What difference does language make? Consider this:
A You Gov poll asked, Do you support or oppose recent
pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses?
Strongly support: 12%
Somewhat support: 16%
Somewhat oppose: 13%
Strongly oppose: 34%
Not sure: 24%
(May 2, 2024. Today.yougov.com)
This You Gov question encourages a “team competition” meaning, rather than ask about what is really going on.
Suppose the wording of the question more accurately reflected the meaning of the protests from the protestor’s POV? For example, Do you support or oppose recent expressions on US college campuses of compassion for the suffering people in Gaza?
Do you think the responses would have been different?
The Political Science Interpretivist
https://interpretat.blogspot.com/
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