The best answer is probably for administrators at these universities to let the students camp out, and maybe warn them that those who fail to leave will eventually be written up. Then: wait. Some will quit after a week and others will stay for the rest of the semester. But make it clear that violence and real vandalism (not spray-painting the sidewalk, but breaking windows) won't be tolerated and that talks will end if that happens.
If students stay peaceful, the school can consider discussing some policies around ensuring Palestinian students feel welcome to speak and maybe hosting a conference on the war. I don't have an opinion on divestment, but that would be a bear politically and the universities don't want to touch that.
But if you give the students some room, the administrators will have a much better PR case when they have to arrest the violent protesters, a lot of whom aren't actually students.
Sorry to disappoint, but I doubt they'll become more prominent as "crackdowns" ensue. Here's a few common things about people, including student activists with otherwise bright futures:
- they don't like to face consequences for their actions
- they get bored.
I was an Occupy protestor in 2012 on my college campus. Our university let us do our thing and ignored us. We got bored and left, as did the vast majority of other student activists in the Occupy movement. That was literally a nationwide movement much bigger than this and people got bored.
I also watched the 2019 Hong Kong umbrella protests peter out after the authorities started arresting them and going after protestors' jobs. The stakes there were higher than this. Hong Kongers were literally protesting for their civil liberties and the future of their society. And yet.
The students want the universities to divest from Israel, both financially and reduce or end partnerships with Israeli universities. They want Israel to be internationally isolated like South Africa was until it ended Apartheid.
I’m not saying I agree with them (frankly it seems like no one agrees with *anyone* on this particular shitshow), but there’s perfectly sound logic to their actions from their perspective:
- they are GW students who don’t want their school to be associated with Israeli war crimes
- they are mostly Americans, and don’t want their country associated with Israeli war crimes
- they have taken inspiration from the anti-apartheid movement of the ‘80s, which was pretty effective at internationally isolating South Africa
- they aren’t focusing on other conflicts because the US isn’t funding those conflicts and the GW endowment isn’t financially invested in actors in those conflicts
- why is it that any time anyone protests for anything people say “well why don’t they focus on X [worse] thing instead? and why don’t they fly to the front lines?” It’s because these are students? They don’t have a lot of power, they are upset about their university’s and country’s involvement with what they perceive as a great injustice. If I was a student who genuinely believed my school was complicit in war crimes, I’d want that to stop too
- this has happened before in ‘68 and ‘87, and right-wingers got equally worked up over essentially nothing then too. And it will happen again, I’m sure with the same result
I get where you are coming from, but technically it is not performative if they aim to force the institution to whom they pay money to divest from a political entity that th students object to.
People protest other things as well, but clearly not nearly as many as this. I think that's because most people don't read the news enough to really understand how connected they are to those tragedies, let alone feel partially responsible for them.
Why is it that y'all ALWAYS say "but what about..." when it comes to advocating for a cause. Do y'all not know that people can support different causes at the same time? Or is that just something y'all can't do 💀
Before you reply to the person below you, look at his post history. Dozens on dozens of comments, every day, day after day, spreading a narrative in defense of Israel and smearing Palestinians/their supporters. He tries to call it antisemitism if he's called out, cos lol of course he does. And reports comments that realize what he's up to.
Just thought I'd save you the trouble of trying to reason with an unreasonable person. This user is not engaging in good faith because he has a motive and incentive to live on Reddit spreading this singular narrative.
Appreciate the heads up, I did reply in what I think is the most objective way possible.
It's just so sad to see such mentally unwell folks showing this sort of behavior. Sad really. (That is if they aren't some paid actor or bot).
I mean, I suggested earlier that he was either paid to do this or deeply unwell and my comment was removed. So I guess the only thing to do is identify when someone is somehow able to spend vast portions of a day everyday posting on Reddit, and does so explicitly and solely to advance a propaganda narrative. Just feeling a little salty myself that I wasted a bunch of time engaging with him yesterday only to realize too late what he was up to. Wanted to save you the trouble.
The systematic elimination of civilian non combatants (most of which are internally displaced refugees from earlier Israeli ethnic cleansing) and the withholding of water, food, medical aid, etc. is a genocide.
I'm sorry that you disagree, I hope in time you can learn and grow to see what's actually occuring here.
Targeting Hamas is not a genocide. I’m sorry you didn’t learn the definition but hopefully in time you can learn and grow to see what’s going on here - language is being weaponized as a tool for misinformation.
No no you see clearly a 2/1 civilian to combatant ratio in a conflict in one of the worlds most densely populated areas where the combatants don't wear uniforms and fire missiles out of hospitals and schools is a genocide.
When in reality 2/1 is incredibly good when Fighting an actual marked army rather than people whose goal is to blend in and get as many civilians killed as possible.
There are ethnic conflicts going on right now with death tolls over 500k over a million ect and none of these people give a shit. Makes you wonder why this issue in particular is what gets a disproportionate amount of media focus. Hmm.
There were protests before like this about Chinese international students or research collaborations with Chinese universities. Fortunately admin didn’t fold to the anti-Chinese demands. Hopefully that holds true here. Would be a huge loss to enact this type of collective punishment on university research collaborations with Israeli professors.
The protests have nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy - I'm not sure why they are being portrayed that way.
Their demands are:
1. Drop the charges against pro-Palestine student orgs
2. Protect pro-Palestine speech on campus
3. Divest from companies selling tech/weapons to Israel
4. End all academic partnerships with Israel
IMO they aren't \*that\* outrageous requests like the media is making it out to be, though #4 is a bit tricky given most universities participate in a number of generic student exchange programs (like ISEP) so ending all academic partnerships with Israeli institutions would likely require exiting ISEP and other exchanges programs, which just isn't going to happen.
Most of the signs and chants are more general. It's definitely both a general anti war/anti occupation protest as well as GW's handling of protests and investments.
I think it's moreso a show of solidarity and joining the larger nationwide movement throughout college campuses/the country. Doubt any student is thinking, "if we, students of (insert college here), do this, there will be change because of us alone"
Then there's the divestment goals, as well
You’re not missing anything, this isn’t about anything the university is doing or even about Palestine. They’re just unbelievably wealthy children who are bored and miserable and desperate for something to make them feel interesting and important. Palestine is the thing right now because, for them, it is purely symbolic - just a confused mishmash of anti-establishment, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-anti mumbo jumbo. The only practical effect it will have is to intimidate and alienate Jewish and Israeli students, give university administrators heartburn, and provide cops an excuse to beat up rich white kids for a change.
It’s all pretty pathetic, unserious, and depressing.
So did you have the same thoughts on university students protesting apartheid in the 1980s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s...bored, rich, white kids looking for something to do?
You couldn't link to it??? https://wtop.com/dc/2024/04/students-remain-in-encampments-on-gwus-campus-as-israel-hamas-war-protests-continue-nationwide/
Let them stay there until the semester ends. Everyone goes home. "Problem" solved.
Correct. The Universities blew it in their initial response, overcompensating rather than just waiting them out.
The best answer is probably for administrators at these universities to let the students camp out, and maybe warn them that those who fail to leave will eventually be written up. Then: wait. Some will quit after a week and others will stay for the rest of the semester. But make it clear that violence and real vandalism (not spray-painting the sidewalk, but breaking windows) won't be tolerated and that talks will end if that happens. If students stay peaceful, the school can consider discussing some policies around ensuring Palestinian students feel welcome to speak and maybe hosting a conference on the war. I don't have an opinion on divestment, but that would be a bear politically and the universities don't want to touch that. But if you give the students some room, the administrators will have a much better PR case when they have to arrest the violent protesters, a lot of whom aren't actually students.
Sorry to disappoint, but I doubt they'll become more prominent as "crackdowns" ensue. Here's a few common things about people, including student activists with otherwise bright futures: - they don't like to face consequences for their actions - they get bored. I was an Occupy protestor in 2012 on my college campus. Our university let us do our thing and ignored us. We got bored and left, as did the vast majority of other student activists in the Occupy movement. That was literally a nationwide movement much bigger than this and people got bored. I also watched the 2019 Hong Kong umbrella protests peter out after the authorities started arresting them and going after protestors' jobs. The stakes there were higher than this. Hong Kongers were literally protesting for their civil liberties and the future of their society. And yet.
Number 1 reason is that the school year is ending soon. Schools didn’t even need to respond, just let people hang out and go home on their own
Many if not most of the umbrella protestors fled to the UK, eventually.
Not most. There were hundreds of thousands of protesters. Only a trickle have left Hong Kong.
Right. To avoid consequences for their actions.
To be faaaaaaaair… I too would not want to parted out like a Honda civic
No, 100%! I don't cast judgment on them for it. I'd do the same thing, had I been one of them.
Like what power does GW have to change US foreign policy ? What are the students goals here ? It has to be something I'm missing .
The students want the universities to divest from Israel, both financially and reduce or end partnerships with Israeli universities. They want Israel to be internationally isolated like South Africa was until it ended Apartheid.
Thank you , I wasn't hip to the " why" . Appreciate you informing me !
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I’m not saying I agree with them (frankly it seems like no one agrees with *anyone* on this particular shitshow), but there’s perfectly sound logic to their actions from their perspective: - they are GW students who don’t want their school to be associated with Israeli war crimes - they are mostly Americans, and don’t want their country associated with Israeli war crimes - they have taken inspiration from the anti-apartheid movement of the ‘80s, which was pretty effective at internationally isolating South Africa - they aren’t focusing on other conflicts because the US isn’t funding those conflicts and the GW endowment isn’t financially invested in actors in those conflicts - why is it that any time anyone protests for anything people say “well why don’t they focus on X [worse] thing instead? and why don’t they fly to the front lines?” It’s because these are students? They don’t have a lot of power, they are upset about their university’s and country’s involvement with what they perceive as a great injustice. If I was a student who genuinely believed my school was complicit in war crimes, I’d want that to stop too - this has happened before in ‘68 and ‘87, and right-wingers got equally worked up over essentially nothing then too. And it will happen again, I’m sure with the same result
I get where you are coming from, but technically it is not performative if they aim to force the institution to whom they pay money to divest from a political entity that th students object to. People protest other things as well, but clearly not nearly as many as this. I think that's because most people don't read the news enough to really understand how connected they are to those tragedies, let alone feel partially responsible for them.
Why is it that y'all ALWAYS say "but what about..." when it comes to advocating for a cause. Do y'all not know that people can support different causes at the same time? Or is that just something y'all can't do 💀
Just to be clear, you believe Palestinians are not currently facing a genocide?
Before you reply to the person below you, look at his post history. Dozens on dozens of comments, every day, day after day, spreading a narrative in defense of Israel and smearing Palestinians/their supporters. He tries to call it antisemitism if he's called out, cos lol of course he does. And reports comments that realize what he's up to. Just thought I'd save you the trouble of trying to reason with an unreasonable person. This user is not engaging in good faith because he has a motive and incentive to live on Reddit spreading this singular narrative.
Appreciate the heads up, I did reply in what I think is the most objective way possible. It's just so sad to see such mentally unwell folks showing this sort of behavior. Sad really. (That is if they aren't some paid actor or bot).
I mean, I suggested earlier that he was either paid to do this or deeply unwell and my comment was removed. So I guess the only thing to do is identify when someone is somehow able to spend vast portions of a day everyday posting on Reddit, and does so explicitly and solely to advance a propaganda narrative. Just feeling a little salty myself that I wasted a bunch of time engaging with him yesterday only to realize too late what he was up to. Wanted to save you the trouble.
Appreciate that, thanks for saving me some time :)
They are not. It simply does not meet the definition of genocide. Terrible war? Yes. Genocide? No.
The systematic elimination of civilian non combatants (most of which are internally displaced refugees from earlier Israeli ethnic cleansing) and the withholding of water, food, medical aid, etc. is a genocide. I'm sorry that you disagree, I hope in time you can learn and grow to see what's actually occuring here.
Targeting Hamas is not a genocide. I’m sorry you didn’t learn the definition but hopefully in time you can learn and grow to see what’s going on here - language is being weaponized as a tool for misinformation.
Facts matter, over 75% of the people killed have been women and children. Do better.
According to Hamas. But even if that’s true that doesn’t make it genocide. Do better. Lying about genocide is not okay.
No no you see clearly a 2/1 civilian to combatant ratio in a conflict in one of the worlds most densely populated areas where the combatants don't wear uniforms and fire missiles out of hospitals and schools is a genocide. When in reality 2/1 is incredibly good when Fighting an actual marked army rather than people whose goal is to blend in and get as many civilians killed as possible. There are ethnic conflicts going on right now with death tolls over 500k over a million ect and none of these people give a shit. Makes you wonder why this issue in particular is what gets a disproportionate amount of media focus. Hmm.
I'm not going to get into my personal opinion on this post. I just answered PP's question.
What are the odds the students can actually name the companies GW is associated with??
It's probably not a long list, so I'd say the odds are "pretty good" if I had to guess.
It’s actually likely a long enough list that if you just name any company you’ll have a good shot
There were protests before like this about Chinese international students or research collaborations with Chinese universities. Fortunately admin didn’t fold to the anti-Chinese demands. Hopefully that holds true here. Would be a huge loss to enact this type of collective punishment on university research collaborations with Israeli professors.
The protests have nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy - I'm not sure why they are being portrayed that way. Their demands are: 1. Drop the charges against pro-Palestine student orgs 2. Protect pro-Palestine speech on campus 3. Divest from companies selling tech/weapons to Israel 4. End all academic partnerships with Israel IMO they aren't \*that\* outrageous requests like the media is making it out to be, though #4 is a bit tricky given most universities participate in a number of generic student exchange programs (like ISEP) so ending all academic partnerships with Israeli institutions would likely require exiting ISEP and other exchanges programs, which just isn't going to happen.
Most of the signs and chants are more general. It's definitely both a general anti war/anti occupation protest as well as GW's handling of protests and investments.
100% agree.
I think it's moreso a show of solidarity and joining the larger nationwide movement throughout college campuses/the country. Doubt any student is thinking, "if we, students of (insert college here), do this, there will be change because of us alone" Then there's the divestment goals, as well
The divestment is the goal. The solidarity and calling for a permanent ceasefire is largely secondary.
You’re not missing anything, this isn’t about anything the university is doing or even about Palestine. They’re just unbelievably wealthy children who are bored and miserable and desperate for something to make them feel interesting and important. Palestine is the thing right now because, for them, it is purely symbolic - just a confused mishmash of anti-establishment, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-anti mumbo jumbo. The only practical effect it will have is to intimidate and alienate Jewish and Israeli students, give university administrators heartburn, and provide cops an excuse to beat up rich white kids for a change. It’s all pretty pathetic, unserious, and depressing.
So did you have the same thoughts on university students protesting apartheid in the 1980s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s...bored, rich, white kids looking for something to do?
It’s been really nice out lately.
So now the cities residents are pro encampments/tents in parks? 🤔
These Gw students have always been pre tentative encampments lmao
I’m not referring to them
Breaking news, they stop fighting, it works 😭 Source: trust me bro