Daily Times

Student activism has been around for centuries. So imagine the surprise when the same students, while doing what is largely known to be a part of their college identity, find themselves pitted against armed-to-the-teeth troops.

Now, this might have even made sense in some war-ravaged dictatorship but to see the land of the free resort to such shameful tactics in a desperate bid to keep up ideological appearances. Last week’s arrest of over 100 student demonstrators by New York Police has unleashed a shadow movement of its own. Calling on their universities to finally separate themselves from any corporation that publicly sides with Israel in the military offensive in Gaza, student groups have popped up on campuses in not just one state but across the length and breadth of the country.

Likely emboldened by the determination in the face of threats, campus discipline and the Damoclean sword hanging over their futures, protestors have moved even further in Paris, deeply divided over the October 7 attacks, largely due to a very vocal presence of both Muslims and Jews.

With unarmed students blocking entrances to buildings with trash cans and their bicycles, any iron-fisted response from the state authorities is bound to inspire many others to join their cause. What makes a protest acceptable, many wonder, as they are warned by colleges using unrelated buzzwords like anti-semitism and freedom of life.

The treatment meted out to those protesting against violations of fundamental human rights in the besieged strip where innocent Palestinians are forced to choose between death from hunger or missile attack has opened a frightening can of worms. Are the Western countries ready to roll back on centuries of jurisprudence and their constitutional liberties that allow their citizens to speak their minds, hold an opinion and demonstrate for a political cause? Just because Israel has money has turned a country that takes great pride in sustaining its liberal character into a tight-lipped Buddha’s monkey that cannot find the courage to say a single word against its policies.

This misrepresentation of the public sentiment and an obvious inclination of the state to silence voices that should form the basis of its policies is a dangerous, dangerous phenomenon. Of course, buried deep within the fault lines is the plight of millions of Palestinians who continue to lead their lives in a state of delirium: whether to stay in the frying pan or to jump into the fire. *