Revolt on Campus: Protests over Gaza Disrupt Graduation Ceremonies; Police Crack Down on Encampments

[Uncle Joe]

Police have now arrested more than 2,500 students at pro-Palestine protests across the U.S., yet students continue to call for an end to the war on Gaza and universities' investment in companies that support Israel's occupation of Palestine. We speak to three student organizers from around the country: Salma Hamamy of the University of Michigan, president of the school's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, about the commencement ceremony protest she helped organize, and Cady de la Cruz of the University of Virginia and Rae Ferrara of the State University of New York at New Paltz about police crackdowns on their schools' encampments. De la Cruz was arrested in the UVA raid and banned from campus without an opportunity to collect any of her belongings. She says repression has strengthened the resolve of many protesters, who are willing to risk their academic futures to push for divestment. "All of us there felt like we have more time on our hands … than the people of Gaza," she explains, "We would hold it down for anything."

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[Deep State Witch]

1. Such a Shame

To have commencements ruined by a small, but vocal, minority of student agitators. These seniors didn't get a HS graduation because of COVID. Now they're being denied walking across the stage because of their fellow students.

[Uncle Joe]

2. I know what you mean

Every university in Gaza has been destroyed, those seniors won't to get to graduate because they're either dead, or buried under the rubble waiting to die and there is no school left.

I believe it was kind of selfish to blow all the universities in Gaza up, but some people are just inconsiderate of student feelings about graduation.

[SunSeeker]

3. It was kind of selfish of Hamas to hide under those universities, no?

Or start this war on Oct. 7 by invading Israel to slaughter babies in their cribs.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Israel's 15 year old Gaza prison doesn't make distinctions between citizens and criminals

Gaza: Israel’s ‘Open-Air Prison’ at 15
Israel, Egypt Movement Restrictions Wreak Havoc on Palestinian Lives

(Gaza) – Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives, Human Rights Watch said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the 2007 closure. The closure has devastated the economy in Gaza, contributed to fragmentation of the Palestinian people, and forms part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.

Israel’s closure policy blocks most Gaza residents from going to the West Bank, preventing professionals, artists, athletes, students, and others from pursuing opportunities within Palestine and from traveling abroad via Israel, restricting their rights to work and an education. Restrictive Egyptian policies at its Rafah crossing with Gaza, including unnecessary delays and mistreatment of travelers, have exacerbated the closure’s harm to human rights.

(snip)

As an occupying power that maintains significant control over many aspects of life in Gaza, Israel has obligations under international humanitarian law to ensure the welfare of the population there. Palestinians also have the right under international human rights law to freedom of movement, in particular within the occupied territory, a right that Israel can restrict under international law only in response to specific security threats.

Israel’s policy, though, presumptively denies free movement to people in Gaza, with narrow exceptions, irrespective of any individualized assessment of the security risk a person may pose. These restrictions on the right to freedom of movement do not meet the requirement of being strictly necessary and proportionate to achieve a lawful objective. Israel has had years and many opportunities to develop more narrowly tailored responses to security threats that minimize restrictions on rights.

Egypt’s legal obligations toward Gaza residents are more limited, as it is not an occupying power. However, as a state party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, it should ensure respect for the convention “in all circumstances,” including protections for civilians living under military occupation who are unable to travel due to unlawful restrictions imposed by the occupying power. The Egyptian authorities should also consider the impact of their border closure on the rights of Palestinians living in Gaza who are unable to travel in and out of Gaza through another route, including the right to leave a country.

(snip)

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15



and now Netanyahu's government has deliberately created a full blown famine in Northen Gaza.

[SunSeeker]

5. It is a prison of Hamas' making. Hamas kept lobbing rockets.

Then complains when Israel responds.

And the famine is of Hamas' own making as well, as they attack aid entry points and commandeer aid shipments meant for civilians.

[Uncle Joe]

6. and Netanyahu enabled Hamas to offset the Palestinian Authority

because he didn't want a secular democratic Palestinian state, so Hamas operated as the inside guards of the pressure cooker that was Gaza while the IDF as the outside guards.

It doesn't make any difference what Hamas does in regards to taking humanitarian aid meant for the Palestinians, they can't take it all and with the now full blown famine in North Gaza, the stakes are too great for too many people in not to sending in aid. Israel is the occupying power of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

[SunSeeker]

7. Hamas enabled Netanyahu. nt

[Uncle Joe]

8. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. n/t

[Deep State Witch]

9. So How Does Sitting in a Tent Cosplaying A Palestinian Help?

Honestly, how does sitting in a tent on the quad cosplaying in a keffiyah help out students in Gaza? Why don't they spend their summers volunteering for relief organizations instead of doing stuff for the likes on Instagram?