I attended a protest, and a graduation broke out!
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been on the front of the news lately. I am a disinterested party to these demonstrations. But I do know at a very high level that there seems to be a fault on both sides. For the Israelis, I do understand their determination to wipe out Hamas. The December 6 attack on Israel was violent and brutal and, without going into details, seemed to show the worst of human barbarism. For the Palestinians, the attack on their homeland is something out of a nightmare. The number of civilian casualties far exceeds the suffering that Hamas inflicted initially on the Israelites, and it seems to show the worst in human barbarism.
Do you get where I am going with this?
The first question I would reasonably ask of the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators is, what do they want Israel to do? If the attacks on the West Bank stop right now, what do they propose happens next? It seems I have never heard anything about solutions to the problem. Ceasing attacks will not help the hostages, and if history has taught us anything, those hostages will be used as pawns as long as Hamas can use them as pawns. And it seems Hamas is not interested in an all-or-nothing release of hostages. The conditions for release are a multitude of demands, including prisoner releases and land givebacks.
Israel is justified in attacking Hamas. I put that right there in the beginning, and I will further say that I support their efforts to secure the safety and freedom of their people, and I will never go back on this belief. However…I do think they are going about this whole thing wrong. I am not a military strategist, but with Israeli resources and firepower, it seems that they can do a much better job of trying to protect the innocent civilians they are killing in an attempt to free the hostages. In their effort to win the freedom of their people, they are committing the type of atrocities they are ironically fighting against.
If I could only for a minute put myself into the mind of an average Palestinian civilian, I’d think, “I hate Israel for attacking and killing my family and friends. I also hate Hamas for committing heinous, unwarranted attacks on Israeli civilians and then using me and my family as human shields.”
Palestinian civilians are in a no-win situation, and Israeli civilians will remain in danger as long as the largest problem of competing nationalism and territorial disputes is not agreed upon by either side.
I refuse to take sides and consider this a simple black-and-white issue. If I had the power to solve this problem, be a God or just an influential world leader, I would make Israel stop attacks immediately and for Hamas to free all of the hostages immediately and unconditionally. After those two things are completed, serious talk will have to be conducted, and concessions will have to be made and agreed upon on both sides. The atrocities that were done on each side will have to be chalked up as the unfortunate cost of the business of war. No matter what happens in this present, be it peace or war, the ones already lost to war will not return, and their souls will be missed by loved ones. If that is the case, and it is, is it not better to move on in peace instead of trying to seek revenge on a sliding scale into perpetuity?
I attended the graduation ceremony of one of my former students, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Law School this past weekend. I jokingly texted her the day before the graduation, as you can see below:
When we crowded into the Greek Theater, located on the Berkely Campus, the sun was barely above us, but I was already sweating and preparing myself to sit in a ceremony that I knew would last hours under the hot sun. On the way into the open-air theater, a student, or someone who looked like a student, handed me an official-looking brochure with the Berkeley Law School logo shown prominently. However, it was a list of Palestinian martyrs the same age as the students presently graduating. The pamphlet went on to state that those are the names of the people who were killed by “the Israeli Occupation’s relentless genocide.” The information went on to state that UC (University of California) funds the genocide. Mock awards were also mentioned, such as honorary degrees for funding genocide and surveillance & policing.
Despite this information being handed out, everything was normal and proceeding as planned until Professor Talha Syed, (born in Lahore, Pakistan), began to give the faculty address. At that moment, a group of people directly at my right side stood up and started shouting pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli chants. This went on for the entire speech. Initially, it was a little nerve-wracking, but surprisingly, I could still hear and understand most of what Syed was saying. The Solicitor General of the United States, Elizabeth Prelogar, was next. Another group on the other side of the stadium drowned her out. I could still hear much of what she was saying, as I could listen to the first chants. Below are parts of the video I filmed.
I think the school handled the situation excellently; besides a few remarks from the speakers, the officials paid little attention to the protesters. The first group stopped and left without incident, besides a few back-and-forth shouts between the group and audience members. The second group stayed longer, trying to drown out Elizabeth Prelogar. The demonstrators proved they had the ability and energy to shout through an entire graduation speech! Overall, it was a very peaceful protest.
After the graduation, we walked out of the stadium toward the reception area for pictures and wine. However, just when I thought it was over, a vehicle that would be called an “antisemite” was parked in our path. It was a billboard truck sponsored by the conservative group Accuracy in Media. The truck ad was aimed at Berkeley students who support a ban on pro-Israeli speakers. This was due to what happened last August when nine affinity groups within the law school banned outside speakers that support Israel and Zionism.
Sometimes, we feel disconnected from world events, trying instead to concentrate on the parts of our lives to which we have a direct connection. The reality is everything that happens on Earth affects us to certain degrees. The war in Israel has profound effects on us, whether we are disengaged or not. The continuance of this conflict, so far away, will affect our immediate and children’s lives. I only wanted to attend a graduation to support my student’s achievement of successfully completing law school. Instead, I was reminded quickly that we are only at the center of this societal ripple effect. This war is ripping apart an already divided America and giving us yet another excuse to hate each other. Common sense should dictate that both sides are not actually far apart on differences. I don’t believe responsible adults will start making decisions based on common sense. Instead, I will prepare for the bumpy ride ahead. There are many times I want to be wrong, but I know I am correct. This is one of those times. This war will be an additional excuse to remove another brick from the foundations that hold American democracy together.
The spin on this war is only designed to separate us. Another point is to draw a line in the sand that expands our differences. I was not sure what would happen with the graduation ceremony itself, but I was 100% sure something would be found to argue about. The Middle East war puts our ambivalence center stage for the world to see, and it is not a good look.
