My wife and I drove by the Northwestern University campus on Sunday and witnessed the sprawling encampment stretching along Sheridan Road. We saw hundreds of students wearing keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags who were commingling with protesters carrying Israeli flags and men wearing yarmulkes. By all appearances, it was a peaceful gathering. There were no campus police officers visible from our vantage point.
We could hear protesters speaking through megaphones beyond the tarp-covered fences separating the encampment from the street, while scores of students walked the fences holding signs voicing their political opinions. The serenity of the scene made me feel proud that students from one of our local institutions of higher learning were behaving while embracing their right to protest.
— Michael Oakes, Chicago
Students speak truth to power
Recently as I was going into downtown Evanston to do an errand, I passed the campus of Northwestern University and saw all along a gate facing Sheridan Road the many signs in support of ending the war in Gaza. Signs expressed alignment with those in Palestine, and there was a sign of solidarity in a different language. All along the fence were signs expressing support, hope and anger at the situation.
In Tuesday’s Tribune, there was an article about Northwestern reaching an agreement with the protesters (“Northwestern University reaches agreement with protesters”). The university “agreed to fund two visiting Palestinian faculty members each year and provide scholarships for five Palestinian undergraduates throughout their undergraduate careers. It will also provide and renovate a community building that can be used as a gathering space for Middle Eastern, North African and Muslim students,” the Tribune reported.
It was truly inspiring to see what the students could accomplish by speaking truth to power with a voice that brought peace, not violence. I was glad for Northwestern’s willingness to listen to the students and bring a solution that would embrace and welcome all peoples.
The students were a genuine inspiration for change and part of history that will be on the side of peace.
— Mandy May, Evanston
Students should keep protesting
God bless the student protests against Israel on U.S. college campuses. It’s about time. But it’s only the beginning of a long, hard fight against inhumanity.
The grotesque use of American killing machines on the Vietnamese ended only after students protested long and loudly against what was U.S. government-sponsored terror. “Hell, no! We won’t go,” they chanted. It worked, finally, but took too long.
The U.S. was wrong to bomb Vietnam and shower Agent Orange to eradicate plants, animals and humans alike. College protesters, including students killed by police at Kent State University, had it right: U.S. involvement in Vietnam was wrong.
And so is the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel using U.S.-made weapons. Manhattan’s Twin Towers were leveled on 9/11, Osama bin Laden said, because of continued U.S. support of Israeli’s occupation and miserable treatment of his fellow Arabs. We’ve learned nothing since then.
The protests to remove investment of public university money from corporations that aid Israel in its genocide of Palestinians seems a sane and proper response. It’s the right thing to do.
The slaughter of 34,000 Palestinians (so far) cannot be justified as revenge for a one-day attack in October. Israel has used it as a pretense to level Gaza. Israel wants it all — whatever it takes.
Free speech guarantees the right to protest what’s wrong. It was right against the useless slaughter in Vietnam, and it’s right against Israel’s unrelenting assault on fellow humans.
Students should not stop protesting until the U.S. does what it must: Withdraw aid to Israel until it stops the bloodshed and allows creation of the independent state of Palestine.
— Randy Kull, Bloomington, Illinois
Freedom of speech has limits
The tumult we now see occurring on college and university campuses reminds me of the days when I was a college student on the Champaign campus of the University of Illinois and the Vietnam conflict was front and center. But that war pertained to thousands of our young men dying needlessly in which our country should never have been engaged. Not only was I a student in those days, but I also served our country, having returned from military training to the university when federal troops lined campus streets in 1970.
Today, protests are about a war not involving Americans, but the morality of death and destruction by Israel upon a population among which is a force (Hamas) out to annihilate the Jewish state completely. While Hamas needs to be obliterated, what we see in Gaza puts our country’s Jewish students at risk due to their religion, which is mine also. It has now reached a stage in which a federal class action lawsuit against New York’s Columbia University was filed on behalf of Jewish students on April 29. An easy but frightful read, the lawsuit asserts a breach of contract for the university not providing a safe learning environment.
It is high time that administrators of those learned institutions realize the First Amendment allowing expressions of dissent and opinion only goes so far, and when that line is crossed — as it has been — all students need to be protected by whatever means necessary.
— Miles J. Zaremski, Highland Park
Innovations with Jewish roots
Regarding the editorial “Northwestern protest agreement is far from perfect. But we’re glad it avoids the use of force.” (May 1), I have a suggestion to address the issue of rampant antisemitism among student protesters.
One potential solution could involve distributing flyers listing inventions created by Jewish individuals or companies. By highlighting the significant contributions made by Jewish innovators, we could encourage protesters to reflect on their actions and the impact of their beliefs.
For instance, individuals could be asked to “divest” themselves of inventions such as cellphones, remote controls and Google services, all of which have Jewish roots. Other notable inventions include the cardiac pacemaker, the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, the kidney dialysis machine and many more critical advancements.
By drawing attention to the vast contributions of Jewish individuals to society, we aim to foster greater understanding and appreciation among protesters, ultimately working toward a more inclusive and respectful environment.
— Kathy Posner, Chicago
Should Israel not defend itself?
Watching the protesters at the various universities around the country makes me wonder if they really have any understanding of what they are talking about. Clearly, they have no knowledge of history and politics of the Middle East.
Israel left Gaza in 2005 under the control of the Palestinian Authority. The Jewish settlers who had established homes and businesses there were brought back into Israel. The Palestinians who lived there were free to move into those homes and businesses and to set about the process of governing themselves.
The Palestinian Authority was soon outvoted, and Hamas, a group that has been acknowledged to be a terrorist organization, came into power in 2007. The group promptly proceeded to transform Gaza into an underground fortress, building tunnels and stockpiling weapons instead of creating homes, hospitals, schools and businesses. Hamas has been relentlessly attacking Israel for these many years. On Oct. 7, it mounted a full-fledged attack, murdering more than a thousand Israelis and kidnapping a few hundred others, taking them into Gaza as hostages, where most of them remain to this day, if they’re still alive.
Hamas’ stated goal is to eliminate Israel and kill all the Jews. Its genocidal intent is clear and unambiguous. That is what genocide is.
Genocide is not killing civilians as a consequence of war, however horrible that may be. Our hearts go out to all the Palestinian civilians in Gaza who have lost their homes and families to this awful war. However, Israel did not start this war. Israel’s soldiers are not the ones hiding in tunnels underneath the schools, hospitals and homes of the civilian population. Israel is not the country that is using innocent men, women and children as human shields. Hamas is.
That this situation is terrible is undeniable. But should Israel not defend itself? Should it not try to eliminate this existential threat to its very existence? Hamas has created a situation in which it cannot be destroyed without also destroying the population it hides among. There is no easy solution here.
Israel wants peace. But how can you have peace when your enemy insists on war?
— Barbara Lipkin, Naperville
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