STUDENTS TEACH A LESSON ON ‘ETHICAL DIVESTMENT'

HE imagery for the Gaza war has shifted from the heart-rending but monotonous miles of bombed rubble of Palestinian towns to protesting students in Columbia and other US universities.

- GURBIR SINGH

In a sense the Palestine conflict has come home to roost. Thousands of pro-Palestine students across a 100 or more universities are demanding the Biden administration withdraw its support for what they call Israel's 'genocidal war'.

Compared to the massive Israeli war machine, a couple of thousand students protesting with flags and posters seems to be a drop in the ocean. But in the war for people's minds, young folk raising ethical questions against a one-sided war, is making a huge impact.

In a tenuous sort of way the 'Justice for Palestine' movement connects with the resistance to US' Vietnam war. Images of the New York police breaking up encampments and arresting hundreds of students in the University of South California (UCLA); and the occupation of the central academic building, the Hamilton Hall, in Columbia University, have all the elements of the 1968 antiwar movement that tore through western capitals.

Financial protests

Students are the intelligentsia of the future, and one reason they are punching above their weight is the serious financial edge to their protests. Their central demand is universities 'di vest' their holdings in companies accused of being complicit in the occupation of Palestinian territory or participating on the Israeli side in violation of international law.

Normally 'divestment' is used when pulling out investments for financial gain, or to reduce monetary risk; in this case the 'divestment' is demanded on ethical and humanitarian grounds.