The Generation that Says, “No More!”
June 17, 2024—Silenced University of Southern California Valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, received her diploma to resounding cheers from her classmates May 10, 2024. As a comedic one last jab at the USC administration, she took a look at her watch to see how long the applause was lasting. Asna majored in bioengineering with a minor in resisting genocide. Though USC administrators cited security reasons for silencing Asna from delivering her valedictorian speech, when all the chaff and bluff was winnowed in the winds of truth, it came down to a posting on her Instagram account that was a reshared post, advocating the abolishment of Israel in one of many points the post made.
Asna Tabassum explained this link and her opinions on an ABC News interview April 18, 2024:
“So, when it comes to abolishing the state of Israel, I do want to point out the rest of the link. And so, the very next sentence talks about the peaceful coexistence of Arabs and Jews. And I think it points to what I’ve been saying since the beginning of this issue which is that I’m committed to human equality and human rights. And so, this link, I encourage people to look at it in its entirety rather than looking at one specific example. When it comes to abolishing the state of Israel, I will say that I want to abolish apartheid. So, no, I’m not necessarily committing to a one-state or a two-state solution. I’m simply saying that this information on the website offered information from multiple perspectives, and so my endorsing of any one single perspective is unfounded.”
Asna’s moral victory over the University of Southern California Administration, who denied her right to speak at commencement, was powered by the international student movement calling for “cease fire” and “divestment” as Israel wages a genocidal war on Gaza, in response to the October 7, 2023, breakout by Hamas fighters.
This historic movement begins at the ivy league school, Columbia University. Protests ignited into student rebellion as university and college administrators nationwide stubbornly refused to divest school funds benefitting apartheid Israel’s economy and genocide in Gaza. Administrative suspensions were ratcheted up and police forces called to violently clear peaceful encampments from school grounds.
October 11, 2023, Columbia students took the right side of history when 20 campus groups published a letter under the heading, “Oppression Breeds Resistance.” The letter began by mourning the “tragic losses experienced by both Palestinians and Israelis” but then asserted, in bold, that “the weight of the responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government.”
Other ivy league colleges were rumbling with dissent against the Israeli genocidal onslaught into Gaza. Ivy league Universities are ruling class fostering grounds, indoctrinating future generations to safeguard American capitalist economy, its politics and cultural legacy in perpetuity. In Aaron Gell’s, The New Republic article titled, “Has Zionism Lost the Argument?” March 3, 2024. Gell cites Derek Penslar, director of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies and author of Zionism: An Emotional State, who opined, “These young people do matter,” he said, adding that, “The Jews most critical of Israel are concentrated in elite institutions, like the ivies. They tend to be privileged and very bright and successful, and they will go on to have positions of power and visibility. And so, you know there will be quite a multiplier effect on their views.”
Shook to its core, having their indispensable military outpost in the Middle East masquerading as a democracy, being outed as an apartheid state, waging genocide—the U.S. ruling class took the unprecedented step by holding hearings and purges against ivy league university presidents— claiming that ivy league administrators were not proactively combatting antisemitism raging on their campuses.
The corporate press, along with the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, would fall in line with the rulers and owners of the United States, obfuscating the core issue of “genocide” into a question of being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. Press and media podcasts like, Al Jazeera, Katie Halper Show, and Electronic Intifada, have made a defiant stand, calling the Israel/Hamas war a “genocide.” Al Jazeera, along with these YouTube podcasts have been devoted to truthful, balanced reporting.
The U.S. ruling class was pushing the narrative that if you are anti-Zionist, you are anti-Semitic. Harvard President, Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President, Liz Magill were interrogated by the House Committee on Educational Affairs. Sadly, Claudine Gay and Liz Magill, for all their education, could not defend themselves or their students with a courageous stand by clarifying that it was not antisemitism prevailing on campus, but a social protest movement against Israel waging a merciless genocidal war in Gaza. Empathy for Gaza and their protesting students was beyond their purview as administrators. More so, these hearings were a warning to future university presidents that they need to crack down on the protests with administrative, and if necessary, police repression. Claudine Gay and Liz Magill tendered their resignations after discussions with their respective institutions’ governing boards.
Columbia University President, Minouche Shafik, born in Alexandria, Egypt, a British baroness, formerly employed by the World Bank, IMF and Bank of England was determined to stay at her post, crushing this uprising by diplomacy or force. Presidents Shafik and Laura Rosenbury of Barnard College, (a women’s college that is part of the Columbia University system,) would not have an easy task restoring Columbia and Barnard back to an orderly status quo where students wouldn’t protest and organize against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
President Shafik was able to avoid the December House Committee on Educational Affairs that brought down Presidents Gay and Magill. Presidents Shafik and Rosenbury suspended the Columbia student groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine for the rest of the semester. Jewish Voice for Peace responded to the suspensions with this statement on their website, accurately pinpointing the administration’s motives for the suspensions and students’ objectives for mobilizing:
“The students in these groups are acting with moral clarity. They are trying to save lives by calling for a cease fire. By suspending Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia has made a statement that Palestinians, students who support Palestinian rights and Jewish students who reject the state of Israel’s action in their name, are unwelcome on campus. Instead of supporting student’s rights, to speak and mobilize on campus, Columbia has chosen to prioritize suppressing speech on Israel and organizing to end the ongoing genocide and worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
Columbia University provided flammable tinder, sparking the protests and the subsequent nationwide student revolt. Columbia faculty founded the Center for Palestinian Studies back in 2010. It was inspired as a living memorial to the legacy of Columbia Professor Edward Said, remembered in academia as a preeminent scholar in Orientalism and comparative literature. The center offered Palestinian literature, arts, history, exchange programs and political studies. Edward Said was Palestinian and devoted just as much of his intellectual life battling Zionism as he did to his academic disciplines. Columbia School of Journalism Graduate, Hoda Sherif noted in her article, “The Generation That Says, ‘No More’” that inside the Columbia University encampments for Palestine was a sign saying, “You taught us Edward Said, now let me use him.”
Columbia Professor, and Palestinian, Rashid Khalidi, author of the current best seller, The Hundred Years War on Palestine—whose ancestor, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, a mayor of 1899 Ottoman Jerusalem, wrote a letter to Zionist founder, Theodore Herzl, warning him to “leave Palestine alone”—wields profound influence as a faculty member. Rashid Khalidi is on sabbatical but still comes on campus for forums and addresses rallies held by students protesting the Gaza genocide.
The great intellectual voices and activists of the Palestinian and Jewish diasporas made a formidable impact influencing the ivy league students of this generation. They included Norman Finkelstein, author of Gaza: An Inquest Into its Martyrdom and Ilan Pappe, author of the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Finkelstein gathered solid historical testimony about Israel’s open-air prison, Gaza. Pappe’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine is selling in great quantities purchased by the U.S. public, seeking an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
April 17, 2024, Columbia University students set up an encampment, putting pressure on the university to divest from companies doing business in Israel. On April 29, Lawrence Richard, from Fox News, quoted President Minouche Shafik who stated, “While the university will not divest from Israel, the university offered to develop an expedited timeline for review of new proposals from the students by the Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investment, the body that considers divestment matters.”
An April 29 email, sent by Shafik, slandered the encampment with this brazen lie saying, “But we must take into account the rights of all members of our community. The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty.” The following interview by CNN gives proof that the uncomfortable Jewish students and faculty Shafik refers to are Jews who sympathize with the Israeli genocide drive into Gaza and are aggrieved to have to be reminded of this daily from students and their fellow Jews, that it is about stopping genocide.
On April 23, CNN visited the encampment during Passover where an ecumenical Seder dinner was being held by Jewish students. They interviewed Jewish Columbia student, Cameron Jones, “To me, Passover represents perseverance and resilience. This encampment encompasses these two ideals. We have seen the university take countless measures to try to suppress our student activism. Here is us persevering through that.”
Another Jewish Columbia student interviewed at the Passover Seder was Jarred Kannel, telling CNN, “I have seen so many statements on-line about how Jews weren’t safe, how Columbia had turned into a hot bed of antisemitism. These statements further galvanized me to use my voice and privilege as a Jewish person to come here and have a Seder with all these lovely people.”
Jewish Columbia student Sarah, reminded CNN, “I am proud of the legacy of progressive Jewish activism—activists who have participated in the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement in the eighties. Where it is important to us to transcend the barriers of race and class, ethnicity and religion and that is what is happening here today.”
Columbia graduate, Hoda Sherif continues in her article, “The Generation That Says, ‘No More’”:
“I watched carefully as they [the students] divided themselves into groups to protect those willing to risk arrest and those not. Some were in keffiyehs and others in kippahs (another name for the Jewish skull cap also called yarmulke.) Some were wearing both. I listened as inspiring words were recited that sent chills down my spine. Our movement is no longer a student movement. It is a mass movement. And we are the generation that says, No More!”
As we watched this student rebellion spread across the planet, we began to see how a democratic secular Palestine will come into being—it will be Jewish and Palestinian people in the Middle East and worldwide, wearing keffiyehs and kippahs united in struggle against Zionism.
Hoda Sharif recalls, “As day turned to night on April 30th, many of the student activists who had linked as a human chain, stood arm and arm outside Hamilton Hall, which they dubbed Hind’s Hall a day earlier. Their bodies swayed in perfect harmony to the tune of the African American protest song, “We Shall Not Be Moved,” and merge with the marching sounds of hundreds of police officers making their way in formation toward Hamilton Hall.”
Violent arrests were made, the press chorused about damaged property and intimidation of building staff—yes, the students were not going to go quietly.
Hind Rajab’s story
The little girl, Hind Rajab, for whom the Columbia students renamed Hamilton Hall into Hind’s Hall—was justification for the students to face this dangerous confrontation with the cops. In January, in Gaza, six-year-old Hind Rajab, managed to grab a cell phone. Surrounded by dead relatives in the car they were riding in, she pleaded for help with Gazan emergency dispatchers in the midst of Israeli gun fire. Hind was found shot to death in the car, with her relatives. Meters away from the car in which Hind and her relatives were massacred, was the wreckage of an ambulance. This ambulance held the first responders for Hind—they were slaughtered as well.
Labor’s voice against genocide
On May 1, 2024, the 48,000-member strong United Autoworkers Union, Local 4811, representing University of California teaching assistants, tutors, academic researchers and post-doctorates, authorized a strike against the University of California. The June 14, 2024, issue of The Nation reported:
“Local 4811 filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with California’s Public Employee Relations Board citing repression of pro-Palestinian protestors at UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine by police and administrators.”
Starting May 20th, UAW Local 4811 first struck the University of California Santa Cruz, extending the strike slowly, giving time for the UC administrators to come to their senses and bargain in good faith. This would not happen. UCLA, UC San Diego, and with University of California Irvine being the last one, at this writing, Orange County Superior Court has ordered an injunction against Local 4811. The local is obeying the injunction.
The Nation quoted Local 4811 President, Rafael Jamie, commenting on the injunction:
“I want to make it clear that the struggle is far from over, In the courtroom, the law is on our side, and we’re prepared to keep defending our rights—and outside, 48,000 workers are ready for a long fight.”
The United States Government, its courts, politicians, and cops are lined up against U.S. Labor, especially when labor shakes off its bureaucratic lethargy to stand up to the employer class, intervening against its reactionary and domestic foreign policies. UAW Local 4811 can only win on a picket line in alliance with students on the campuses—not in the labor-hating courts of America.
The Nation printed a statement made by the UC Students for Justice in Palestine, May 20:
“As we witness genocide against Palestinians, UC Students for Justice in Palestine celebrate solidarity of UAW 4811 workers who overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike.”
This celebration of solidarity from new friends of Local 4811 is the most strong and effective way to secure economic and political gains for this dynamic UAW local in the years to come.
University and college administrators used censorship and intimidation trying to make the 2024 commencements come off without demonstrations of solidarity with Palestinians of Gaza. Students across the country wore slogans of solidarity with Gaza on their mortar boards. Many students unfurled Palestinian flags after receiving their diplomas. A thousand students walked out of the Harvard Commencement protesting the administration barring 13 students from graduating.Comedy legend and Zionist, Jerry Seinfeld, was booed while making a commencement speech at Duke University. Students, along with spectators, walked out as he was speaking. The class of 2024 could not be silenced or intimidated by university and college administrators who would take the side of Israel, waging genocide, even to the point of having U.S. law enforcement drag their students off to jails, processed, and putting them forever on police files.
A new encampment was erected the first week of June by tenacious Columbia students, organized around Students for Justice in Palestine. This encampment coincides with Columbia University’s alumni weekend. The students hope to influence alumni members to hold their donations until Columbia divests their financial holdings from Israel.
Let’s conclude with Columbia Graduate, Hoda Sherif’s vision of a free Palestine, inspired by the April encampments that she reported on in “The Generation That says, ‘No More’”:
“The encampment is gone for the time being, but the student revolutionaries will continue to remain at the forefront of Gaza’s international resistance—those who have found a subversive, diplomatic way of being in but not of their universities, those who have been doing this work not, without criticism and self-doubt, but in spite of it. And while much of the world was untroubled by Israel’s catastrophic war crimes, for the latter part of the year, our youth were there, sustained by none other than a free Palestine—close enough to touch it, dreams of seizing it—one police clash, one jail support, one boycott and one unionization drive at a time.”