Amaya, California high-school student-activist: I’ve done my best to fight for Palestine, any way I could: poems, speeches, podcasts, convincing my friends to boycott, telling them about the violent creation of Israel. Any feeling of progress was temporarily erased after our second boycott. Less than 20 of us marched around campus in the rain. We were herded outside by security, while we talked about Israel bombing schools, homes and hospitals. We waited until the end of school hoping to raise awareness among our departing peers. They all stared at us from the safety of the building as we marched, holding our sodden posters. Some people pointed, while others laughed and wouldn’t even make eye contact. I have never felt as much shame, not for myself but for my schoolmates so lacking in basic human empathy that they could laugh at people protesting genocide. Two weeks later my school’s alumni association put out a statement accusing us of antisemitism, racism and bigotry.

Palestine solidarity student protest at George Washington University in Washington D.C. on April 2024. Photo: Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA 4.0

In my ethnic studies class there is a noticeable gap about what is taught about Southwest Asia and North Africa. Ethnic studies was founded by young people of color. My teacher focused entirely on terrorism. I was filled with rage; I learned nothing about our contributions to the world; instead I learned about 9/11. I was assigned to read about the Indian-American and Sikh reaction to it.

The class presentation that was supposed to talk about Southwest Asia and North Africa seamlessly transitioned to a report about the Indians that caused it. It stuns me that South West Asia and India are carelessly lumped together and used to reinforce racist stereotypes. I sent my teacher an email that Palestine has existed, does exist and will continue to exist. When another student asked my history teacher what a free Palestine would look like, he replied, “From the river to the sea” and return of all the land stolen in 1948. His statement implied the eradication of Israel. If my history teacher thinks we are advocating for another genocide, then what do my peers think?

This moment has taught me the importance of student activists standing up, adding our contributions to classroom discussion; the only perspective taught dehumanizes our people. The false narrative of terrorism and destruction is prevalent because no one is doing anything to prevent it, making it extraordinarily easy for Zionists to brainwash the youth. We are taught to think critically about everything we see and hear, but we are being taught a Zionist curriculum. News reports are complicit in aiding the genocide.

A recent post in The New York Times asks, “How did hunger in Gaza get so much worse?” They [the media] use accusatory headlines and racist billboards to catch people’s eyes, like the one I saw: “There are two groups of people who protest with their faces covered: white supremacists and junior jihadists.” The role that students play in the greater struggle for Palestine is irreplaceable. When you see people your age fighting for and teaching about something you’re oblivious to, it wakes you up. We are humanizing it. We are opening the eyes of our peers and creating a space for them to ask questions and learn to resist. When we advocate for Palestine, we bring it much closer to liberation.

Protest encampment at the University of Minnesota in May 2024. Photo: Chad Davis, CC BY 2.0

To my fellow students; I urge you to resist: boycott, walk out, talk about Palestine. Your youth does not prevent you from seeing complicity, or from speaking out. Whether you open one or one million minds does not matter. What matters is that you don’t back down, especially right now. Innocent men, women and children are being starved and slaughtered. Every time you don’t talk about Palestine, you are silencing them and you are silencing yourself. Do not allow them to control the narrative about you, your family, about Palestinians everywhere. You are letting them erase our history. So please, wear Palestine on your sleeve and know that you are not alone in doing so. Students around the world stand with you and look to you as their compass. So thank you and free Palestine!

Grant Miner, the President of the Student Workers of Columbia—UAW 2710 (“twenty-seven ten”), A PhD student at Columbia for five years, expelled last March for participating in on-campus protests against the genocide in Palestine:

Labor unions are independent organizations on and off campus. They serve workers long term; the university cannot abolish them… In 2021 the undergraduates were so incensed at our lack of pay, terrible work conditions, the sexual harassment, that they independently invaded the classroom of the president, Lee Bollinger. It was an enormous protest…During the encampments, the union played a large role—the entire community came together to defend the students. But now the police can arrest protesters and give their information to the Department of Homeland Security.

However, the union is tied to the university; we believe in what it could be. But it’s not even willing to fight for itself; its goal now is to become a trust fund for Big Pharma. The University of Chicago decimated its humanities departments; the University of California suspended a student organization for passing a BDS resolution. The universities need community advocacy and to be run by its people. How Columbia treats Harlem shows that we need the collapse of university administrations.

Sueda, Graduate Student, Columbia University: Repression is the best radicalization. Any ground you cede to the administration today will not be available tomorrow…Which is why we must continue constant confrontation, to transform these sites from complacency with repression to sites of confrontation with our administration, such as Columbia University students standing with Popular University students in Butler Library last spring… University systems make you depend on them: for housing, health care, access to education. Students can build up their own networks for mutual aid, and with labor union…We need to understand Palestinian prisoners as political prisoners and part of the movement. We need to tell the truth on campus by continuous smaller actions and art workshops. Gaza has taken the masks off.

Hasan Piker, Palestinian-American podcaster, popular on Twitch: “I’m gonna tell you not to get discouraged, even though, with all our collective voices, it seems as though we might come across as powerless, we might feel powerless, we feel like change is not happening… If we lean into nihilism, if we forget about the Palestinians, then Israel wins. It’s that simple. Some of those rulers, the most evil people on the planet, want you to be silent. [That’s] the reason why they engage in doxxing operations; the reason why they immediately call the manager to try and get you fired—but that’s precisely the reason why you must not stop, you must never feel discouraged…”

See also In-person report: The People’s Conference for Palestine