There have been two episodes of campus action by pro-Palestinian groups in the last week, both of which which include UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). One of the episodes doesn’t worry me because it’s a form of free expression, but the other one does, as it seems to be yet another instance of violation of campus policies that go unpunished by the University.
Below is what I see as free expression: it’s an “art installation”—really a political statement—set up on the quad. It consists of 23,000 small colored flags, many bearing the names of dead Palestinian civilians as provided by Hamas, that together form a large Palestinian flag. Here it is:
It’s accompanied by two signs, the first one explaining the installation’s purpose. Click to enlarge.
Of course I object to the political spin on the sign, though of course I agree with the view that life is precious and not to be taken easily. But the civilian deaths in Gaza I blame entirely on Hamas. Beyond that, I dislike the “genocide” accusation and the claim that our campus is complicit in genocide, especially in investments (I have no idea if this is true; investments are kept confidential from the academic side of the university). And of course, UCUP and SJP know perfectly well what they mean by calling for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea”. It means a one-state solution that is a Palestinian state, with the Jews somehow “disappearing” along with their state of Israel.
The installation was vetted and approved by the University, as seen above and in the sign below. The authorities would have determined whether this violated any University rules and apparently it didn’t, so I’m fine with it. It’ll be up for another few days. Another sign:
However, according to an article in the Chicago Maroon, our student newspaper, after there was a demonstration at the flag installation on Friday, the demonstrators immediately marched over to our food hall and proceeded to have a “die-in” in Pret A Manger, a snack and coffee shop where many students go to chat over coffee. The “die-in” is described in the Maroon article below. Note the in photographs of the demonstrations, the Maroon has blurred the faces of protestors. I don’t think this is normal policy for a newspaper since it is, I believe, legal to show photographs people protesting in public. The only reason I can see to blur student faces, I think, is to hide their identities so they won’t be identified, doxxed, or punished. But that’s not a valid journalistic reason to alter photographs. I have long suspected that the Maroon is either friendly to or afraid of the pro-Palestinian organizations, and this only buttresses my suspecition.
Anyway, click below to read:
A quote from the Maroon (my bolding)
The march ended at Hutchinson Courtyard, where activists announced their next action: a “die-in” at Pret a Manger, which announced last month that it would be opening at least 40 locations in Israel. The organizers invited anyone interested in demonstrating to follow them inside the café. Those who stepped forward were warned of possible administrative punishment and the likelihood of doxing.
More than two dozen students and faculty entered Pret a Manger and lay on the floor with white roses on their chests. Many students working or socializing in Pret left the building after the die-in began and were directed out the back entrance by the protest’s patron liaison.
Throughout the protest, several patrons entered the coffee shop, stepping over the bodies to get to the counter and reach seats in the back.
Shortly after the die-in began, Associate Director for Public Affairs Gerald McSwiggan arrived with three UCPD officers outside of Pret a Manger. At 1:05 p.m., McSwiggan and officers entered the shop from the rear entrance. Outside, student security marshals held up keffiyehs towards the windows of Pret to prevent photographs from being taken of the inside. McSwiggan and the UCPD officers remained at the scene until after the protesters dispersed.
The die-in concluded at 1:15 p.m., when students stood up and exited the café to go outside. Demonstrators sang and yelled, “We believe that we will win!”
The times given suggest that the lie-in lasted roughly half an hour.
Looking at the university policy on demonstrations in buildings, this die-in, which obstructed entrance to the facility (neither employees or students could enter the front door as the demonstrators’ legs were reportedly against that door), it’s clear that this die-in violated our policies, which include this:
Additionally, to maintain a physically safe environment for all members of the University community, the number of people participating in a protest or demonstration must be considered and adhere to the occupancy limits of the protest or demonstration area. Walkways and entrances to and in buildings must always remain open to allow others safe access and egress as well as a clearly designated pathway through the area.
The disruption and violation of this “die-in” is also attested by the presence of McSwiggan and the three cops, as well as the warning given by the protestors themselves that those participating could be subject to “possible administrative punishment.”
In other words, what we have is a prohibited disruption of campus activity by campus protestors, something I’ve described before in a letter to the Maroon. This makes at least three times, and probably more, that this grou (SJP + UCUP) have violated campus rules in their demonstrations. One on occasion, after a sit-in in the admissions office that led to the arrest of 26 students and two professors, the charges were later dropped in court and we don’t have any idea whether there would be any “administrative punishment.”
The Maroon adds this [“Alivisatos’s meeting” refers to our President’s having met with the the Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, which “aimed to enhance the partnership between [the University of Chicago] and Israeli research institutions and to make sure that every Jewish or Israeli student feels safe on campus,” according to a tweet from Cohen’s X account.”]
When asked for comment on the protest and Alivisatos’s meeting, McSwiggan replied with a statement to The Maroon.
“As part of our commitment to free expression, the University is deeply committed to upholding the rights of protesters and speakers to express a wide range of views. Over more than a century, through a great deal of vigorous debate, the University has developed a consensus against taking social or political stances on issues outside its core mission,” the statement read.
“The University’s longstanding position is that doing this through investments or other means would only diminish the University’s distinctive contribution—providing a home for faculty and students to espouse and challenge the widest range of social practices and beliefs. That idea received definitive treatment in the Kalven Report of 1967. As the report states, ‘The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.’ This principle continues to guide the University’s approach against taking collective positions on political or social issues outside its core mission, including calls for divestment.”
I’m not sure whether McSwiggan was implying that the “die-in” was a “form of free expression”—which would be deeply confusing because a “die-in” is not “free expression” on this campus—or simply making a general statement about university policy. I have asked for clarification, and when I receive it I’ll add it here.
I remain adamant in my view that the University needs to enforce its regulations against illegal and disruptive conduct by protestors, and I’d object to the non-enforcement above whether it involved pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli students blocking access to a snack shop. My own view is that the cops should give illegal protestors a warning that if they didn’t leave within 10 or 15 minutes, they would be arrested. That’s plenty of warning. In this case, however, the cops and administrator stood by, doing nothing, until the demonstrators left.
One reason that our President met with the Israeli C0nsul General was “to make sure that every Jewish or Israeli student feels safe on campus.” That was a nice gesture, but if they really mean it, they need to stop these aggressive and illegal protests designed to intimidate, especially to those people sympathetic to Israel. The administration is not succeeding in creating an atmosphere of safety: I know several people who don’t feel safe around these demonstrators. And I don’t, either. If an emeritus faculty member doesn’t feel safe on campus, what about the Jewish and Israeli students? I am not easily intimidated, but SJP and UCUP specialize in intimidation, and, after criticizing the groups publicly, I’m always looking over my shoulder when on campus.
A year ago I could not imagine this happening on campus, and if I were told it would happen, I would have assumed that the University would do something to stop it. So far I’ve seen very little action. The rules need to be enforced.
Jerry, you’re a well-known Emeritus figure in the university — perhaps the best known. Surely the university president wouldn’t refuse to have a meeting with you if you asked for one, at which you could pin him down on why there is no enforcement going on, and why there is an embargo on publicizing university disciplinary decisions?
I can try, but the Prez doesn’t know me and is a busy man. I really would like to meet with him and the Provost.
Don’t sell yourself short — you have 50,000 subscribers who want answers!
I just saw a thing yesterday, which now I can’t find, where they asked protestors about the meaning of “from the river to the sea.” Many of them did not know. Interestingly, though, when I tried to find it on google news, with results limited to the last week, THIS post came up as number four! Apparently, google considers you news, Jerry.
That would be Noa Tishby’s video from the Sundance Film festival. See it on Twitter here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtpSy9TAy8I
It’s hilarious. And Noa, who used to be an actor, has guts. She now devotes much of her time to defending Israel.
Recall this?:
Ron E. Hassner: From Which River to Which Sea? Wall Street Journal, Dec 5, 2023
College students don’t know, yet they agree with the slogan.
https://archive.is/1tn2C
Mr. Hassner is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley.
When college students who sympathize with Palestinians chant “From the river to the sea,” do they know what they’re talking about? I hired a survey firm to poll 250 students from a variety of backgrounds across the U.S.
That’s somewhat heartening, but remember that that slogan is chanted by far more than U.S. college students, including adults and people from other countries. And I’m betting that the real activists, like SJP, know exactly what they’re calling for.
Hilarious? respectfully, Perhaps, when watching conceited idiots perform, but I find the rampant ignorance surrounding the whole issue of the right for Israel to exist let alone the constant attack on the country plus the recent deadly terrorist attack combined with the complete denial of all truth really really frightening . Do we seriously have a whole sector of society and not just the young who are really that ill informed and brain dead stupid? If this is so we are doomed!
Perhaps we could round them all up and export them to Iran or Afghanistan or Russia maybe? Maybe not Russia as they would all end up extra Putin supporters, North Korea would work.
The “die-in” was certainly disruptive. But at least it wasn’t violent and the participants didn’t harass others, except by their torpor. It could have been worse. But, yes, campus officials should have told the protestors that their protest violates university regulations and that they need to disband. Another possibility would be for a university administrator to come to the event, locate the protest’s leader, and then require that the leader to fill out the forms that are required to request permission for such an event. In other words, the administration should have required—for the protest to continue—the protestors to accept the rules that the U of C community members have agreed to follow.
As the rich variety of demonstration multiplies in our view – from peaceful/civil disobedience to mid-level provocation or even mid-level violence – free society deserves to know the guiding principle of Beautiful Trouble and Rules for Radicals :
Your target’s reaction is your real action
Feeding the events through that thought process first will help cancel out hot temper, etc. – even though the “target” (gee, thanks for that) is, well, everyone, I guess.
And a darker note : childrens’ literature promoted in schools of critical pedagogy (e.g. Act by Kayla Miller) teaches escalation in case nobody is paying attention to the protest.
But let’s not get into that literature right here.
Missed the edit deadline:
“… designed to intimidate …”
That element is worth emphasizing (so I bolded it).
Maybe pro-Israeli groups should chant “From the river to the sea, Israel will be free!”
I’ve heard that it isn’t a call for the destruction of any particular group, after all.
Even the Pal flag is not “indigenous”. It is a riff on the Arab Revolt flag, 1920s, designed by an Englishman. Skyes? I think. The flag is repeated in some slight variation in over a dozen Arab countries.
If you want a visual that explains the Pal movement accurately, think of the black standard of ISIS. Or its black and white negative opposite: the white Taliban flag.
D.A.
NYC
Learning from radio and TV advertising, the anti-Israel movement has taken full advantage of a catchy couplet. If the DEI industry is running into difficulties at the moment, this is because it does not have anything to match “Uh-oh! SpaghettiOs!” or the “from the river to the sea” jingle. The latter’s efficacy is shown by hordes of demonstrators who hum it without a clue as to where the river and sea in question are located. Poor Robin DiAngelo could only come up with “white fragility”, which doesn’t even rhyme.
Intelligence Reveals Details of U.N. Agency Staff’s Links to Oct. 7 Attack. Wall Street Journal, Jan 29, 2024
Around 10% of Palestinian aid agency’s 12,000 staff in Gaza have links to militants, according to intelligence dossier
https://archive.is/s6jmz
There are several other reasons, I think. The most legitimate is if the individuals in question are minors. Under 18 they’re considered children and privacy/protection is more important. If the paper moves the limit up to 21, that includes a lot of college students.
It’s rather unlikely though that a student newspaper would treat fellow students as children. That leaves an element I’ve noticed in many critical social justice advocates: the assumption that they’re daring rebels defying a system which would stop at nothing to prevent their speaking truth to power. Forget arrest: law will be suspended in order to beat, maim, disappear, or murder them. They always get “death threats.” Because they’re the good guys and the other side is evil.
It’s a conceit, of course, emphasizing both the vulnerability of the advocates and the planetary significance of their cause. I’m not sure how credible the threat actually is in every case. But this assumption seems to be creeping into not just campus discourse, but society in general — for all sorts of causes. Newspapers in progressive areas might adopt the precaution as a matter of course and blur faces.
Just a guess.
I have an alternative explanation. Recall that many of these demonstrators have no idea what river and what sea they are chanting about. Maybe their faces are just
naturally blurred, like their geography, history, and general comprehension.
There’s a puzzle that’s been confounding me for a while. I know there have been plenty of deaths but I also know that Hamas’s propaganda cannot be trusted. So please, dear readers, help me out with the following:
Body bags: Where are the actual dead? Remember the refrigeration trucks overflowing with body bags in New York at the peak of Covid? If 200+ people die in a day in Gaza, there should be DAILY pics of rows and rows of body bags coming out of the propaganda mill. Instead we get nothing. Where are the fresh burial mounds? Where are the throngs of people mourning the deaths?
Massacres: How has the war progressed over the first 100 days? Has there just been a humdrum background noise of deaths every day? There haven’t been any worse days reported except for the great al-Ahli Arab Hospital whodunnit. One would expect regular-but-not-daily headlines like, “today 550 totally innocent civilians were killed by the Great Zionist Oppressor” followed by several days of much lower death tolls. I think Hamas knows that satellite imagery will disprove any such absurd claim and, after their hospital fail, they won’t try it again.
So, what’s the real death toll? I’m guessing a quarter.
It amazes me that news media continually cite the statistics provided by Hamas — the terrorist organization that brutalized Israelis (and anyone else next to them) in the October 7 attack. And the organization still keeps about a hundred hostages.
Since there are no other credible sources of statistics, news media simply defaults to Hamas. How about “It’s not known how many people have died. Could be hundreds, could be thousands. We just don’t have credible sources.”
Also, how many of the deaths cited by Hamas are Hamas terrorists? Yet all we hear is how many women and children are part the Hamas statistics. (Women and children can also be terrorists.)
What you can not enforce
Do not command.
— Sophocles
Speaking of religious beliefs — Sam Harris has a new YouTube video. It is as always great.
5 myths about Israel and the war in Gaza. (episode 351)
Thank you for this. Another fabulous, educational and well thought out piece from Sam Harris.