Students and Palestine

 I have spent much of the past few days following the student protests for Palestine in the US. The sight of frail-looking teenagers squaring up against American cops who are built as pit-bulls--throwing themselves on the gears of the US war machine, as one commenter on Twitter put it--is both exhilarating and terrifying. And, most of the protestors seem to be female. Zionism is on the downswing, but it is so tied up with capitalism that it will either drag it down or will have to be abandoned by capitalism. We are far away from the former and not much closer to the latter. Many more people in the Wes will have to put their liberty and possibly even their lives on the line for that to happen. it is easy to get discouraged by the enormity of the struggle. It is also easy to feel sniffy towards those not ostensibly participating in it and able to go about their day-to-day lives without too much trouble. The protests at my university have been very quiet affairs, with just a handful of staff, and not many more students. But, I feel both pride in and awe at the students. Before our eyes, they are turning into more confident speakers and effective organizers. Their campaigns have become more targeted, and are now demanding concrete steps by the university to end its complicity with the arms trade, rather than general calls for a ceasefire. But, the sight that moves me the most is how tiny they are. It feels like the tiniest frailest students turn up for Palestine. None of them would like out of place in school uniforms.