Meanwhile on the International front....

Maybe it's just me, but when you make a statement that includes the phrase "here is a list of our demands" — no matter the situation — you've crossed a line from airing grievances or protesting an injustice to something much more threatening. It implies that there is no room for negotiation. Capitulate, or else.
These protestors are not just walking around with signs and chanting annoying sing-song slogans. They're attempting to intimidate people from the ordinary student walking across campus, to college administrators, all the way up to national politicians. They've stopped being sympathetic, if they ever were, and have become a menace.

 

With respect, I was making the lunch counter comparison to highlight there are disruptive tactics. The why is immaterial to my argument and I'm not suggesting we hail the Gaza protesters as heroes. And blocking access to a classroom is hardly on the same level as blocking traffic. It is a tactic that has legal consequences and should not have consequences because it was a protest.

And my history of the reason is hardly ahistorical. The British (colonizers) had a mandate and promised the area to the Jews who migrated to the area. The migration disrupted people living there who had roots in the region since the Diaspora and the fall of Rome. I just am not going to get into a full history lesson to make a larger point about protesting. And my whole point was to respectfully disagree with OOP regarding whether people who are protesting should be punished for protesting.

And I respect your passion for the topic too because it is personal for you. I can't begin to tell you what is right or wrong about the topic because you have a personal stake that I cannot understand. But, with respect, I am merely talking about people getting punished for protesting. I was trying to highlight the complicated history of the topic to largely say there is no way to win here. Someone is getting pissed off. Please, my heart goes out to your loved ones/friends caught up in this (if I am not mistaken. I believe it was you who posted something about that). I just am an observer with no personal skin in the game and just wanting voices to be respectful but also to be heard.

 

"Demands" are pretty standard.

1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

on 8 December the MIA issued a formal list of demands: courteous treatment by bus operators; first-come, first-served seating for all, with blacks seating from the rear and whites from the front; and black bus operators on predominately black routes. The demands were not met, and Montgomery’s black residents stayed off the buses through 1956, despite efforts by city officials and white citizens to defeat the boycott.

1969

https://fivedemands.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

1978 / 1983

https://williamsrecord.com/459549/f...tudents-pushed-for-divestment-from-apartheid/

The students then presented their demands: first, divestment from corporations refusing to sign the Sullivan Principles, a corporate code of conduct that required signatories to implement non-segregationist and equal employment practices; second, withdrawal of short-term deposits from banks that extend loans to South Africa; third, a restructuring of the ACSR so that students and faculty were directly elected; and fourth, a public meeting between WAAC and the trustees. Students also demanded that the College divest from 15 companies cited by WACC for non-compliance with the Sullivan Principles.

1990

Largest Morgan student protest 33 years ago, where are we now? | The Spokesman

Among the students’ list of demands were improvements to security on campus, better financial aid packages, improvements to dormitory and academic buildings that had roaches and crumbling walls, longer nursing office hours, and the reinstatement of eliminated faculty positions.


and so forth.

 

One group needs to be protected by gear so they can protect others. The other group is hiding their faces to hide from any consequences for their actions.

If people are going to invoke the civil rights movement in defense of their chickenshit actions, let's remember that Dr. King had no problem facing the consequences of protesting even though, in many cases, there shouldn't have been any.

 

I'm not saying they should be punished for protesting, but colleges and universities have a right to discipline students who do not follow their policies and directives, as many of these protesters are failing to do. Regarding future opportunities, character judgments are part of any hiring process. Protestors don't have an absolute right to hide from that part of the process.

 

I just can't hear that phrase without hearing it in a heavily modulated voice demanding a ransom, or accompanied by, "We will shoot one hostage every hour until these demands are met."

 

CONFERANCE

 

I don't mean to mischaracterize. I was going off the thing that kicked this all off being Alabama being Alabama and wanting to yank scholarships (IIRC) for being in the protests. I had qualms about that. You had specific concerns about people involved in the protests. I believe care needs to be taken when handing out punishments to protesters to not step on 1A rights, but I believe you have a specific place you are coming from. So apologies if I mischaracterized. While your motives are around disruption and stamping out antisemitism, I do worry this can be used as a way to silence voices for saying things people don't like without the motives you possess.

 

No worries. I could have been clearer about that.

They can speak all they want, but they should own it. That's a fair request.

 

Are any of these protesters going to say anything about any of the other atrocities? Or just Israel and Palestine?

Children ‘piled up and shot’: new details emerge of ethnic cleansing in Darfur