They were arrested for just being there. This is absolute bullshit. In the 90s, there was a protest camp there against the Gulf War that was there 24/7. I know because I was in it sometimes, helping to cook food and do other things to keep it a place to live in.
In the 80s, there was a semi-permanent shantytown there to protest South African apartheid.
This is utter bullshit.
Believe me, if I could have done that in the title, I sure as hell would have. This is absolutely unacceptable.
It’s a play on words purposefully used by the US media in order to frame the protests as a versus. “If it’s pro-palestine then it must be anti-israel.” I’ve seen Canadian articles that call them “Gaza protests”, which is far more accurate.
That is not the implication I am getting from those headlines. Those people are pro-Palestinian, as we all should be.
I agree that we should all support a free and independent Palestine, but that’s not the game the American media is playing. All you have to do is look at “conservative” media to see the strategy play out. “Pro-palestine must mean anti-israel.”
But that doesn’t say ‘pro-Palestine?’
And I really don’t think that the IDS is part of this media machine you’re talking about considering the articles are written by students.
I meant that naming the protests as “pro-palestine” immediately sets up the narrative as an “one versus the other”, which leads to " anti-israel" headlines like the one I shared. That narrative distracts people from the main objective, which is to halt the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Okay, but again, I really don’t think an IU student newspaper run and written by students is trying to contribute to that narrative. I really doubt they’ve taken a “simp for Israel” journalism class.
I don’t know who downvoted you, but it wasn’t me.
The problem with little word games like “pro-palestine” instead of “anti-genocide” is that they are very sneaky and become the default verbiage before we can realize the effect they can have. To this day you still find people arguing against climate change because once upon a time we called it “global warming”.
It is easier to argue against Palestine than it is to defend genocide.
I don’t disagree with you in general, I just think in this specific case, the students writing the article are more likely to be sympathetic to the protesters fight against the genocide.
As far as downvoting, don’t sweat it, it doesn’t bother me. People are allowed to not like what I have to say.