Their voice is their only weapon… – Leading column by AKEL Political Bureau member Eleni Mavrou

 

 

Sunday 28 April 2024, “Haravgi” newspaper

“Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza sleep in the cold every night without any access to food or shelter. The tents we put up are the least we can do in support”…

“There are no universities left in Gaza. So we are claiming our University for the people of Palestine”…

“They call us terrorists, they say we are violent. But the only weapon we have is our voices”…

Voices of students from New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Austin, Minnesota, Connecticut, Atlanta…

Over 40 universities have been occupied in the US since April 17. Thousands of students have been rejecting the logic of equal distance and protesting against the ongoing massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza and against the US military support for Israel, demanding from their universities that they stop cooperating with arms industries and companies are doing business with Israel.

On their side are many of their Professors, who insist that “a university is not simply a knowledge factory” and declare that “a university that cannot tolerate free expression is not worthy of its name”.

The violence exerted against students is immense. More than 100 Columbia University students were arrested, and some of the leaders of the protest movement have been expelled from the university. More than 100 protesters were arrested at Emerson University in Boston. Mounted police officers arrested dozens of students at the University of Texas, Austin. Dozens of students were also arrested at Yale. Students at Emory University in Atlanta were forcibly removed by police, who admitted using chemicals against them.

Meanwhile, in Gaza.

…the latest tally is at least 34,000 dead and over 77,000 wounded. The number of children killed during Israel’s relentless bombardment is more than 14,000.

…the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, is “shocked” by the mass graves uncovered under the ruins of two flattened hospitals.

… “We are approaching day by day a state of famine”, says Gian Carlo Chiri, director of the World Food Programme (WFP), as Israel blocks humanitarian supplies

…the destruction of Gaza will take many years just to remove the rubble, let alone reverse it.

The student protests are therefore but the voice of those who insist on feeling human.