Giving ground for peaceful dissent at Johns Hopkins University | STAFF COMMENTARY
On an exceptionally hot spring afternoon at “The Beach” Tuesday, near the East Gate of Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus, a group of about 100 students (with some non-students mixed in) were, in the words of one participant, acting “pretty chill.” Most sat on the grass as if attending a picnic. Food and drinks were provided, there was a scattering of pop-up awnings for shade, and small groups quietly chatted. You might mistake them for undergraduates seeking respite from end-of-semester academic obligations — aside from a few notable differences.
First, many were dressed in keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian scarves. Second, most were wearing facemasks, a precaution not against COVID-19 but to discourage their easy identification as they demonstrated for a second day against Israel for its ongoing retaliation in Gaza, following the mass murder of 1,200 Israelis and others on Oct. 7.
And then there was the list of pro-Palestinian “demands,” which included requiring Hopkins:
- To divest itself of “the Israeli occupation of Palestine”;
- To disclose its investments and “academic complicity in war crimes in Palestine”;
- To boycott the “Israeli educational military-industrial complex”;
- To “demilitarize,” primarily by no longer accepting U.S. Department of Defense research dollars;
- And to denounce the “current genocide of Palestine since 1948.”
These stipulations, written by a group of university students and affiliates known as the Hopkins Justice Collective, were repeated with great urgency from a makeshift stage (and at great volume, thanks to a portable sound system) into the evening. The crowd would later double that night, and some would set up tents to camp out, despite university warnings that anyone who stayed beyond 8 p.m. would be violating school policy and risking academic discipline or law enforcement intervention.
But compared to some peer schools from Los Angeles to New York, it was a pretty civil affair. Unlike in some other areas, outright hate speech did not appear to be norm, though some participants admitted it might occur as passions flare among those appalled by the mounting deaths in Gaza, which number more than 34,000, many of them, if not most, civilians.
On the whole, the rhetoric at the Hopkins’ protest could pass for the kind of energetic political talk one overhears at a campus cafeteria — unapologetically outraged, with a moral certainty that betrays their collective youth. But then, isn’t sophomoric behavior exactly what we should expect from 19-year-olds?
That lesson seems too often lost in the nonstop coverage of pro-Palestinian — or Anti-Jew, depending on your perspective — protests on campuses in recent days. We don’t condone hate speech directed at Jews or Muslims or anyone else. And we also recognize that colleges have the right to set boundaries. Arresting or threatening to expel those who might seize control of a campus building is reasonable. Yet students on each side must be allowed to peacefully express political dissent. If we can’t tolerate that at our universities, where exactly can we have a free and full debate?
Ronald J. Daniels, Hopkins’ president, seems to understand this. Perhaps it’s a result of his experience in 2019, when a sit-in over the creation of a campus police force escalated out of control. This time his administration was both willing to engage with protest leaders and to stand firm, banning overnight encampments, but not yet taking action against transgressions. Setting reasonable limits has so far proven a practical formula. Whether Hopkins leadership agrees with much of what’s being said on The Beach, they recognize that students have a right to say it. That’s appropriate.
Saturday will mark an important anniversary in college protests in this country. It is the 54th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, where four college students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard soldiers reacting to protests of the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. Instead of shutting down the resistance, however, the tragic crackdown in Ohio triggered anti-war protests nationwide. Authoritarian efforts to silence young people often inevitably lead to worse outcomes. The better solution would be for more people to listen and seek a dialogue. On campus Tuesday, young people were happy to talk. Hearing them out, and others we disagree with, while offering counterpoints, could help us all understand one another better and, we hope, take significant steps toward resolving our differences.
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