It warms my ancient, withered heart to see the news of all the campus protests popping up around the country lately, nowhere more than at my alma mater, Indiana University. I continue to stand by the position I held when this most recent disaster started back in October: I have absolutely no idea how to solve the problem of Israel/Palestine, but I am absolutely certain that Benjamin Netanyahu should be nowhere near it, and while I don’t know what we should do, carpet bombing Gaza and murdering 30,000 people, half of which are children, is absolutely and unequivocally not what should be done.

Are there people at, and around, these protests who are advocating other policies that I am going to disagree with? Yep. I’m sure there are. I’m also capable of enough nuance to recognize that one guy screaming “Death to Jews” or whatever does not cancel out hundreds of other people suggesting peacefully that maybe their university ought not to invest their tuition money in apartheid regimes. Being anti-Zionist does not equate to antisemitism, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some out there.

But, one way or another, this is an example of people using their power to bring attention to an issue that has a chance of achieving the goals that they want. The more pressure that can be brought upon US institutions in general, not just the government, to put pressure on the Israeli government to stop acting like fucking monsters, the better. And the great thing is that it’s clearly working– you didn’t hear squat about any kind of anti-Zionist movements a few years ago, and being openly pro-Palestinian was virtually unheard of. They’re moving their position into the mainstream with these protests, which is what needs to be done in order to effect any kind of systematic change. Good for them. I’m proud.