Dissent & Resistance in America

Non-violent direct action is not meant to be solely peaceful and therefore easily ignored

President Biden’s assertions that “dissent must never lead to disorder” and that there has been a “ferocious surge in antisemitism” since the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas are both nonsensical. The first assertion constitutes a misunderstanding of terminology and of the moment and the second deliberately confuses anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

Let’s look at the deliberate confusion of anti-Zionism with antisemitism as a way to stymie any criticism of the Zionist State of Israel. While Republicans are especially good at this, many (if not most) Democrats certainly don’t shy away from it. Now, both parties are at work in Congress moving legislation called the Antisemitism Awareness Act that would, to quote the opinion piece cited by Michelle Goldberg writing for the New York Times, “…codify, for the purpose of enforcing federal civil rights law in higher education, a definition of antisemitism that includes rejection of Israel as a Jewish state.”

Codifying such a provision into federal law is a direct, unequivocal violation of First Amendment free speech rights and would immediately be challenged in the courts on those grounds. Aside from that, in no way, shape or form is it antisemitism to suggest that a theocratic state like Israel, formed under the Nakba of 1948, shouldn’t exist as a nation-state carved out by colonial powers.

There’s a fundamental difference between stating that Israel should not have come to exist as it has and calling for its downfall. I am certainly not advocating for its total dissolution or downfall or annihilation here. Logical consistency would demand that any person calling for such a thing for Israel would have to make such a call for other nation-states founded on settler colonial genocide and forced migration. I can certainly think of another nation of major consequence in geopolitics that would meet the criteria.

In the absolutely incredible book They Called Me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri, Palestinian youth activist Tamimi makes mention of a hoped-for blended state, as opposed to a two-state solution so often discussed internationally. Tamimi envisions a multi-ethnic, multiracial, multicultural society in modern day Israel that respects what was taken from Palestinians and equally honors both Arab Muslim and non-Arab Jewish Peoples, as well as all others, in the Mediterranean Near East.

Photo by Latrach Med Jamil on Unsplash

If the United States were serious about helping bring peace to the region, the kind of country and region Tamimi discusses would be the goal, but that’s not the case. Israel is very useful from a foreign policy perspective in helping maintain U.S. global hegemony. Our government’s close ties to Israel offer it otherwise unattainable intelligence capabilities as well as a base of military operations. No presidential administration or congress, regardless of party, is going to change that any time soon without immense, earth-shattering public pressure.

This brings me to the discussion of dissent and disruption. College campuses are ideal and in some ways ready-made locations for the kind of uprising we’re seeing across the country in opposition to the genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza. I received a 4-year liberal arts degree (Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Minor in History) from Marshall University in Huntington, WV. I completed coursework on the study of political uprisings, societal upheavals, theories of revolution and histories of the “Third World,” among other related concentrations. Knowledge, awareness and understanding are critical to positive, effective change.

This is exactly why university administrators and the state have used campus security and police forces to crack down so hard on encampments and protest rallies, and why pro-Israel counter-protestors have become violent and disgustingly racist. It is not in the United States government’s best interests to allow the unfettered gain of knowledge, awareness and understanding of both the historical and modern day details of Israeli and Palestinian relations. Nor do colleges and universities consider this in their best interests as business institutions with extensive financial ties to the military industrial complex.

The desire to control the narrative once again extends to social and other forms of media. The federal government has passed legislation to force the sale of TikTok to its own favored corporations or else to ban it in this country entirely, under the guise of “national security.” Israel has driven out the Arab news network Al Jazeera. When propaganda fails, the only thing left is to control the flow of all available information possible.

What these college students are doing, just as students before them did at the height of the Vietnam War and during the Civil Rights Era, is using non-violent direct action to throw the proverbial wrench in the works and to inspire others to do the same. You cannot have effective, meaningful direct action without doing so. To quote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his seminal work “Letter From Birmingham Jail” in 1963:

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a ‘more convenient season.’”

President Biden is now the foremost “moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” Biden’s behavior is losing him critical support he had in 2020 amongst youth, the Muslim community, the Black community and many more. If he loses to a lifelong conman and career criminal who has faced over half-a-billion dollars in civil penalties for fraud and sexual abuse and is facing 88 felony counts across four indictments (Trump if you’re wondering), it will be no one’s fault but his own.

I read just before writing this that Biden’s administration has put arms transfers to Israel on hold because of Israel’s threat to invade Rafah—a last refuge in Gaza for approximately 1.4 million Palestinians, including over 600,000 children. 185 lawyers, including 27 currently within the Biden administration, have advised top military leaders in a recent letter reported on by POLITICO that sending weapons to Israel is now illegal given Israeli violations of humanitarian laws. With over 34,000 dead (and counting), millions permanently displaced, virtually all infrastructure destroyed, lack of potable water and the threat of mass starvation in Gaza, we must be amplifying and echoing and mimicking the disruptions of the college protestors, not quietly allowing their repression.

I will continue to join the calls for an immediate, total ceasefire and a free Palestine. Anything short of that is unacceptable. I will also continue railing against $800 billion to $900 billion annual defense budgets in this country when the Department of Defense has failed six (6) audits and cannot provide an accounting for over 61% of assets. The war machine keeps turning and churning, but silence and dissent with “good behavior” are not options. We must be voices for the voiceless.