Dealing with the ‘terror’ on American campuses

It was only last week that we were celebrating minister Mamman Tahir’s campaign to exclusively reserve university admissions to confirmed adults. Little could we have known that his theory would receive global acclaim from no less a country than America and its neighbour, Canada. After weeks of protests that escalates over America’s support for Israel’s war against ‘Hamas’, pampered and pamper-wearing American students have gradually turned their campuses into protest centres. The last time that the ivory tower aligned with Main Street in opposition to official government policy was in March 2003 prior to the Iraq War.

These ignorant protesters were not suffering from memory lapse, they were suckling in 2003 and have not read their history books on the futility of these kinds of protests. When it comes to American government support for Israeli politics, trying to make American leaders change tactics is much like hitting one’s head against Aso Rock in protest against Tinubu’s economic policies. It serves no purpose. Indeed, on this issue, both the Democrats and Republicans have the same policy – an eternal support for Israel against its enemies.

On Sunday, pro-Palestinian protesters disbanded their campsite after they were surrounded by law enforcement and told they could face possible arrests. These nappy-wearing, feeding bottle-sucking students know that this issue is not a First Amendment issue. Powerful influencers and global market employers have loudly voiced their policies against any form of anti-Israeli protest especially its current onslaught.

In Canada, the Ontario legislature took a bold step to prevent growing pro-Palestinian support by students and some members of the public. It took measures to prevent US-style campus protests but above all, it outlawed the wearing of the keffiyeh within its parliament. The iconic wear, also known as ghutrah in Arabic that originated from Iraq with symbols of olive leaves, bold routes and fishnets symbolising strength, cultural exchange and sailing is equally a symbol of Palestinian resilience. It is traditionally worn in many Arabic countries across the Middle East. There were protests against the ban but after failing to secure the needed votes to remain a cultural symbol at the legislature, it is now an offence to wear it in the usually pacifist Ontario legislature.

In America, not only are these protests becoming illegal, the House of Representatives has voted by a large majority to expand the definition of antisemitism to cover these protests. Some employers of organised labour have vowed not to hire any known protesters and are calling for them to be banned from public and private employment.

A conflict existing thousands of miles away from the American shores is now as symbolic as the apocalyptic number of the beast for anyone voicing their discontent with the silently loud war in the Middle East. This is a test of the meaning and elasticity of democracy, freedom of choice and association as well as the right to dissent, usually guaranteed by America’s First Amendment.

Trouble started in far-away Israel October 7, when some terrorists tore through the veneer of pyrrhic peace existing between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours. That was the day that Israel reported that Hamas-trained terrorists invaded its territory killing 1,200 and kidnapping 250 others. This widely condemned attack was not taken lying down by Israel, which officially renamed Hamas a terror group with a swear to exterminate it completely off the Palestinian landscape.

It did not wait for the usual UN backing when it marched its army across the international boundaries into Palestinian territory, destroying everything along the way. Quoting “Hamas-run health ministry”, the BBC recently disclosed that 34,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, with nearly 80,000 wounded. Those who believe that there are internationally recognised laws on war have been silently moaning that the mode of carrying out this decision to wipe out Hamas conforms to international rules of engagement.

Even where Palestinians were forewarned to move out of their ancestral homes to designated civilian corridors, the non-discriminatory bombs of the Israeli army have found them in their supposed safe havens. They include traditionally designated hospitals that Israel has discovered had terror tunnels. Both sides have been belligerent in closing every attempt at a negotiated settlement of the conflict with the attendant global escalation. Some sizzy observers even fear that a more prolonged escalation of this conflict might result in the Third World War.

At first, independent observers blamed Hamas for poking the Tiger’s nose. Over time, some have argued that the force applied by the Israelis and the casualty figures are not commensurate with the initial crime as if this type of criminality is measurable by any standard.

The crisis between Israel and Hamas, as the global media has been reporting it has further polarised the world into pro and anti. Unfortunately, this characterisation belittles the most important issue of the effect of this immediate and underlying politics as the tragedy of humanity. That in the year 2024, 76 years after the State of Israel was established on Palestinian land, and with the chains of degrees issued on conflict resolution, we are still here is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions.

It is also a failure of democracy and its ideals that governments across the globe have not been able to reach a consensus on how to make both Israelis and Palestinians, both grandchildren of Patriarch Abraham to find a way of living tolerably is another tragedy. The only losers of this strong head by all contending forces are humans whose basic desire is to live and aspire to flourish like the rest of humanity.

There will be no winners in this war, whichever way the pendulum of battle swings, other than for enablers on all sides to start working for peace and entente. Whatever it takes to bring all sides to the negotiating table in search of peace would be worth it. Guns have never won any war, because the end of wars hardly signifies the sustenance of peace.

The fact that the Israeli-Hamas war has taken global attention away from other spots of war across the globe such as the war in Sudan that has entered its second year with 15,000 killed and over two million displaced is a reflection of this tragedy. The distraction by this conflict has also prevented global leaders from celebrating Canada’s significant win in its climate challenge. It is distracting from focusing on the effects of climate change policies on parts of the globe, such as Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of Africa known to have contributed negligible footprints to the climate crisis but are now at the receiving end of its devastating impact.

If ever there is a needless war, it is this one and how it pitches the world’s governments against each other. Its potential for forcing a global religious war cannot be over-emphasised. If ever there is the need to change the dynamics of global war and global peacekeeping and enforcement, this is one such moment. Eternal belligerency can only lead the globe towards self-annihilation, especially with the presence of real weapons of mass destruction by superpowers and the deployment of artificial intelligence in the pursuit of avoidable conflicts.