There must be a path to peace between student encampments and universities

Somewhere between tear gas and batons to disperse a student march blocking streets (University of Quebec in Montreal) and capitulation to ultimatums from shouty demonstrators at prestige institutions (Rutgers, Brown, Northwestern), there’s got to be a rational denouement that doesn’t absolve hotheads and outside agitators.

Just as somewhere between the celebration for four hostages rescued in central Gaza by Israeli special forces on the weekend and scores of Palestinians simultaneously killed in airstrikes during the extraction, there has to be an off-ramp for a devastating military offensive now into its eighth month, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. But not likely the deeply flawed ceasefire proposal being pushed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday — an initial six-week suspension of hostilities with an Israeli military withdrawal from populated areas of the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of some hostages while “a permanent end to hostilities” is negotiated through mediators.

Both sides have balked. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the conditions for ending the war “have not changed.” He remains committed (and pinioned by hard-right elements in his governing coalition) to the total eradication of Hamas, which, according to reports, has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, mostly concentrated around Rafah. For its part, Hamas hasn’t yet provided a formal response to the proposal and still cleaves to a complete end to the war, not just a temporary ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly ruled out.

In the Wall Street Journal, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was quoted telling Arab negotiators that the group would not budge from its permanent ceasefire demand and would not agree to disarm as part of any deal.

That’s all a world away from what’s still unfolding on university campuses in Canada, America and elsewhere — though, interestingly, not at universities in Israel. Some 66,000 Palestinian students attend university in Israel. Are many students camping out due to a genuine concern for Palestinian lives? No doubt. But with their shaky grasp of history, many have driven the protests towards anti-Israel, sometimes antisemitic, demonstrations that have coalesced primarily around the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which Canada’s Parliament formally rejected in 2016 by a vote of 229-51.

At least a dozen encampments have been disassembled in recent weeks, as students square up to their post-academic future, having potentially put their hiring — beyond the ivied walls of academia — at risk whilst burdened with student loans. Reality bites.

As of Sunday, there were about 80 encampments left in the U.S. and, according to a timeline on the University Affairs website, four in Canada.

Extinguishing the bivouacs has been achieved through a combination of police intervention, negotiations, concessions — including promises of scholarships for displaced Palestinian students and disclosing university investments — and flat out yielding by protesters. At Harvard and other institutions, administrators have pledged to expedite reinstatement of suspended students, basically granting amnesty. In the crunch, many students have proven unwilling to absorb the actual consequences of civil disobedience.

In 1965, during an appearance on “Meet the Press,” Rev. Martin Luther King addressed the principles of peaceful civil disobedience: “When one breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust, he must do it openly, he must do it cheerfully, he must do it lovingly, he must do it civilly — not uncivilly — and he must do it with a willingness to accept the penalty.”

At Harvard, when students folded their tents on May 14, the encampment coalition admitted in a statement posted to X that “the utility of this tactic has ended.” Adding, about negotiations with the university: “We do not believe these meetings are divestment wins. These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure & divestment. Rest assured, they will not. Our fight for Palestinian liberation does not begin nor end with this encampment.”

But the global student uprising against Israel — a sliver of university populations — has earned a big fat hurrah from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a letter posted to X on June 2, commending them for “standing on the right side of history.”

“You have now formed a branch of the Resistance Front and have begun an honourable struggle in the face of your government’s ruthless pressure — which openly supports Zionists,” wrote Khamenei, addressing pro-Palestinian students in the U.S. This from the head of the world’s leading exporter of terrorism.

But hey, congrats.