Stacey Seaside

When you don’t like something

You speak out

Voice is a powerful tool

And in democracies,

From their creation almost 3 millennia ago

We, as citizens, are encouraged to use our voice

To express our content and discontent

With government rules–the actions our elected leaders take in our name

Peaceful protests can topple governments.

Governments Fall

In Greece we know this all too well.

There has been a contagion of protest movements on college campuses around the globe.

These demonstrations have been ignited by moral outrage at the slaughter of innocent women and children in Gaza.

In democracies, the right to assemble and the right to free speech are fundamental pillars of individual liberty and collective expression. These rights are often enshrined in constitutions or legal frameworks as fundamental human rights.

Protests provoke action

US college campuses are no stranger to peaceful protests.

Thanks to the protests that took place in 1968, students appalled at the unnecessary carnage of a foreign war, used their voices effectively. Those demonstrations led to the removal of US troops in Vietnam.

Greece and the Polytechnic Uprising

In Greece we have been watching our share of student protests since 1973.

In the early hours of November 17, 1973, a tank smashed through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic, to crush pro-democracy protests led by students on the campus. Disgust at the deadly attempt to subdue the demonstrations helped to end Greece’s seven-year military dictatorship.

The students occupied the university and demanded an end to the dictatorship. The junta responded with brutal force, escalating to violence that ended with many deaths.

Unarmed students protesting peacefully helped return democracy to Greece.

The anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising, 51 years later, is honoured as a symbol of resistance against authoritarianism and is commemorated annually with demonstrations and memorials for those who gave their lives to speak out.

Bravo to the contemporary demonstrators

I congratulate the students across the globe, who voice their disgust through peaceful protest and demonstration on campus. They express their moral outrage at the killings of tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza, most of them women and children.

The October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history, killing 1,200 people.

Hamas, the governing authority in the Palestinian territories, which includes Gaza, is a terrorist organization funded by Iran, according to the U.S. State Department. During the attack from Gaza, Hamas took more than 240 Israelis hostage.

Approximately 100 are still being held, among them a handful of Americans. Israel has retaliated, killing an estimated 34,000 Palestinians and injuring at least 75,000. Millions have been displaced from their homes in Gaza.

Protests: freedom to speak or antisemitic?

The protests have triggered debates over free speech on campuses and what is considered antisemitic speech.

Many of the demonstrators are themselves Jewish.

Some protests in the U.S. have drawn accusations of antisemitism, which Jewish groups say has been on the rise in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war.

Student protesters have rejected the accusation, with some saying claims of antisemitism are being weaponized against them in an effort to dismiss criticisms of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

For the past month, thousands of students at more than 130 colleges and universities in 45 states have been protesting what they see as the Biden administration’s pro-Israel policies.

They have held rallies and sit-ins, some living in on-campus encampments, and are asking their school administrations for financial divestment from Israel. The students insist their actions are a reaction to the human rights abuses being documented in real time on social media.

More than 2,000 protesters had been arrested.

Arrests defended as protecting our children

In proudly defending the mass arrests in New York, Mayor Eric Adams did not focus on trespassing or the disruption to campus life.

What he emphasized instead was the urgent need to literally police an ideological threat.

“These are our children,” he said, “and we can’t allow them to be radicalized.”

Seriously?

Freedom of speech and the right to assemble is being labelled as radical?

Greek Universities and the Asylum Law

In Greece, universities often serve as spaces for political activism and expression of dissent. There have been instances where students sought refuge on campuses during protests or demonstrations and laws have flipped back and forth since 1982 making university campuses no-man’s land for police.

For decades following the brute force and death by tank on November 17 on the campus of the Polytechnic, police were rarely allowed on university campuses in Greece without express permission from the school and the approval of a prosecutor, even in emergencies.

The university asylum law was aimed at protecting students and free speech. The liberties it afforded were exploited over the years, by anarchists and minor offenders. Clad in black and concealed by baklavas, they damaged private property and launched Molotov cocktails at police and bystanders and made their escape to university campuses.

Greece’s long-standing asylum privilege which prevented police authorities from accessing university campuses was abolished in 2019.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech and the right to assemble are fundamental pillars of democratic governance. These rights allow individuals to express their opinions, beliefs, and grievances without fear of government reprisal.

Freedom of speech ensures that diverse perspectives can be heard, fostering debate and the exchange of ideas essential for a healthy democracy. Likewise, the right to assemble enables people to gather peacefully, whether for protest, advocacy, or community-building, thereby empowering citizens to collectively express their voices and influence public policy.

These rights are essential for upholding individual liberty, promoting accountability in government, and safeguarding democratic principles.

The First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Demonstrating peacefully against Israeli policy is not antisemitic

The conservatives are labelling these protests as “antisemitic”

Campus leadership has been pressured to reign in the “radicalization” of these students

In some instances, it has turned violent; it has turned antisemitic.

In these cases–absolutely–these folks need to stand down. Arrests need to be made.

Freedom of speech does not protect anyone to spew racist language.

The freedom to speak and the freedom to assemble and demonstrate is not a license to destroy property or promote racism.

Hope, finally in Biden putting on the brakes?

President Biden said the U.S. would continue to supply defensive weapons to support the Iron Dome over Israel, but it would not send offensive weapons to Israel if it went forward with its controversial invasion of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians have taken shelter from Israeli strikes.

The administration has publicly opposed that invasion since Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced it. “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah,” Biden said.

When and where this will all end is the million-dollar question.

In the meantime

Continue to use your voice in peaceful demonstration.

It got the US out of Vietnam.

It toppled the regime of the military junta in Greece.

Already universities across the globe are promising to financially divest from Israel. This is one of the requests being voiced by college demonstrators.

Classes have gone online, exams have been delayed and commencement ceremonies have been cancelled.

Well worth it if it means peace for our neighbours across the sea.

Use your voice peacefully.

I am using mine here.