(And no, the situation with TikTok in the U.S. is not even remotely the same thing, as that’s about hoovering up personal data on U.S. youth and funneling it into China’s dystopian deep learning infrastructure, which can be avoided by TikTok being divested by and severing all data ties with China.)
I haven't dig too much in TikTok but some people say that the bill opens the door for future ban of social media at will, i.e., anybody can be accused that acts as foreign agent this kind of thing.
Chanting “from the river to the sea” without understanding the context is also monumentally stupid.
Yes it's stupid and unfair, but it's not just Palestinians that say it.
Just discovered: 1977 charter of Likud (Netanyahu's) party in Israel was claiming exactly that, from the river to the sea. Clean of Palestinian people. This is a major party not some niche extremists. Look below video at 4:10. Note that in this case "from the river to the sea" was an actual policy that led to settlements, unlawful military occupation and apartheid-like conditions for Palestinians for decades, not just chanting.
From the river to the sea is exactly what Zionism is all about. And tens thousands of dead Palestinian children would wish it was only a chant.
I was expecting you would be somehow critical on the crack on first Amendment issues with the antisemitism awareness bill & violent resolve of the protests. Almost surprised that you didn't.
Anyway, the protests have nothing to do with Hamas, students have the decency to risk their future and careers* to protest about killings and starving (we tend to omit that) of Palestinian people. Below Bernie Sanders' view:
*This is huge and might be unprecedented. US students pay large fees and still risk of getting banned from school for being arrested and they do it regardless. One has to give it to them that they have values in their life. They should be proud.
I'm pretty sure back in Paris, May 1968, there wasn't a risk to getting barred from University if you were caught. Or in US for that matter.
No matter if one agrees with the protesters or not, this is a great moment that people show at last some resistance to political ugliness. Those are not desperate people, those are children with a future who risk their future to protest. Some tomorrow's leaders will be forged there and maybe the world will become eventually a better place even a little bit. I have a big respect for them.