After a wave of pro-Palestine encampments rocked college campuses this spring, many student demonstrators have returned home for the summer break. But that doesn't mean that the local protest movement is quieting down.
As Israel continues its war in Gaza, including the recent invasion of the city of Rafah, pro-Palestinian organizers in western Massachusetts said they will continue protesting. That includes groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, which is planning a 24-hour event this month that will feature educational programming, a vigil and other activities.
"There are many different organizations and individuals working in coalition to create events, some of which focus more on disruption, some of which focus more on education of the public, some of which focus on ritual and holding containers for grief," said Kaia Jackson, an organizer with the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. “There's a lot in process as the situation continues to escalate in Rafah and in Gaza.”
Local students are also staying involved.
“I imagine that the summer of 2024 will find students organizing in their backyards, on social media, planning and thinking things out," said Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Massachusetts.
Amatul-Wadud said that recently, high school students reached out to her office asking how to organize. It's something her organization will teach at its upcoming leadership program for Muslim high schoolers. During regular years, that program helps students work to build collective power so that they can ask for religious holidays off, for example. But this year,
Amatul-Wadud said she expects students to continue speaking out against the war locally.
“We’ll continue to see vigils and protests and actions,” she said. “Even if we don’t see particularly young people out in the ways that we’ve seen them before by virtue of them being in school, you’re going to see them more in the fall.”
Recently, Amatul-Wadud was part of a small group of Muslim leaders who met with Gov. Maura Healey. She said one of the things she asked Healey was to use her position to advise colleges and universities to “give grace” to young people who were arrested or disciplined for engaging in pro-Palestine protests.
“Usually we applaud dissenters in the political realm but right now it seems like we’re overly punitive to this young generation of dissenters, and I asked her to make space for them,” she said. “Because they shouldn’t have long-lasting, detrimental consequences for speaking political dissent in America.”
