Israel Protests in UCC
Posted on January 13, 2009 - Filed Under College, International Politics | 1 Comment
I understand the sentiment, but what good is shouting slogans on campus supposed to do for the people of Gaza? Also, why is it that only Israel draws these kind of protests? I don’t recall any anti-Chinese protests last year when China started cracking heads in Tibet. I don’t recall any protests against the Burmese government in 2007 (granted, college wasn’t really underway when the junta started killing people, but someone could still have made a fuss once the term began). I don’t recall seeing any protests against the Sudanese government in the 4 years I’ve been here.
I’m not trying to denigrate the protesters’ motives, and there are good reasons to demand more of Israel, a democracy, than of a military junta in Burma, but sometimes it seems like people are only too eager to lash out at Israel, but then fail to muster the same level of indignation when other countries commit atrocities. Maybe I’m guilty of this too.
Of course, this observation does nothing to undercut the fact that the Israeli government’s bombing for votes in Gaza is disgraceful, and I find their wanton disregard for Gaza’s civilian population appalling, but I find it a little peculiar that so much opprobrium gets heaped on Israel while the vile behaviour other, arguably far more dastardly, states goes unremarked upon.
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I suppose the standard response, which you allude to is something like “we hold them to higher standards”. I know I certainly spend a lot more time complaining about Bush than I do about Hu Jintao (whose name I’ve probably misspelled). That said, holding different nations to different standards probably won’t offer much incentive for the particularly nasty ones to change their ways.