Re: Benamin: Our Words Have Fatal Weight
As a Jewish student, the mischaracterization of the intifada as antisemitic delegitimizes actual claims of antisemitism, and fuels antisemitism by associating the genocide in Palestine with our religion. In fact, our texts plainly condemn it. Instead, we should weigh the meanings of protesters' words.
Intifada is an Arabic term that means resistance or “shaking off.” Globalize the intifada means, in simple terms, to globalize the resistance. This resistance has historically taken many forms — as we have seen here on Dartmouth campus through peaceful protests, encampments and teach-ins. Resistance can be just that — peaceful. Indeed, both of the Palestinian intifadas prominently featured nonviolent methods of resistance, including mass protests, boycotts and strikes.
“Globalize the intifada,” is not a call for violence against Jews — it is a call to resist the systemic systems violence being levied against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and throughout historic Palestine.
This is a time in our community when the last thing we need is for the meanings of words to be weaponized and misrepresented. When students cry “free Palestine,” what we really mean is: free Palestine and its people from an unjust and cruel settler-colonial occupation. We do not mean to harm or cause fear in anyone; what we mean is for people to hear us when we say: “Free the oppressed. Stop the injustice.”
Jordan Narrol is a member of the Class of 2025 and a political activist in the Palestine Solidarity Coalition, Sunrise Movement and several other groups on campus. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
