What’s wrong with protesting about something you’re mistaken about?

In the 1960s, while the United States was in the midst of the war in Vietnam, massive protests broke out against the draft and our involvement in the war. Students across the country marched and chanted against what they perceived to be an unjustified war and a racist and classist conscription. Supporters of the war argued that the protesters were misguided and that the war was necessary to halt the spread of communism. 

During the same general period, thousands of students were demonstrating in the Civil Rights movement, conducting sit-ins in the very same halls where the Pro-Palestinian student protesters are now. 

The current protests are at least as polarizing as the anti-war and civil rights movements were in their time. Many are incensed that students across the country would be so thoroughly radicalized as to support terrorist organizations and chant antisemitic phrases – understandably so. As misguided as some of those students are, most have refrained from antisemitism and have condemned both sides for the innocent people they have each killed.

Nevertheless, detractors might think that Israel has a right to defend itself and destroy Hamas despite the civilian casualties. This should hardly lead us to condemn the movement as a whole or to call for universities and police departments to crack down on these mostly peaceful protests. 

There’s nothing wrong with protesting. It’s actually great, although I don’t partake much myself. Even if the protesters are wrong, as long as the violence is kept to a minimum and the message isn’t clearly morally repugnant, our condemnation of these students should be tempered. 

The ability to protest is a beautiful feature of democratic nations like ours. Societies are never perfect, which means that there will always be worthy causes to champion. The debates that inspire protests are typically polarizing and it can be difficult to give a conclusive argument one way or the other. But protests bring a case forward to the court of public opinion. They cause our nation’s consciousness to reflect on whether an injustice is actually taking place. 

When the public’s interest is piqued by widespread demonstrations like the ones we’re seeing today, reporters and organizations focus on gathering evidence about it, as has happened with the Israel-Hamas war. The more information we have, the better positioned we are to have a robustly supported opinion, irrespective of what side of the debate you fall on.

Even if you disagree with the pro-Palestinian protesters, you should be happy that our youth care enough about preventing injustice that they’re willing to camp out and face academic and legal consequences for their beliefs. Well, the part about camping actually sounds fun but many have been suspended by their universities and thousands have been arrested. 

A society where individuals are willing to suffer personal consequences to stop what they believe to be an injustice is better than a society where the masses are too self-interested to care. The keyword here is believe. We can be wrong about the existence of an injustice or we can fail to account for reasons against our beliefs. But if some believe that such an injustice exists, it’s generally a good sign for society that they are determined to bring it to an end.

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So what’s the big deal if some university students go protesting? The issue is not so black and white so as to make it completely incomprehensible how these students could believe that they are fighting for a worthy cause. 

Of course, this doesn’t include students who are openly antisemitic or expressing support for Hamas, but for any topic worth discussing there will be irrational extremists who only follow their emotional responses and are willing to commit themselves to absurd positions to preserve their ideology. We should resist the urge to attribute the vicious beliefs of the extremists to the entire movement.

Those who disagree with the motivations of the pro-Palestinian protests don’t have to celebrate them. Even so, they should understand that most of these students aren’t radical antisemites, they have just come to believe that a great wrong is being committed and are trying to do their part to improve our state of affairs. Even if we suppose that they’re wrong, good intentions count don’t they?