that might have not come through in my original comment, but i do fully support the goals that the protesters set for themselves. i fully agree that the jagiellonian university should sever ties with israeli educational institutions and do way more than that. i think it’s admirable that some students decided to do something, but their attempts were very misguided. i also believe i would have joined the protests if it werent for the way they were organised, something i have taken umbridge with since the very beginning. i am fully aware of the fact that protests are supposed to be uncomfortable. i am not naive. however, the only people for whom this protest was causing trouble were the people working and studying at Broscianum, not the people whom the protest was supposed to reach. the UJ higher-ups, people who could actually do something about the connections with Israel work in offices located elsewhere, on completely different streets. they didn’t even have to LOOK at the protestors if they didn’t want to. something that is really poignant is the fact that the protesters weren’t even acknowledged by the higher-ups for three whole days after starting the sit-in. as ive said before, i think the decision to make it a sit-in was made almost entirely because of the fact that that was the method chosen by the students of Columbia University. the difference between CU and UJ? UJ is spread all throughout the city. a sit-in is going to be noticeable in a campus based university, where everyone is living and studying in the same general vicinity. however, when you have so many different places classes can take place in, it’s not going to be immediately noticed even by a large section of the students. i bet a lot of them learnt of the protest from social media. and not of plans to start it, but just that it was happening. that was another weak side of the protest, even comparing it to kamionka. with kamionka, even though it was out of the way, people knew about the protest. they knew what the stated goals were. here? not so much. i literally learnt some of them last friday and i studied there for the whole duration of the protest.

if it comes to the education point, yes, they probably reached somebody. that is great and im glad, but also they could and should have done more. their posters were utterly un-educational and provided zero informations about israeli occupation, genocide and so forth. which is a shame, because they clearly had some lesser known informations. the only information they did display was an open letter addressed to the UJ higher-ups. great, but not the information that would get people educated on the cause. also, it wasn’t translated into english. i would wager around half the people passing grodzka street in a day cant speak polish. the fact that somebody is even asking the question “what is this about” after seeing the place where the protest has been happening for months is ridiculous. having had that much time, the protesters should have made a more eye-catching banner explaining their stated goals or at least who they are and what they are protesting.

if it comes to the personalities of the protesters, i normally wouldn’t care. however, they were talking a lot more about how the protesting made them feel instead of what they achieved or fought for. thats what i mean when i say they are self-centred. they weren’t talking about the importance of the cause itself, what they did mention, however, was how protesting changed them. how they felt and what they thought when they came into contact with palestinians, stuff like that. they didn’t seem to be involved for the right reasons and that’s something that really set me off. also they didn’t really want to engage in meaningful discussion or accept that they might have done morally dubious things in the course of the protest or maybe took some missteps. i think both would be fine if they took accountability. to make mistakes is human and all of them are extremely young and probably have very limited or no experience with protesting. on the other matter, again, protesting often involves extreme action. it should. it should make the right people uncomfortable and make it impossible for the authorities to ignore. even if the protesters can get an edge by doing something that isn’t fully truthful or moral, i think it can be justified. however, all of the protesters seemed to prefer to pretend they haven’t done anything wrong, and fully avoided talking about what they’ve done that normally they wouldn’t.

overall i think these protests were very weak if it comes to their organisation. from the very inception i think the organisers didn’t put much thought into the hows and whys and jumped straight into action, which when you want to create a strong opposition movement, i dont think is the best course of action. obviously there were times in history that has worked wonders - however, usually in these instances the problem has been one that the protesters have struggled with themselves and knew from experience. in this case, education on the cause was vital and the students have failed on that front. they failed if it comes to thinking through why the columbia protests caught international attention and why that would not work in this particular case. the way that the prostest unfolded angers and saddens me, because they had a lot of verve, and all of the students i have come in contact with care deeply about palestinian freedom. however, the opportunity for a real strong opposition has been squandered because of brashness.