Gemma Tognini gives us an outline of how the universities, not the official administration, but many progressive staff and students, have taken on the Palestinian cause. Now in a complex political situation, there should be arguments bounced back and forth to try and get some balanced view. But, here in Melbourne the Left had posters up supporting Palestine the day after the initial massacres. I saw this with the Covid lockdowns, where the international socialists had posters proclaiming that vax protesters were racist, even though many of the leaders were non-white!
And leaving aside the political complexities, Tognini makes a good point about the hypocrisy of the Left and trendy, progressive university students: “Let me tell you one thing I’m willing to bet on. Not one of them would volunteer to go help the cause. Not one of them would give up their Uber eats, days at the pub and total freedom to go live in a place where being gay is an offence punishable by death, fewer than 20 per cent of women are allowed to work and more than 20 per cent of women are married under the age of 17.”
