While protesting on the Pentacrest and marching through the streets, activists are met with anger and violence. Harassers shout, “Kill them all!” and “Free Israel!” and declare that anyone protesting this injustice is a “Hamas terrorist.” People wearing flags or watermelon pins are called Hitler. Flyers are torn down, chalk is scrubbed out. Those who want justice are perceived as radical.

Is it radical to want an end to war — an end to genocide?

In our high school history classes, we are often inclined to celebrate the words of Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.” This was our Revolutionary War cry, our motto to defeat the colonizers of Britain.

So why are these sentiments met with resistance when we advocate for Palestinian liberation? Are they not trying to defeat their colonizers as well?

We cite the Declaration of Independence and the armed struggle for freedom as the ultimate, radical form of revolution in our history, the source of our national pride. We declare our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So why can we not continue this tradition with Palestine? Why are they not afforded the same inalienable rights?

We honor the sacrifice that our military members have made for our freedom. We call it an honor to lose one’s life for their nation.

So why, when a soldier sets himself ablaze, using his last breaths—the last fibers of his very being—to shout “Free Palestine,” do we call him insane? Aaron Bushnell was probably the most sane of us all. We just simply can’t imagine that kind of moral clarity, to lose one’s life for their principles.

Our hypocrisy is outstanding: When white people want freedom, it’s righteous. But when Palestinians want freedom, we bomb them.

As the world around us burns, and Palestinians burn at the hands of Israel, we keep going about our daily lives. We watch genocide unfold through our screens, then keep scrolling. We keep our heads down as we rush past a protest, not making eye contact. But resistance is not made for your comfort.

Some of us will say we are neutral, but that is a lie. Neutrality in the face of genocide is siding with the oppressor. Enough with the hypocrisy. As citizens of the U.S. and students at the University of Iowa, we must stand up for what is right. We have the undeniable privilege of sleeping on comfortable beds, eating good food, and going to class while our nation profits off the murder of hundreds of thousands. Every day it grows clearer that concrete action must be taken, and every day, our nation fails us. The very least we can do is try to change some minds.

In June 2024, The Lancet estimated the death toll to be 186,000. It is safe to say that over the past six months, that number has continued to grow. Yet, on Nov. 20, 2024, the U.S. once again vetoed a cease-fire resolution that would help end the genocide in Palestine.

Despite halting Israel’s push into Lebanon, it is evident that the Biden Administration’s “tireless” work for a ceasefire in Gaza has been a lie, as Israel continues its scorched earth campaign in Palestine. As we approach Trump’s presidency, there is no telling how the tide will turn.

There is no telling how effective our protests, calls, and letters will be at changing our representatives’ minds. But as students, we can and should call on the University and the Board of Regents to end their financial support for Israel.

We cannot continue U.S. complicity in this genocide.

I call on President Barbara Wilson to end the University’s partnerships with Collins Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. I call on the Office of the Vice President for Research to cancel the memorandum of understanding with Tel Aviv University that allows for investment in Israeli companies.

I call on the Board of Regents to rescind their message of solidarity with the Israeli government. I encourage everyone else to do the same. As students, we cannot support our school when we profit from dead men, women, and children.

And to those who dismiss protests as ineffective, those who support a terrorist campaign against Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, and those who choose to be silent, I leave you the words of Henry David Thoreau from On Civil Disobedience:

“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood… But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of bloodshed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man’s real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.”

-Megan Heil