Last Thursday morning, I found myself frantically trying to make it out the door as my phone flooded with texts about Emory University students and faculty being arrested. The Emory protest against Cop City and genocide in Gaza had barely been going for a couple of hours before university officials called law enforcement. When I arrived on campus, I met with stunned students, faculty, staff and journalists who could not believe witnessing the use of gas and tasers on students and faculty. As they were processing this, Emory University’s president insisted the community members they knew and saw with their own eyes were actually outside agitators.
We now know that was used to justify the unjustifiable. What happened on Thursday on Emory’s campus and later at the University of Georgia campus is unacceptable. This escalation by law enforcement against students across our country keeps me up at night. Protests, including encampments, are not new to college campuses. In fact, an anti-gulf war encampment at UGA lasted three weeks without police violence.
Yet despite the rich history of the Civil Rights movement right here in our state and ample evidence from previous anti-war movements, there are still too many people egging on oppression. It has been terrifying to witness. Many people have such strong feelings about this issue, including me, but that does not justify using state power to crush dissent.
Many point to rhetoric as reason enough to consider these protests violent. Yet I spent hours on Emory’s campus observing students. They mostly danced, chanted and gave speeches. I even watched students show up to antagonize protestors and take videos. Protesters ignored them and chanted louder. I then watched those exact same students in an interview talk about how they feel unsafe. Those are contradictory positions.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
I want to be clear, antisemitism is a serious threat in our society that we must condemn and eradicate. There are absolutely those who show up to these rallies and protests to spread their hateful views. We must, and do, reject them. I and many other Palestinians and allies have been clear we do not want antisemites in our movement. They’re vile and people who are antisemitic absolutely hate us too. They view us as pawns in their twisted world. But their disruptive presence cannot justify violence and collective punishment.
But this growing pattern of conflating political speech against Israel with antisemitism is dangerous. The chants and rhetoric many cite to justify police violence were considered acceptable in certain contexts, including these protests, as recently as 2023. Yet now any political speech related to Palestine and Palestinians is referred to as pro-terror. This is the same pattern of debate about whether or not Black lives matter meant white lives don’t matter. It’s disingenuous.
It has also not escaped me that students were being held to a higher standard than elected officials. Unlike those in office, these students don’t have state power to use. We do. Yet I saw elected officials using this debate about rhetoric to justify violence on college campuses. On the other hand, Emory students showed incredible leadership when they ended their protest early Saturday night after unknown individuals spray painted buildings.
For those still unsure about how serious this moment is, I truly believe this moment is existential for all of us. I joined faculty on Friday night. We linked arms to stand between students and the police. It was an incredibly moving moment, and it never should have happened. But at least students were able to safely end their protest for the day.
The reality is that when governments respond to students protesting with police violence it only increases the fervor of the movement. Students are learning. We owe it to them to teach them, not repress them. This generation in particular has dealt with school shootings, a pandemic and historic instability. In fact, many of the tactics they are using to resist police violence are tactics they learned to evade harm in a school shooting. Instead of recognizing that this is an empathetic generation that does not stand for injustice, we violently suppress them. It’s unacceptable.
This is a red line we have to draw. We’ve failed them at every turn. We should refuse to fail them again.
Ruwa Romman, a Democrat, represents Berkeley Lake, Duluth, Norcross, and Peachtree Corners in the Georgia House. She is the only elected Palestinian in the state and much of the southeast.
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