In the United States, universities have become the epicenter of student movements opposing the Israeli war on Gaza. Local authorities and university administrations have unleashed an intense crackdown on these protests under the false pretense of protecting campuses and combating anti-Semitism. But in the face of violence and threats, students have stood firm and the protests show no signs of slowing.
What we are seeing from student protesters is not new. In fact, students have always been at the forefront of resistance and denunciation of colonialism and imperialism.
In the 1530s, during the violent colonization of the Americas, a group of Spanish students at the University of Bologna publicly rejected the war as contrary to the Christian religion. Protest against the war so worried the Catholic Church that the Pope dispatched Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda – a famous Spanish priest and scholar, who held a firm belief that slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans were justified – to deal with pacifist students.
This type of dissent and activism has reverberated throughout history. From student protests against segregation and racism in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, to the 1960s protests against the Vietnam War and the sit-ins against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s , to today’s camps calling for an end to racism. Since the Gaza genocide, student movements have challenged colonialism, militarism and injustice.
From the point of view of the colonizer, such student mobilization is dangerous. This explains the ongoing violent crackdown on student protests in the United States and some European countries, and it could also explain why the 12 universities in the Gaza Strip were bombed and destroyed.
But it would be naive to think that universities are only places of dissent. As student protests have insisted, higher education institutions actively facilitate and support colonial projects. Institutions like Harvard, Columbia, and many other universities continue to increase their endowments by investing in companies like Airbnb, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), and other companies that operate in illegally occupied territories or that have links with the Israeli army. Not surprisingly, youth mobilization, spurred by Israel’s war in Gaza, has also extended to some of these companies, with protests recently held at Google offices.
Beyond their investment choices, universities also contribute to the colonial project by teaching students to design, justify and implement the means and mechanisms of colonialism. The pipeline that brings young graduates to defense industries is well documented and has existed for a long time. And as wars become increasingly reliant on data technologies, new pipelines are being created.
Consider recent graduates working at companies like Anduril, which recently won a contract with the U.S. Army to develop artificial intelligence-based unmanned combat aerial vehicles. These weapons will use data to determine where and what to strike, which, as the war in Gaza has already shown, can lead to enormous civilian casualties.
The Israeli military uses Lavender, an AI system designed to produce targets for bombing by fighter jets and drones. Researchers said the system uses various data sets, including people’s usage of messaging apps, to decide targets, leading to the loss of many innocent lives.
We need to ask ourselves what kind of college education – or rather bad education – allows someone to be able and willing to design and use an AI system like Lavender. We do not want students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to graduate with a worldview similar to that of Sepúlveda, who viewed the colonized as mere barbarians and slaves whose lives were disposable.
I don’t think most of my colleagues in STEM intentionally prepare their students to serve colonial interests. I think most of them just don’t see these issues as something their programs should address.
As students lead the way in challenging a system of higher education complicit in imperial wars and colonialism, we faculty must reflect on the role we play within this system. Ethical questions about how science and technology are intertwined with colonial rule and militarism need to be addressed in the classroom.
Universities have long been a place where students learn to think critically and question the status quo; they also supported and reinforced structures of colonial domination.
The current campus protests represent a further escalation of the tension between these two roles. The protests may not result in a complete overhaul of the higher education system, but they are certainly a step in the right direction.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.