Justice Antonin Scalia came to speak at Wesleyan a few weeks ago. Cool, right? Isn’t it great that the University chose to bring a Supreme Court Justice and highly educated Constitutional scholar to campus in order to engage in discussion with the students? Well, not quite.
I respect the University’s choice to bring to campus a right-wing justice whose ideals are vehemently disputed by the majority of the student body. I also respect the students right to protest his presence on our campus. However, what I firmly believed then, and what I believe is also applicable in the case where Brandies Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted a town hall meeting with 5 members of the Knesset this week, is that simply put, it’s rude to interrupt people while they’re speaking. The Brandies activists used Occupy Wall Street tactics to hammer their points home, mic checking the panel, an effective and symbolic strategy in today’s activist community. In one stroke, they solidified their image as members of the 99% protesting a gross injustice perpetuated by Israel’s “apartheid state”.
But that’s their opinion. And I’m not here to debate it’s validity, however, what these activists failed to realize is one of the basic rules underlying all political discourse: the other side most likely believes that you are just as wrong as you believe that they are. I’m not disputing Brandies SJP’s right to protest the meeting in any way, but could they have waited until the MPs were done speaking? Could they have simply taken a step back and thought: We’re not going to change their minds and they aren’t going to change ours. But perhaps we should just hear what they have to say before making our point.
Occupy Wall Street was about the 99%. Not the liberal 99%, not the 99% of people who agree with you, but the overwhelming majority of people. And these people don’t have to have opinions you believe in or even respect. But at least hear them out.
