On Palestine.

April 21, 2024

When Aaron Bailey was running to be President of the @ams_ubc — Canada’s largest student union — there was an active Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement on campus.

The Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights group @ubcsphr was pressuring the AMS to support BDS through a student referendum, while other groups on campus sympathetic to Zionist ideaology such as Hillel House were pressuring to stop it.

During the election, I met with leaders from both organizations, including attending a Shabbat dinner at Hillel. At the time, I had very little knowledge about the occupation in Palestine, and was so focused on my campaign that I put no effort into doing my own research.

Being a student politician, I thought that trying to find a compromise between the two groups was the noble path forward. As such I bought into the easy idea that the issue was “too complicated” for someone not “personally connected” to it to understand.

I chose to push the AMS Student Council to a neutral stance on the BDS referendum, opting not to use my political power to support either side. It was defeated.

Even though I was elected President in a landslide, looking back this is one of the most shameful blemishes on my entire political career. I was so blinded by my own cis, straight, white male privilege that I failed to realize how non-action from institutions of power in the face of injustice is a failing of justice itself.

I think the voluntary-yet-necessary relinquishing of cis male power by trans women is one of the most effective human experiences for building empathy. Although I do not know what it feels like to be Palestinian, to witness your homeland desecrated and loved ones ethnically cleansed, I understand the horrid feeling of dehumanization.

The issue is not “too complicated” now, and it wasn’t then either. You have a group of people being violently oppressed and murdered by a fascist state, backed by the world’s largest imperial government and military. The genocide is being live-streamed, and I’ve lost count of the horrors I have witnessed being inflicted upon the Palestinian people. I have stopped engaging in debate with people blind to this dehumanization — human rights, whether for the liberation of Palestinian people or the freedom for transgender people to live safe and authentic lives, should never be a debate.

I struggle to express how emotional it makes me seeing brave students across the country, especially those in my backyard at Columbia, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Students who possess the empathy and courage I did not have when I had to power to act and make real change, because I was afraid of the impact it would have on my image and reputation.

Protest is not meant to be comfortable. It is not meant to be convenient. Protest is a tool for the oppressed to amplify their voices and leverage their collective strength, reminding the people who wield power that there are consequences to turning a blind eye to the suffering of human beings. Protest began to dismantle segregation in America and apartheid in South Africa, tore down the Berlin Wall, and ended the Vietnam war. Protest, especially lead by students and young people everywhere, can build a better world.

Power to the people. Power to students everywhere. Justice for Palestine now.