The Israel-Palestine conflict has been widely covered, not only in the news but also on social media. As a result, many people have taken it upon themselves to post on social networking sites, such as Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, in support of either side. This begs the question: why are people posting about these issues online but doing nothing to help their community?
Columbia University students were among the first universities to launch an encampment on their campus in solidarity with the Palestinian people. These students’ demands included a divestment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid in Gaza and an academic boycott of Israeli ties with the institution. Many other universities, including our own UCI, had followed suit. However, the turnout and support here are much smaller than at other universities.
There is a cognitive dissonance online between UCI students and the turnout for the Palestinian protests. There are too many people supporting the cause from the sidelines, and if this continues, the window of opportunity for change might be missed.
At the time of writing, the UCI Divest Instagram has over 11,000 followers, yet during these rallies, only a few hundred will cycle in throughout the day. With every protest throughout history, there has been a window of opportunity for people to pay attention and for institutional change to take place. It happened recently with the Black Lives Matter protests, where the movement had the entire world watching. However, over time, the protests’ populations dissipated from over two-thirds of Americans supporting the Black Lives Matter movement to only 51% of Americans supporting the movement. Right now, there are eyes on Columbia, UCLA and even UCI, and it is important to get as many people out protesting while this window of opportunity exists.
On social media, there can be extreme pressure amongst people to look informed and involved in any of the social justice issues. Specifically, this problem seems to be an issue for students, who feel pressured by their peers to stay educated on every issue going on in the world. Thus, many will post something like an easy-to-read infographic on social media. By doing this, it can feel like they did their part to help make a change happen. While I don’t think posting infographics is intrinsically harmful, I think there has been a recent shift of self-proclaimed activists and activist work being done.
This is not an article to make people feel bad for not coming to protests; however, the increase in performative action is counterintuitive to making change truly happen — people think online activism is a substitute for offline activism when it is not nearly as effective. The pressure should be to act as an activist as opposed to being perceived as one. By becoming educated on the nuances of an issue that can’t exist in a simple infographic, people can form their own opinion and decide how much they care. As a result, the steps to taking direct action outside of social media are being taken, and hopefully, they will educate themselves and care enough to take part in a protest or other forms of mutual aid.
In the case of Palestine solidarity at UCI, it feels as if there are a number of students scared to show solidarity with the protests in person, and there are a number of perfectly valid excuses for why people aren’t there. For one, there is always the risk of getting arrested at any time, which many students cannot afford to do because they risk losing financial aid, housing, and their jobs. Similarly, many off-campus students lack the means of transportation to get to the encampment and show up for the rallies, but that doesn’t mean they don’t support the movement.
This is an extremely nuanced issue, and it is understandable that people have work and school to worry about, making it difficult to have the energy to do everything. However, at the end of the day, it is the job of the privileged to stand up and speak for those who cannot afford to be there. Thus, if one feels like they care about the issue at hand, it is necessary to make time and make an impact before it is too late. No one should feel pressured to care about every global issue all the time; however, in an issue like this, I think it is important to do more than post an infographic.
Hunter Ung is a Staff Writer for the spring 2024 quarter. He can be reached at unghh@uci.edu.
Edited by Jacob Ramos, Trista Lara and Jaheem Conley.