Letter: College of the Atlantic encampment takes thoughtful approach

Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to letters@bangordailynews.com

The College of the Atlantic Palestine Solidarity Encampment has issued a thoughtful mission statement and reasonable set of demands. College administrators have been considered in their response. The dialogue has begun. I am hopeful of success. We can be grateful. And keep out of their way.

The students’ concern for human suffering, and for finding personal and local ways of taking responsibility, is at the heart of the humanities. And of community. Concerning their demands, it is difficult to judge the ties any academic institution has with any government entity. Science is essentially collaborative. The college’s emphasis on science and society — its reasoned and compassionate habits of mind — will help in the task ahead.

As an American Jew and Zionist, my heart stops at the word “genocide.” But given the long disgraceful record of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; his increasingly extremist administrations; his current coalition, which includes Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength), a pariah party formerly kept on the fringe; and his Cabinet including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (who was convicted of supporting Kach , classified by Israel as a terrorist group) — it is almost impossible to deny that Netanyahu administration actions against the Palestinian people constitute crimes against humanity at best and genocide at worst.

This is the context for student solidarity with the people of Palestine. The protests are directly about saving the lives of Palestinians caught between Hamas terrorism and Netanyahu administration militarism. Indirectly, they are also about saving the state of Israel from the worst impulses of its worst leaders. Something fair minded and concerned Americans can appreciate.

Annlinn Kruger

Bar Harbor