AIBU to say that graduation ceremonies are not the place to make political statements?

[anythingbutlillies]

Hard hat on.

DC's graduation today. Fabulous day, but it did not sit well with me that a few chose to unfurl a flag / raise a scarf while they were on the stage.
Just no! So very selfish.

Interested to hear if I am being precious?

If students cannot be political then who can? The people of Palestine are currently subject to a genocide perpetrated by the Israeli state, international Zionism & it's supporters. If you say nothing you're on the side of genocide. Well done those young people

Well previous performative protest like this usually involved orange powder and recitation of climate change facts. Is that not the fashion anymore?

Why would Jews feel uncomfortable? Jews aren’t responsible for the genocide. How anti-Semitic.

Do you understand that there are lots of young people in this country and that they all have different causes they support?

I also was at a graduation ceremony today.
One graduate did this .
I have mixed thoughts on it
He did it as he walked so it didn't disrupt anything.
To me it was a non event it didn't detract or enhance my child's event

I’m not sure it’s even possible. It sounds like an empty threat to me.

What if everyone waved a flag of some sort?

It would hardly be the end of the world, would it?

In my view that is because it is a pretty obvious cause. I mean I think you have to be pretty callous if not inhumane to support the genocide in Gaza. I'm someone who pretty much always sits on the fence and I don't easily take sides. Even last year I might have wondered if maybe Israel was justified to try to completely root out hamas once but there is just no justification for what is going on now.

The one statistic that somehow really gets to me is that gaza now has the highest number of child amputees in the world. I mean just imagine that. And then imagine the conditions under which these amputations must have been carried out and the after care and support these kids can expect to receive. I think they deserve for the world to stop turning for a little bit and to at least empathise with their plight.

And then compare that to resenting having to wait a little bit longer at your child's graduation ceremony.

And yet it seems they all chose a Palestinian flag at this ceremony?

At DDs graduation in the US in May many students wore a second stole with their gown.
One for their subject and a second that could be anything. I saw Palestinian, Israeli, Ukrainian, Pride, transgender, veterans, branches of the armed forces, various heritages.
Basically any identity or affiliation a student chose
I really liked it.

I’m Jewish and I didn’t attend my PhD graduation at Liverpool Uni last summer because the Dean couldn’t guarantee my safety and security.

Some weird parents/posters on here supporting this. It’s a graduation ceremony.

Half at least of these students will be on to the next cause soon. I’d doubt if 90% of them could find Gaza on a map; probably would struggle to find the British Isles, come to that.

I know, just no need. My DC felt awful for their Jewish friend who was alongside them in the queue.

Why? My ds also has a Jewish friend he shares a student house with, who is appalled at what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza.

It seems like it has to keep being repeated so that maybe eventually it will penetrate some extra thick skulls:

Being pro-Palestinian does not equate to being anti-Semitic or pro-Hamas. Because you demonstrate support for the besieged and battered people suffering in Gaza does not mean that you don’t also condemn the atrocities suffered by the Israeli people at the hands of Hamas on 7/10. It’s really not difficult.

YANBU. The usual omnicause performative bullshit. These people are unemployable numpties.

On what do you base that judgement? It’s highly likely a fair proportion of them already have jobs to go to.

My money is on them being Leftists. Am I right?

Maybe writing for some zine, yes. Not what I would call a job.

You know fuck all about them. Whatever you might call a job, I bet many of them have got one.

And I bet they haven't! You don't know anything about them either.........

Absolutely the wrong place for politics/demonstration.

And the thing that is the most ridiculous is that waving a flag doesn’t actually help the people in Palestine. It is just a bit of feel good for the idiot waving it.

I always think that this conflict has been raging since before most of us were born and that if there was a simple solution, it would have been done. Additionally aligning oneself with Hamas/Iran is pretty terrifyingly idiotic.

This kind of stunt doesn’t actually do anything and the people in Palestine will still be starving and killed regardless of these stunts.

This happened at my daughter's graduation last week. Not only did around a dozen students rudely hold a scarf in the face of the woman trying to cap them (don't know the correct word) but two attention seekers then made a huge scene in the closing speech and got people to walk out the ceremony. That was my daughter's graduation and I find these people hard to tolerate. Why not just do it peacefully outside the building. Also, when the two Arabic boys first stood up, there was a little panic as they started shouting angrily at the whole audience. That's a bit scary.

This.

Anything that relieves the tedium of a graduation ceremony is ok in my book.

My Jewish friends would also unfurl Palestinian flags so probably not too bad.