Have you ever wondered what the rules are inside a refugee camp… I mean a U.S. college campus where they cosplay oppression?
Wonder no more! Here are the “Community Guidelines” (how Mark Zuckerberg) for the protest encampment at the University of Southern California (USC) in Gaza… I mean Los Angeles.
1. We all commit to remain grounded in why we enter this space – as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian People facing the deadliest year in nearly a century-long US (and USC) funded genocide.
2. No desecration of the land, no littering, please pick up your trash.
Imagine camping with a bunch of people who you had to tell to pick up their trash.
3. For those of us who are not Indigenous (and to this land), we recognize our role as visitors and for many of us, settlers, on this land. We camp with an accute [SIC] awareness that we do so on colonized Tongva Land. We also recognize that this racist displacement has continued with USC occupying the community of and displacing the Black and Brown South Central Community.
This land is my land, this land is your land, from California to the New York island… this land was made for Hamas indeed.
USC is apparently not only funding 100 years of genocide (per the first community guideline), but they are also “occupiers” in Los Angeles and complicit in not keeping South Central black, or something. That’s a lot to take in, but it begs the question:If students believe these things, why do they continue to give daddy’s money to USC in tuition?
4. No drug/alcohol use inside this camp. This may make people uncomfortable, increase risk of police targeting, and ultimately this camp exist in service of Palestine, and “partying” in such a space would be offensive to the cause that brought us here. If people would like to smoke, please do so outside the lawn. We don’t want to police each other’s patterns of substance abuse, but we want to ensure people feel comfortable in this space.
This one is fun because it oscillates between calling drug use “partying” and “substance abuse.”
5. Respect personal boundaries – tight quarters are not an excuse to cross physical boundaries without affirmative consent.
My personal favorite. I was already floored by the prospect of having to tell campers to pick up their trash, but it pales in comparison to “Thou shalt not rape.” Remember the Autonomous Zone/ CHAZ? It was brought down by a lack of vegan food, one street preacher with a microphone, and sexual assault.
6. We commit to never photographing or videotaping another community member without their affirmative consent.
7. We commit to not share names or details of anyone we meet in this camp with someone in administration, media, or police as we ralize [SIC] they could be targeted and caused great harm. We keep us safe, that includes refusing to comply with commands of LAPD, private investigators, or USC Admin who try to force us to disclose identities of fellow students!
I’m sure the LAPD is showing up, like, “I command you to tell me someone’s name, abracadabra!”
8. We commit to assuming best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace, and approaching confict [SIC] with the goal of addressing and repairing.
“Assuming best intentions” includes terrorist organizations who are holding hostages, apparently.
9. Please think of community members when making decisions about autonomous action. Not everyone has consented to the same levels of risk, but everyone will be affected by decisions community members make.
This is an interesting one. They believe that for anyone to make a decision, everyone must unanimously agree to the risk level it poses. What is that form of governance called? Preschool?
10. We commit to not engaging with Zionist counter-protesters. They seek to distract us and we must remain steadfast and unified.
Unlike the Columbia students in New York, they aren’t going to hold signs asking for Hamas’ military wing to target Jewish students, how brave to make the distinction.
What we can glean from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment’s guidelines is a sense of the students’ ideology. It seems like they are just recycled Antifa members and they think this is an act of “mutual support.” I think they/them/zer will be calling each other “Comrade” by the end of the week.
