28-08-2025 - Pep speech

Last Thursday at the sit in I had two jarring experiences while handing out flyers

One person refused my flyer, said he knew everything about the conflict already. He asked: what about the other wars going on. You've heard this before, it's a common talking point. But here is where it got weird: he agreed that it was a genocide. He said his daughter, who was with him, was Palestinian. But he also thought that what we are doing here with our sit in was not worth doing. 

Another person refused my flyer. She also agreed that it was a genocide. She said she visited Israel four times and that she saw a lot of racism. But she was also afraid that what we were doing is creating new hostilities between people. She opined that Trump and Netanyahu had a deal, and that protesting made no difference. 

You could say: OK, some people are weird. But I think there is something deeper going on: I think not everyone is clear how political change happens.

There is a simple, undefeatable, three word argument to anyone who thinks protesting is a waste of time:

"Imagine doing nothing"

If nobody took any action against injustice, the injustice would continue indefinitely. Injustices never self correct: they only get corrected. 

There are famous examples, such as the civil rights movement in the US, but the best example is Apartheid South Africa. Apartheid ended after decades of public pressure, by way of protests, direct action, boycotts, even songs. Gimme hope Jo'anna, Eddie Grant. Own piece of ground, by Miriam Makeba. Biko, by Peter Gabriel. The global movement against Apartheid played a crucial role in ending it. We have people right here, like that tall guy (Ric) over there, who played a part in bringing it down. 

Nobody in that fight knew if they were ever going to win. But everybody knew that if they did not do anything, losing was guaranteed.

Let me close by saying that I firmly believe that what we are doing is the only thing that will stop the genocide. Power concedes nothing without a demand. We are the ones making the demand. We will make power concede. If enough of us are loud enough, persistent enough, for long enough, we will succeed. Did you know that Dutch companies invest more money in Israel than the US? 50 billion from us, 39 billion from the US. Did you know Israel invests six times more in the Netherlands than in the US? We must demand a total economic embargo on these genocidal maniacs. That would hit them where it hurts. And all we have to do is force those sniveling cowards in the government to concede to our demand.