The Kent Stater hopes to encourage lively debate about today’s issues in our Opinion section. To submit an opinion piece for potential publication, email your article to [email protected].
On May 4, 1970, Kent State University became the center of the world when four students died and nine others were wounded at the hands of the Ohio National Guard, due to the culmination of the country-wide protests over the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.
On Oct. 7, 2023, 6,000 Hamas and Palestinian terrorists invaded Israel and committed unspeakable atrocities, killing some 2,000 men, women and children. These attackers killed both civilian and military personnel, taking 250 hostages of various nationalities. Over 50 hostages are still in the hands of the terrorists more than 500 days later.
What do these two events have to do with each other?
Nothing.
Yet, somehow, the Students for Justice in Palestine has managed to worm its way into the May 4 observances, kidnapping this somber and historic remembrance for its own agenda.
Why else would the May 4 Committee, including sponsorship by SJP, bring in the well-documented anti-Zionist cartoonist/author Eli Valley as its April 30 keynote speaker this year?
And with Kent State’s Jewish student and faculty community feeling afraid and threatened on their own campus by the resurgence of antisemitism since the war with Hamas began, where is the Kent State administration to decry and take action against this hate monger and SPJ being on campus at any time, let alone the 55th May 4 commemoration?
No, it’s not about free speech, it’s about hate speech. Speech intended to incite violent acts against a person or group.
Whether one spews hate against Zionism or Jews, it’s the same violent thing.
The last three words of the Israeli national anthem are “…eretz t’zion Yerushalayim,” The Land of Zion and Jerusalem, the Jewish homeland for more than 3,000 years.
Kent State University. Stand up to evil. With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, do the right thing.
Harold Greenberg is a guest columnist. Contact him at [email protected].
Y.M • May 9, 2025 at 10:27 pm
May 4th stands as a powerful reminder of the cost of war and the need to stand up against injustice. The students then protested to end a violent war abroad—just as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) now call for an end to war and violence in Gaza. Both movements share a commitment to peace and justice, so you using May 4 to silence calls for liberation goes against the very spirit of that historic day.
Barry Dunietz • May 13, 2025 at 12:12 pm
No, YM, SJP is nothing of a pro peace voice:
SJP already on October 2023 issued a toolkit praising the atrocities made under the Hamas leadership. (Reach out to me if you like to see a copy of that vial information.)
Any individual or organization who is truly pro peace and pro Palestinian will join HG in his call to eliminate hate speech. Anyone who is lining up SJP messaging with the 1970 anti-war protestors is not promoting peace. Instead such propaganda adds to the violence of increased antisemitism, and in fact fuels the on going war in Gaza.
A true pro peace and pro Palestinian voice will call to dismantle Hamas from any governing positions so that path toward a safe and peaceful solution can emerge.