Pat Taub
Protests against the genocide in Gaza have become intergenerational on an unprecedented scale. When I marched against the war in Vietnam, a grey-haired protester was a rare sighting. Many elders at the time shared the view of my then 70-something neighbor who commented, “I’ve done my part. It’s up to the younger generation now.”
Times have changed. Today’s anti-war elders are marching with young activists and sharing the microphone. Take Marion Ingram, 88. Recently she addressed Columbia University’s encampment of students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza :
“I am a Holocaust survivor. I experienced as a child every single thing a Gazan child is experiencing on a daily basis. There’s no excuse for the slaughter of 15K children. I am proud to be here with you.”
Marion Ingram addressing Columbia students in their encampment
Not only are elders standing for Palestine, but they often engage in bold face-offs with the police, like those faculty members at NYU and Columbia who formed a human chain to protect their students from aggressive police hell-bent on arresting the students.
Columbia faculty forming a human chain to protect their students, April 29, 2024
Elder activists have faced physical injury in standing for peace. Over the weekend, Medea Benjamin, 70, a co-founder of the women’s peace group, Codepink, was peacefully protesting for an end to the genocide in Gaza at the White House’s Correspondents Dinner, when the DC police violently arrested her, leaving her with a painfully bruised leg.
Jill Stein, 73, the Green Party candidate for President, was peacefully protesting with students at Washington University in St. Louis when she was roughed up by the local police, who shoved a bicycle into her. She was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, when she was the one who was assaulted!
Jill Stein (with while hair), struggling as a police officer shoves a bicycle into her during a peaceful demonstration at St. Louis Univ.
Similar circumstances befell Emory professor, Noelle McAfee, who peacefully intervened to prevail upon the Atlanta police to stop beating up a student, for which she was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer.
Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, offers bold examples of elders protesting. Last December, eighteen JVP women in their sixties, seventies, and eighties, in an action favored by the Suffragettes, chained themselves to the White House gate jn demands for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Elders constitute a large number among Veterans for Peace, an anti-war organization founded in 1985 by war veterans, whose first-hand experiences with the inhumanity of war led them to advocate for an end to US militarism across the globe in favor of diplomacy. Vets for Peace, with over 150 chapters world-wide, has been working diligently for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Chris Hedges, 67, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, is among those older Americans who uses the power of the pen to call attention to global inequalities. For decades he has chronicled the sufferings of the Palestinians living under Israel’s apartheid.
Other anti-war elders who write advocating for world peace are Margaret Kimberley of the Black Agenda Report, and longtime peace workers, Kathy Kelly and Ann Wright.
Across the pond in the UK, Holocaust survivors and relatives of those killed in concentration camps have been visible in street actions for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
An activist friend, close to 90. actively protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza commented, “Age doesn’t give you a pass for sitting out the genocide.” She explained that our elected officials, except for a handful, stand behind Israel’s assault on Gaza, leaving it up to average citizens to mobilize for the Palestinians.
While not every elderly person can take to the streets, there are other ways to stand for humanity. Call your representatives to voice your support for a ceasefire and restoring humanitarian aid to Gaza. If you belong to a religious community that has been silent on the genocide in Gaza, as many have, challenge them to incorporate Gaza into their services.
Elder protesters in Portland, Maine, who find it hard to stand for a long period, take their protest to a park bench
Above all, don’t become numb to the suffering in Gaza. Open your heart. Let the light in. Be a force for love.
