I am full of admiration for the UMass students who are demonstrating on campus demanding that the university divest from American companies that make weapons Israel uses against Palestinians.

I commend them for cooperating with the university’s demand that they dismantle their tent encampment. Now it’s time for the university to begin to listen to the students’ concerns and enter into serious negotiations with them. The students’ charge that the university is undemocratic is supported by the administration’s refusal to discuss their demands. The students have cooperated. Now it’s the administration’s turn.

I’m proud of the students here and at other schools who are demonstrating. For too long the United States has supported the Netanyahu government’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians.

It makes a mockery of what Israel should stand for. Yes, the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas was horrifyingly over the top, but it comes as a result of the increasingly repressive and undemocratic policies of the current Israeli government. The irony that a government that calls itself the protector of people who have historically suffered so much should now treat another people in such a way is indeed bitter.

Israel has a right to exist, but so does Palestine — as an actual, real state. I hope the student demonstrations around the country will persuade universities and the U.S. government to change their position toward Israel. If I weren’t old and lame, I’d be out there with the students in body as well as spirit.

Kathy Gregg

Amherst