A panel on the state of democracy around the world, moderated by Hillary Clinton, was discussing the now-famous words that she spoke in 1995: “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights,” said the then-first lady at a United Nations World Conference on Women that was held in Beijing.
Nearly 30 years later, the fight for rights is ongoing, Clinton — also a former US senator, secretary of state, and Democratic presidential nominee — told a Wellesley College audience Saturday. “It’s not ancient history,” she warned. As if to prove her point, a young woman in the audience stood up and started shouting angrily about the violence in Gaza, much of it suffered by women and children, that has resulted from Israel’s war against Hamas, and what she considers Clinton’s disregard for it. “We’re having a discussion. I’m perfectly happy to meet with you after this event and talk with you,” Clinton said from the stage before the woman was escorted out by Wellesley College officials.
Is it possible to have a “discussion” — to talk, not shout — about such divisive topics in such polarizing times? That’s the hope for the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Citizenship, Leadership, and Democracy, whose official launch was celebrated at a day-long summit on Saturday. In a short interview during a midday break, Clinton, who is probably Wellesley’s most famous graduate, said she met with some 30 students the day before. “We had a really very open conversation about [Israel and Gaza]. And that was what I would like to see on campuses,” Clinton said. “I appreciate the intense feelings, but having conversation is far better than, you know, just protesting and not impacting anything.”
That open conversation, however, was with students who participated in the center’s pilot program. On Saturday, a protester outside the Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall gave me a flier addressed to “Dearest Hillary, Wellesley’s most beloved war-criminal,” and protesters’ chants for a cease-fire could be heard faintly inside the auditorium where the summit was held. After Clinton’s panel finished up, about a dozen women who did not want to give their names but who said they represent “concerned Wellesley students” stood outside the hall. One woman said it was “hypocritical for Wellesley College to be talking about women’s rights” without addressing the violence against women in Gaza. Another said there was hypocrisy in holding a “democracy summit when our voices obviously don’t matter and Hillary Clinton’s legacy is being attached to the school in a way we obviously oppose.”
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Asked for comment, Wellesley College president Paula A. Johnson said via email that “Secretary Clinton’s legacy is one of service, leadership, and a fierce commitment to democracy. We are proud to be building a center that honors that legacy and prepares our students to be the civic leaders they want to be.”
In an interview on Friday, Johnson said that the goal of the center, which has been in the works for six years, is more important than ever. “I think we are living in a very polarized time and I think that in the broader US culture, there’s been a lot of unwillingness to listen and learn. Wellesley College is not immune,” said Johnson, who last December took some heat for rebuffing a letter from some faculty members who wanted administration officials to state that criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. Based on conversations with students since then Johnson said she believes most are interested in “the complexity of issues.” To that end, she said, “The Hillary Rodham Clinton Center is going to give them the skills and practices to communicate across differences to find common ground.”
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You could say that Wellesley College is where Clinton first learned to find common ground — or to straddle the line between institutional player and institutional challenger. In 1969, when she delivered the first commencement speech ever given at Wellesley, she was introduced as “cheerful, good humored, good company, and a good friend to all of us” by the college president. In the speech, she spoke up for the power of protest.
When I asked Clinton about the activism of that era, she said, “We had lots of protests, we had people on campus protesting — not disrupting — but protesting.” She added: “The big difference is we now have leaders who want to undermine our values and our institutions in ways that are so blatant, and intend to put us on a different track away from democracy toward authoritarianism that is just terribly threatening and needs to be stood up against. But you can’t do that if people don’t know what the stakes are, if they don’t know what the facts are, if they don’t know how to engage in constructive dialogue.”
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To anyone who remembers the ’60s and ’70s, that is something of a rosy view. There was plenty of disruption, as well as political leaders who did not like protests. But the level of today’s anger and polarization does seem exceptionally dangerous, as do political leaders who encourage violence.
Clinton has been in conflict with protesters calling for a cease-fire since she wrote in The Atlantic in November that “a full cease-fire that leaves Hamas in power would be a mistake. For now, pursuing more limited humanitarian pauses that allow aid to get in and civilians and hostages to get out is a wiser course.” She has not publicly altered that position.
On Saturday, the disruption of Clinton’s panel showed how hard it will be to stop the shouting on that subject. When event moderator Arielle Mitropoulos, a 2019 Wellesley College graduate, told the protester that her family is Palestinian and “I understand the devastation that is happening in Gaza,” the protester screamed, “No, you don’t.” That led Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was on Clinton’s panel, to say, “I’m the queen of protests,” but “should we continue to scream at each other? The answer is no.”
Clinton said she was not surprised by the protests. “It’s sweeping campuses right now and I teach at Columbia,” she said, referencing a university that has seen a great deal of protest over the Israel-Hamas war. She said she is unfazed about once again being a lightning rod for critics. “I just am who I am,” she told me. “I feel very comfortable expressing my views and I spend a lot of time studying, researching, reading, talking to people to make sure I’m as well informed as I can be on everything I care about, whether it’s women’s rights or climate change or what’s happening in the larger world, the wars that are being fought, the autocracies that are challenging us. I feel strongly that I have a voice and I am going to keep using it.”
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When the topic is Israel and Gaza, can that voice unite Wellesley College students behind the concept of talking with each other, instead of shouting at each other? That’s the challenge for Clinton and the center that bears her name.
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.
