I read the letter in the Dec. 26 Gazette regarding the demonstrators at L3Harris (”Protesters silent on atrocities in Israel.”) The writer accuses them of “biased simplistic virtue signaling” because they have not condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

It seems unreasonable to me to demand that anyone and everyone who takes a stand for peace and against war and violence, and against the industry that feeds and profits on war and violence, must declare their position on the Israel-Hamas conflict. And if they don’t, their efforts are not legitimate.

The protesters are standing against not just L3Harris, but against the industry of which it is a part, the industry that profits from and fosters war and violence. Without the vast military-industrial enterprise, war and armed violence would be much less easy to perpetrate. And it’s effects much less widespread and lethal. The protesters are standing against the industry that is feeding the Israel-Hamas conflict, that is facilitating it, that is profiting from it, and so, they are standing for those on both sides who have been, and are, being, terrorized, attacked, violated, and murdered.

The demand that the demonstrators declare their allegiance is a demand for a kind of loyalty oath: “Are you now or have you ever been a supporter of the cause of Hamas?”

Is such an oath more effective in the cause of peace and justice, than casting light on this bloody industry?

Jonathan P. Levin

Northampton