On October 7th, 2024, one year after Hamas militants brutally murdered over 1,200 innocent civilians and took approximately 250 people hostage, vigils were held across college campuses--for the “martyrs” who committed these atrocities. Yes, you read that correctly.
To be sure, thousands of pro-Israel supporters gathered peacefully to remember those who were murdered and to pray for the release of the remaining hostages. Astonishingly, however, others used the first anniversary of 10/7 to celebrate the terrorists responsible for these grotesque crimes.
There is no question: this is analogous to holding vigils for the terrorists who flew airplanes into the Twin Towers in the name of “resistance.” It is as revolting as it is disturbing.
As Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) aptly put it, “Memorializing the murderers rather than the murdered is a little like prosecuting the rape victims rather than the rapists. It is victim-blaming and terrorism worship at its most demonic.”
Higher Education
At Cooper Union in New York City, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a “Vigil for the Martyrs.” Their promotional flier celebrated “one year of resistance” and made sure prospective attendees knew that the “martyrs” (terrorists) would be named, poetry would be read, and an open mic session would be on offer.
The event at Cooper Union was not an outlier; instead, it was a microcosm of what took place across many college campuses that day.
At Columbia University, The pro-Palestinian Group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) declared, “We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.” According to the New York Times “The Columbia group’s increasingly radical statements are being mirrored by pro-Palestinian groups on other college campuses, including in a series of social media posts this week that praised the Oct. 7 attack”
On October 7th, the Brown University chapter of SJP referred to the murders, rapes, and kidnappings of innocent civilians on 10/7/23 as “a historic act of resistance against decades of occupation, apartheid, and settler colonial violence.”
While The New York Times correctly notes that CAUD’s extremist rhetoric is being replicated at other universities, it is inaccurate to label these groups as “pro-Palestinian.” They are not. These groups are loosely affiliated terror supporters, spreading antisemitism under the guise of advocating for “resistance.” They make thinly veiled insinuations that murder, rape, and the kidnapping of Jews are justified in the so-called struggle against Israeli “colonizers.” They contribute nothing to bettering the lives of ordinary Palestinian people.
Spineless
“Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded,” said Ben Chang, a spokesman for Columbia. Ok, and?
To date, Columbia University has not expelled a single student who broke into Hamilton Hall last April or any student openly advocating for violence against their Jewish peers. This includes Khymani James, who said “Zionists (~95% of all Jews) don’t deserve to live. Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
At TQC, we’ve observed a litany of colleges and universities making toothless generic statements condemning hate speech advocating for violence against Jews. Rarely, except at a select few morally uncompromised schools, do we see any concrete actions being taken against the people making those threats.
Indeed, protests on American college campuses reveal a glaring double standard: hate speech and incitement against Jews are tolerated, while free speech on other topics is curtailed.
Oppression, Civilian Casualties, Human Rights Abuses & Genocide: Debunking Nonsense
Unfortunately, in the eyes of many antisemites, Jews are never allowed to defend themselves. When Jews respond to violence, it is labeled as “oppression” or “genocide.” When Hamas or Hezbollah murders Jews, it’s called “resistance” or “martyrdom.”
Organizations like CUAD, SJP and other Hamas/Hezbollah supporters reduce complex conflicts into simplistic black-and-white binaries to advance their agenda, often at the expense of the very people they claim to champion.
To break down their most common and hollow arguments:
Time and again these groups rage about Israeli “oppression.” How puzzling. In Gaza - before and after 10/7 - there is no freedom of speech or democracy; Hamas, though battered, is in year 21 of a four-year term. They oppress, disenfranchise, and murder Palestinians who oppose them. That’s actual oppression. Israel, though imperfect, remains the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.
At every protest, we hear cries of Israeli “genocide” and “civilian casualties.” The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) take painstaking precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Name another country whose army warns civilians to evacuate before launching counteroffensives. Give up? As we thought.
Make no mistake, Hamas has killed thousands of Palestinians. Any Palestinian civilian death attributed to the IDF is the tragic result of collateral damage—not a direct objective. This is a fundamental difference between a professional army defending its citizens and terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, which deliberately target civilians and use their own people as human shields.
Furthermore, how can the IDF (or any army) possibly avoid civilian casualties and discriminate between military targets and civilians when their enemy purposefully embeds military gear and their own militants among civilians, in hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings to protect themselves (how cowardly). Of course, Hamas and Hezbollah do this because Israel is less likely to take countermeasures around civilian infrastructure. However, sometimes it is simply unavoidable.
On September 24th Israel eliminated Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah and the highest-value Israeli target in Lebanon. Might the most remarkable aspect of Israel’s success penetrating Hezbollah’s headquarters situated in a fortified bunker underneath an apartment building be the fact that Hezbollah intentionally placed its headquarters underneath an apartment building!?
Instead of imploring Israel to not intentionally target civilians - which they do not - why not implore Hamas and Hezbollah to not use their own citizens as human shields – which they do?
Why the Silence on Real Genocides?
A genocide is taking place in Sudan, and the world is indifferent. Murder, rape, arson, assault, people burned alive – crimes against humanity of epic proportions. Thus far, The Economist estimates that ~150,000 people have been murdered and hundreds of thousands more are on the brink of starvation.
In Goma, Congo a war between rebels backed by Rwanda and the Congolese army has left over 500,000 displaced people. In a harrowing, must-read article, the Wall Street Journal reports that “80% of the women have been raped, including girls as young as 8, according to psychologists, nurses and others working with survivors of sexual violence…The Journal visited the camp independently in late March. Many of the women say they were witnesses to the other women’s attacks and backed up their accounts. In one focus group of 13 teenage girls assembled by U.N. agencies for a recent report on the issue, 12 said they had been raped.” Genocide; sexual violence perpetrated on an unimaginable scale – of the 500,000 displaced individuals, 80% of the women have been raped.
A recent article in The Economist highlighted the Taliban’s (remember them?) new code of religious laws. Any last bit of freedom still afforded to women in Afghanistan has been removed. “Even before the announcement in late August, women were banned from attending secondary schools, universities, parks and female-only spaces such as beauty salons. They were not allowed to work in most professions. Now they are banned from raising their voices or reciting the Koran in public. They are prohibited from looking at any man other than their relatives and have to cover their faces fully.”
In Yemen, over 150,000 people have been killed in that failed nation’s civil war. Tens of thousands of these people were innocent civilians. Additionally, tens of thousands more innocent Yemeni civilians have died from malnutrition and lack of access to medical care and essential medications.
Anybody can manufacture a narrative to fit a warped agenda. Still, protests and corresponding rhetoric lambasting Israel for willful human rights abuses and committing “genocide” are as ridiculous as they are untrue. All the while real atrocities are happening globally. Yet, from CUAD, SJP, JVP, and their celebrity sympathizers—silence.
The Real Question
This begs the question: Why the focus on Israel? Here is a hint: the reason begins with an “A” and ends with an “M.”
Colonialism?
Perhaps the most glaring example of hypocrisy and foolishness comes from those who condemn Israel by repeating the false claim that Israelis are colonizers; that is categorically untrue. Jews have lived in and around the Middle East for thousands of years. In fact, denying Jews are Indigenous to Israel would be like denying that Native Americans are the Indigenous people of the Americas. Such a claim would be unheard of in any circle, let alone a progressive one.
Before 1948, there was never a “Jewish state” or a “Palestinian state.” In 1947, the United Nations proposed a Jewish state and Palestinian state. The Jews accepted, but the Palestinians, along with other Arab nations rejected the UN’s two-state solution and declared war on Israel.
On multiple occasions including but not limited to 1967, 1978, 1993, 1995, 2000, etc., Israel, in concert with other world leaders has offered/proposed land, a two-state solution, and multiple other initiatives for peace. Every time, these offers were rejected by the Palestinian leadership. This is not the fault of ordinary Palestinians; it is the fault of their corrupt leaders who depend on and exploit their hopelessness for personal gain and to remain in power.
Proper Peaceful Protest
Criticizing the Israeli government through peaceful protest and dialogue is, of course, reasonable. But harnessing anger at the Israeli government to justify crimes against Jewish citizens around the world is antisemitism, plain and simple, and it accomplishes nothing.
And let’s not forget Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Congo.