The anti-Israel movement sweeping through major American cities and college campuses following the outbreak of Israel’s war with Hamas bears striking similarities to other movements favored by social justice activists, experts suggest .
Since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, a outpouring of protests around the world condemned not the terrorist group but the Jewish state, which continues to reflect the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis who died in the massacre last month.
The most intense demonstrations from Hamas sympathizers seem to be coming from American college campuses. Particularly concerning demonstrations were witnessed in former prestigious institutions such as Harvard and New York University, among others.
Besides college campuses, the anti-Israel movement also reached the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in Washington, DC, where supposed pro-Palestinian demonstrators turned violent and clashed with police. Other protests took place outside the State Department, where demonstrators held handcrafted signs with anti-Israel slogans such as “Israel = Cancer of the Middle East.”
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Anti-Israel demonstrators gather for a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the State Department in Washington, DC, Nov. 1, 2023. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu)
Those protests, and others like them in recent American history, according to observers who watched the issue unfold and offered their views on Fox News Digital, are part of a larger problem meant to “i -destabilize this country.”
Brooke Goldstein, a human rights attorney who serves as executive director of The Lawfare Project, said she believes it’s time for law enforcement officials to open an investigation into how the protests are organized, as well as whether the protests are connected to the foreigner. government or terrorist organization.
“We have to call the protesters what they are. They are not pro-Palestinian. There is no Palestinian democracy movement. There is no Palestinian peace movement. They are pro-Hamas,” he said. “We need to take a hard look at how a significant portion of our population has been radicalized. Law enforcement and lawmakers have, for too long, turned a blind eye to the operations of foreign governments within our borders, especially Qatar . ignored the relationship between designated terrorist groups and student groups on campus.”
“These protesters are not progressive, and they are not nonviolent. Their goal is to destabilize this country and there is an urgent need for law enforcement to open an investigation into how they are organized and whether they are tied to the foreign government or not. foreign terrorist groups,” he added
Other reasoning behind some of those protests, which have been complex and unpredictable in many cases, stems from the teachings and activism of “academic leftists” who have long supported certain racial divisions and hope to others also, according to Christopher F. Rufoa senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of the City Journal.
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“Leftist academics who stand for violent ‘decolonization’ against Jews have been pushing the same hideous rhetoric against ‘whiteness’ for years. Same ideology. Same hatred. Same bloodlust,” Rufo said .
Rufo noted that some on the “academic left treat the Hamas fighter as a noble savage who symbolizes the revolt against the West and from whom the academic can experience the thrill of violence.
“The fighter is seen as the physical embodiment of the jargon: ‘decolonization,’ ‘resistance,’ ‘power,'” he added. “It’s time to connect the dots and fight this together.”
Similarly, Lisa Daftari, editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, said she believes in antisemitism increased across the country represents the “cross-sectionality” of social justice movements and other groups that place a particular focus on support for leftist ideas.
A demonstrator holds a “White Supremacy” sign during a rally held on Wall Street in support of the Palestinians on Oct. 26, 2023. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket)
“A significant contributor to the rise of antisemitism, especially among those under 25 and on college campuses, is the cross-sectionality of social justice movements and organizations that tell young people, ‘If you care on different human rights like gay rights, trans rights, racial issues, then you have to demonize Israel,” he said. “It’s now on the social justice ‘checklist’ to condemn Israel.
“Similarly, we see Israel portrayed as a country of Whites, privileged people, the offspring of Europeans who immigrated there. This is completely false,” Daftari added. “Israel is made up of a diverse patchwork of people from all over the world, including those who were there long before the official establishment of the State in 1948. There are Blacks, browns and Whites in Israel who came from Africa, the Middle East, South America and beyond.”
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Following the protests outside the DNC headquarters, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif, in a recent appearance on “The Faulkner Focus” that many anti-Israel protesters have been “deluded” into supporting Hamas terrorism.
“Hamas’ goal is to attack and kill as many Israelis as they can… on Oct. 7, retreat, regroup and then do it again,” Sherman said at the time. “And I’m not the one speaking, that’s the top leadership of Hamas. I think some of the demonstrators support that plan. Others are deluded into the idea that somehow a truce allows Hamas to regroup and repeat will bring peace, and that is clearly not the case.”
Last month, Pastor Dumisani Washington, a Black activist and founder of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), called out Black Lives Matter chapters that he believed expressed support for Hamas terrorism against Israeli civilians. for putting forth an “evil beyond description. ,” in an interview with Fox News Digital.
The anti-Israel movement bears striking similarities to some social justice activist movements in the United States, experts suggest. (Getty Images)
“The price paid for organizations like Black Lives Matter to pretend to care about Baltimore, Oakland, Ferguson… to pretend to care only to use those people and even the deaths there to demonize Israel some 6,000 miles away, is an evil beyond description,” Washington said. “People are being destroyed for the sake of antisemitism and anti-Zionism…. How can we defend the people of Gaza by celebrating this kind of blood and gore?”
Instead of expressing condolences for the more than 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas terrorists, at least two Black Lives Matter groups expressed their support for the Palestinians. At least 27 American citizens have been killed, an unknown number are being held captive by Hamas and the rest have yet to be identified. Around 230 children, women and men are believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, although the number may be higher.
BLM Grassroots has published its statement Instagram page last month saying, “Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently fighting [75] years of settler colonialism and apartheid.”
A mural of George Floyd, a Black man who died after he was handcuffed and pinned down by a White police officer in Minneapolis, was painted in Gaza City after his death in 2020. Initially, the mural only featured Floyd’s face, but the words “Black Lives Matter” were later added to show support for the movement in the United States.
Palestinians walk past a mural of George Floyd in Gaza City, on June 16, 2020. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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During a 2021 interview with ViceYahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, used the “racist murder of George Floyd” to make a far-fetched comparison about Israel.
“I want to take this opportunity to remember the racist murder of George Floyd. George Floyd was killed as a result of the racist ideology held by some people,” Sinwar said. “The same kind of racism that killed George Floyd is being used by Israel against Palestinians in Jerusalem, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the West Bank.”
Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Hannah Grossman of Fox News contributed to this report.
