Over the past year, support of the “Free Palestine” movement has become increasingly prominent among college students. Supporters of the movement put watermelon and Palestinian flag emojis in their Instagram and TikTok bios. Going to protests is increasingly seen as compulsory among liberal-minded students. On college campuses, one-tenth of students participate in protests, and 65% claim to support the “anti-Zionist” cause. The popularity of the position makes it easy to take for granted that it’s a logical one. But is it? After police detained several people for targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club in Amsterdam in a violent and outlawed demonstration, an even more urgent question is: what are this movement’s consequences?
When students see images of civilian casualties in Gaza, their hearts go out to them. They want to show support. But are they fully informed about the cause they are supporting? Most “Free Palestine” supporters on American campuses also believe in progressive Western values. How do students justify supporting a regime whose values are alien to the Western world? Start with the slogan itself: “Free Palestine.” Are they aware that Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 and Palestinians had the freedom to elect their own government in 2007? I understand that “free” does not solely mean legislatively; it means freedom from oppression. But does the average protestor have a sense of who’s really doing the oppressing?
Hamas has received billions of dollars since Israel withdrew from Gaza. The deplorable lack of infrastructure in Gaza is because Hamas’ leadership uses their funding for their war effort, and the cumulative net worth of their leaders is $11 billion. It would seem that, to the critical eye of an intelligent college student, Hamas does not care for the welfare of Palestinian civilians. It has used the billions donated since 2006 to build an intricate tunnel system stretching over 300 miles, with access points strategically placed under civilian residences. Hamas does not mind using Palestinian civilians as human shields — Israel does. This is why the civilian-to-combatant death ratio in this war is 1.5 to one, while the United Nation’s average for global conflicts is nine to one. And when it comes to the outrage over the crisis in humanitarian aid to Gaza, why are student protestors not enraged by the corruption? Even the Palestinian Authority has complained that Hamas is stealing aid intended for Gazan civilians.
Another important question is, do liberal-minded supporters of the “Free Palestine” movement truly mean to align themselves with Islamic fundamentalist extremists (the ideology that Islam is not only a personal or private affair, but that it should also rule social life and the political order or regulate at least part of it)? In Iran, we can see what Islamic fundamentalism and the unchecked oppression of any form of progressiveness really look like. The Iranian “Morality Police” beat women to death for not wearing their hijabs correctly. Just this week a female student in Teheran boldly walked through her campus in her underwear to protest the oppression of Iranian women. She was reportedly taken into police custody, then to a psychiatric center. This is a state where domestic violence is not a crime. Men who commit “honor killings” (the murder of a woman or girl by male family members for bringing dishonor upon the family name) are only sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. Marital rape is legal. Same-sex intercourse is criminalized, sometimes to the point of execution. Similarly, under Hamas in Gaza, “honor killings” have caused irreparable damage to Palestinians.
One would think students who march for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights would never support a regime with such oppressive laws and values. In fact, one might even assume they would feel an affinity to Tel Aviv — considering it’s known as the “gay capital” of the Middle East. In fact, Israel grants asylum to members of the LGBTQ+ community oppressed by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Israel also legally recognized same-sex marriage nine years before the United States. And yet, American students’ progressive priorities go out the window when it comes to this conflict. Why?
“From the river to the sea” is the anthem of the “Free Palestine” movement we’ve seen here at Fordham University — a chant calling for Palestine’s intifada (shaking-off) from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. How many of those voices understand this as a call for the obliteration of Israel, which exists between those two bodies of water? The ones that do seem to justify their anti-Zionist sentiments by accusing Israel of being a white colonial state guilty of apartheid. But if they looked harder they would see that this couldn’t be further from the truth. All you have to do is open an Israeli newspaper to see the prominence of its Palestinian-Arab citizens, with numerous Palestinians in the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) and serving on its Supreme Court. Israel is the most liberal nation in the Middle East and one of the most progressive in the world.
This week in Amsterdam, slogans chanted on campuses across America became reality. “Globalize the intifada,” a weighted term recited at many protests, was barbarically enacted when Muslims in Amsterdam hunted down Jews after a soccer match between Israeli and Dutch teams. Just as on Oct. 7, 2023, the attackers proudly filmed themselves beating, screaming at and running over Jews with their cars, shouting “Free Palestine!”
In the wake of this horrific event, the only question left is, if student activists were aware of the weight of their words, would they stop? Or is it too optimistic to conclude that if the average student searching for a meaningful cause were to pursue the true meaning of their rhetoric, would we have less hate speech, graffiti and division — and find more common ground?
Kingsley Marin, GSB ’28, is a finance major from Los Angeles, Calif.
