By embracing antisemitic slogans, student protesters have hurt the Palestinian cause | Opinion

The pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have paralyzed some of the top U.S. universities to protest the war in Gaza have really shot themselves in the foot. They have hurt the cause of Palestinian statehood by exposing themselves as blatant antisemites.

For many of us who support creation of a Palestinian state that recognizes Israel and vows not to attack it — what diplomats refer to as a “two-state solution” — it’s hard to sympathize with protesters who use antisemitic slogans, condone terrorism and suppress the rights of other students to attend classes.

More than 2,000 students have already been arrested at Columbia University in New York and other colleges across the nation, including the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. In many cases, they occupied buildings or blocked classes.

That’s not winning them much support amid the general population. A new Harvard-Harris poll shows that, more than a week after the start of the protests, 80% of American voters said they support Israel more in the war in Gaza, while 20% said they support Hamas, the terrorist group that started the war with its Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians.

That’s slightly higher support for Israel than what the same poll found a month earlier, when 79% of American voters had said they supported Israel over Hamas. Contrary to speculation that the student protests are gaining massive support among America’s youth, the latest survey showed that the Israel-Hamas war ranks 15th among young peoples’ concerns, way below inflation and climate change.

“There’s the right to protest but not the right to cause chaos,” President Biden said on Thursday. “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if support for Israel grows in reaction to the students’ protests.

First, the student protesters would have been much more effective if they had called for a cease-fire in Gaza while simultaneously demanding with equal zeal the release of the estimated 130 Israeli, mostly civilian, hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They have not done that, and have come across as supporters of terrorism.

Moreover, they would have been much more credible if, aside from criticizing Israel for what Hamas-government health officials say are more than 34,000 deaths in Gaza, they had also denounced the Hamas terrorist attack that started the war. Remember, Hamas militants invaded Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 civilians, including more than 200 unarmed youths attending a music concert.

Second, the protesters would have drawn more public sympathy if they had called for creation of a Palestinian state that lives peacefully alongside Israel, rather than supporting the elimination of Israel.

Throughout the protests, they held signs reading “From the River to the Sea,” a slogan that effectively calls for a Palestinian takeover of Israel. The state of Israel was created in 1948 with the support of the United States, China and the former Soviet Union, and was admitted to the United Nations in 1949.

Third, the students would have gained more public support if they had protested against Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than against “zionism.”

There’s nothing wrong with protesting against Israel’s current government, or against any other country’s authorities.

But, as I noted in a previous column, protesting against “zionism” is denying Israel’s foundational right to exist, which is pure antisemitism. It singles out Jews as the only religious group they deny the right to have a homeland.

Why do the protesters accept that Saudi Arabia and 26 other nations define themselves as Muslim countries, and oppose Israel’s right to call itself a Jewish state?

Fourth, the student protesters’ claim that Israel is conducting a “genocide” makes them look further biased. While genocide is defined as the deliberate annihilation of an ethnic or religious group, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas terrorist group, not the Palestinian population.

Granted Israel can be criticized for committing excesses in its counter-offensive, but it is fighting against a terrorist group that hides in schools and hospitals, uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and calls in its foundational charter for the destruction of the Jewish state.

As I’m writing these lines, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced that he is severing diplomatic ties with Israel, using the same claim of an alleged “genocide” in Gaza.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, referring to Petro’s failure to denounce Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, wrote on X that “History will remember that Gustavo Petro chose to stand at the side of the most abominable monsters known to man, who burned babies, killed children, raped women and abducted innocent civilians.”

Colombia’s decision to cut ties with Israel looks somewhat ridiculous, given that neither Egypt nor United Arab Emirates nor other Arab states with diplomatic ties with Israel have taken such a drastic step. Turkey has announced it is cutting trade ties with Israel, but has not gone as far as Colombia.

Which brings be back to my original point. If the students protesting at U.S. colleges had condemned both the scope of Israel’s military reaction in Gaza and the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that started this war, and had done so with equal zeal, they may have won some hearts and minds. Instead, they have come across as virulent antisemites. If their goal was to win support for the Palestinian cause, they have failed.

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