The hysterical response from the establishment media, in addition to the US and Israeli governments, to the overwhelmingly peaceful student protests across the United States has propelled the issue into the spotlight and purposefully caused confusion on the nature of the demonstrations. Meanwhile, members of the alternative right wing media, who built their reputations on defending freedom of speech and “the facts”, have performed a 180 degree pivot on their formerly held “free speech absolutism”.
On April 17, students set up an encampment in the communal area of Columbia University and put forth their demands that their academic institution divest from companies that have ties to Israel. These students specifically cited the ongoing genocide in Gaza as their reasoning behind their actions, which had been preceded by nationwide protests spanning more than 6 months. On the reported request of the university, the New York Police Department (NYPD) was, days later, called in to disperse the peaceful protest and resulted in over 100 arrests and triggered the focus of the mainstream media.
Interestingly, back in March, students at the UK’s University College London (UCL) set up a similar demonstration to those we see across the US today. They announced that they would be occupying spaces within the university and stated that “UCL has extensive collaborations with arms companies supplying the Israeli occupation. There will be no class as usual in a complicit university.” This demonstration lasted for around a month, yet there was no major media or government fixation on it and the police did not behave as they did in the case of Columbia University. Due to the lack of manufactured outrage, which we see today in the United States, almost nobody even knew that there was a protest of this nature happening in London. This indicates that the overreaction of the University administration at Columbia, the NYPD, the US government, the mainstream media, and even Israel’s Prime Minister, was likely what contributed the to movement in the US expanding.
The student protests are evidently now nationwide in the US (and have even gone international) and represent the largest university anti-war protest movement across university campuses since the Vietnam War. As was the case during the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, the students are being smeared by the media and cracked down upon by the authorities. So far, State Troopers, local police units, riot police, SWAT, and anti-terrorism police units have been called in by Universities across the US to crack down on thousands of peaceful demonstrators, while the threat of the National Guard being deployed to college campuses looms large.
The corporate media have lost their collective minds, as both CNN and FOX News unite in labelling the university protesters as “supporters of terrorism” and “anti-Semites”. On MSNBC’s flagship show, Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski went on a rant in which she exclaimed “they need to watch the news” about the protesters that her show has been calling “pro-Hamas” demonstrators and claiming that they are “violent”.
Meanwhile, Dana Bash did an unhinged segment on CNN in which she attempted to draw parallels between the student protesters and the virulent anti-Semitism of 1930’s Germany. In the case of CNN’s Bash, she is also the same woman who months ago conjured up the response to the fact that 15,000 Palestinian civilians had been murdered, when pressed on the issue by Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal: “but you don’t see Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women“. Not only is her response a demonstration of her double-standard on Israeli-vs-Palestinian civilian deaths, but it is also false, there are countless allegations of Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women, before and after October 7, two rape cases were even reported by the United Nations back in February of this year. Additionally, the CNN news segment which tried to compare the student protests to anti-Semitism in 1930’s Europe, is quite literally a copy and paste talking point from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech that he delivered addressing the student protests and calling on the US government to cancel the free speech of American citizens.
Who Are The Violent, Racist & Anti-American Ones?
While the only provable case of “violence” that the mainstream media can point to, on the part of the pro-Palestinian protesters, is the breaking of windows at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, of which students locked themselves inside and renamed “Hind Hall”, the violence of the NYPD that was called into disperse them, which led to cops throwing students down flights of stairs, was evidently much more violent.
No serious injuries???????? https://t.co/a6uYSLQ0v3 pic.twitter.com/z8JA66bzXa
— Joey Scott (@joeyneverjoe) May 2, 2024
The reason why the students chose the name Hind Hall, was in honor of 6-year-old Hind Rajab who was executed by Israeli forces along with her family in Gaza. The renaming of the hall dates back to the anti-Apartheid struggle on campuses across the US, during which students in 1985 renamed the building “Mandela Hall”. Interestingly, in 1985, the police did not violently attack the student protesters in the way they did just days ago.
CNN presenter Kasie Hunt referred to 6-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israel after she called emergency services begging to be rescued in January, as “a woman who was killed in Gaza” during a discussion on the renaming of Columbia University’s Hamilton… pic.twitter.com/fzhC7AIWwa
— TRT World (@trtworld) May 2, 2024
The charge that the students are espousing racist hatred against Jewish people is predicated on a number of claims, which we have to address one by one.
The Chants:
The two main chants that the media is taking issue with are “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution”. Piers Morgan in particular has taken issue with the latter phrase and labelled it an explicit call for a violent revolt in which Jews are killed. To begin with, Intifada is an Arabic word, which is used for any uprising, as pointed out by journalist Mehdi Hassan, even the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Arabic website uses the word “Intifada” to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during WW2.
In response to this, Piers Morgan deflects by then pointing to the application of the word to the Palestine-Israel conflict, which on the historical record there are two titles for uprisings; The Intifada (1987-1993) and Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000-2005/6). During the first Intifada, for a whole entire year it was an non-violent uprising and while in the Gaza Strip the Israelis murdered over 150 Palestinians, not a single Israeli was killed. This began to change during the second year of the uprising after the overwhelming violence used against Palestinian under then Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s “Bone Breaking” policy. The first Intifada concluded with the signing of the Oslo agreements by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which were meant to be peace deals. Israel’s violence during the first year of The Intifada, also largely led to the birth of Hamas in 1988, whose leaders had previously opposed armed struggle.
Do you completely & deliberately ignore the legal right of armed resistance (yes that means violence), outlined by the 4th Geneva Convention, afforded to occupied territories? Which Palestine legally is, per the United Nations? Or do actually not understand it?
— The Last American Vagabond (@TLAVagabond) May 2, 2024
The Second Intifada, or Al-Aqsa Intifada, broke out in reaction to the break down of the so-called “Peace Process”, as Israel continued building settlements, refused to withdraw its forces from areas it agreed to, and Ariel Sharon stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque. This Intifada was violent and there is no dispute over that fact, but that does not mean the term in and of itself denotes calls to violence, especially as most of the tactics employed during the two main Intifadas in Palestine were non-violent. Also, the word Intifada is used by Palestinians to describe almost any act of resistance they commit themselves, violent or otherwise. It is also important to reiterate that, legally speaking, per the 4th Geneva Convention, occupied territories have the right to armed resistance against their occupier (in this case Israel) which very clearly includes acts of legally protected violence. However, the singular of the Arabic root word for Intifada, Intifd, can be used to mean standing up or shaking something off. The word is also used to describe almost every revolt or mass demonstrator movement throughout the Arab world — it has nothing to do with killing Jewish people and non-Arabic speakers trying to argue this are embarrassing themselves.
As for the “from the river to the sea”, this phrase actually emerged in 1977 from a manifesto issued by Israel’s Likud Party – the current party heading the Israeli government – which asserted that there would be no Palestinian State and only Israeli sovereignty from the Jordan River to Sea. Variations of the phrase are used by almost everyone on both sides of the isle and certainly does not denote a call for a second Holocaust. The chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has even been used by advocates of the Two-State solution and without contradictions: the West Bank borders the Jordan River, whereas the Gaza Strip borders the Mediterranean Sea. Nobody is calling for wiping out Jewish people, however, people are calling for the dismantling of the Israeli government and replacing it with a Palestinian government that will grant equal rights to all.
Well here it is being used by the Likud Party as part of their original party platform. But I am sure that is totally not the same thing at all, right Elon? https://t.co/seD3wf9M4B https://t.co/6J8PeSmKus pic.twitter.com/tSLhvaJjw5
— The Last American Vagabond (@TLAVagabond) November 28, 2023
Anti-Jewish Attacks:
While there have been various claims of physical attacks on Jewish students, there has been no evidence to back up the idea that any people have been attacked due to their Jewish identity. In fact, Jewish students are overrepresented in the protest movement, with the two primary groups on campus that are organizing the protests being Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The case of a young Iranian-Jewish woman claiming to have been stabbed in the eye by a pro-Palestinian student protester was propelled across US media, without any fact checking. Nevertheless, the narrative that the anti-war students are committing major physical offenses, like stabbing Jewish people in the eye with flagpoles, was for days a popular talking point of those advocating crackdowns on the university encampments. This young Jewish woman was allowed to present herself as the victim of an act of serious violence across mainstream broadcast media, clearly showing no signs of having been stabbed in the eye. Later, the video of the alleged assault was released, in which it is clear that she was not intentionally violently stabbed in the eye, or stabbed at all in fact, but instead a young student simply waves a Palestinian flag in the direction of the Jewish student. This alleged victim, also has a past of pro-Israel activism and was blocked by organizers of the protest from approaching demonstrators, as she was determined to be an agitator.
VIRAL STORY: “I was stabbed in the eye last night on Yale University’s campus because I am a Jew…They pointed their middle fingers at me…and the taunting continued until a six-foot-something male holding a Palestinian flag waved the flag in my face and then stabbed me with… https://t.co/V5Wvhdxrk7 pic.twitter.com/V8xK76OHVD
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) April 26, 2024
Cringe attempts by Zionist activists, to draw attention to themselves and play victim on campus — in one case using a woman to wear a shirt that says “Jew” on one side and “Israel” on the other — failed to cause any reaction. In fact, in this case, the woman hysterically screams “dox me” and “I am not afraid”, while a group of Jewish students hold a banner in favor of a ceasefire and others dance in the background, not paying any attention to the screaming woman who attempts to frame herself as being in a danger zone.
During the early hours of May 1, crowds of pro-Zionist counter-protesters arrived to the UCLA encampment site and began attacking the peaceful protesters, as police stood by and did nothing. The Zionists reportedly yelled racial slurs and were caught on camera shooting fireworks in the encampment, punching students, hitting them with planks of wood, using pepper spray on students standing around and attempting to violently break up the encampment. One of the agitators that was caught on camera assaulting students appears to be a trained fighter and not from the university. There was even a GoFundMe created for the UCLA counterprotest, which raised over 52,000 dollars. On the other hand, there has been no proof of any large financing going to the UCLA encampment.
Watching “pro-Israel” protesters shooting fireworks at “pro-Palestine” protesters at UCLA reminds me of just how far removed the US is from our reality in which Israeli forces recently shot and killed a 13 year-old Palestinian boy for shooting a firework.pic.twitter.com/412IyH6Gkq
— Benzi Sanders (@BenzionSanders) May 1, 2024
While there are no videos of racial slurs being shouted against Jewish students, Zionists have been caught yelling the N Word on camera twice and openly calling for killing Palestinians, In one disgraceful example of distorting the facts, pro-Israel counter-protesters shouted “KILL THE JEWS” at Northeastern University, which The Boston Globe reported was shouted without discerning who said it. A video of the incident went viral on social media, clearly showing pro-Israeli protesters shouting the anti-Semitic phrase while holding an Israeli flag, to which the pro-Palestinian students shouted them down and booed them. However, Northeastern University used The Boston Globe report as a justification for calling the police to disperse the protest violently. The Boston Globe did issue a clarification after the fact, yet the university has not apologized for their actions.
At UCLA, Pro-Israel Zionist Is literally wishing that the students at encampment get raped, she said “I hope they rape you”.
Why are they all obsessed with rape? pic.twitter.com/JtmXGNgsYW
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 29, 2024
While there have been instances of such protesters with their faces covered, screaming “remember October 7” and then screaming there will be “10,000 October 7’s”, it is difficult to tell who actually said this, and it has not yet been confirmed that they were part of the pro-Palestinian protests as opposed to infiltrators, of which there are endless verifiable examples. Another incident occurred when an unidentified woman, also with her face covered, held a sign that read “al-Qasam’s next targets” while standing next to Zionists holding Israeli flags. While in this case, there is no way to tell who this actually was and their intentions, they clearly did not know how to wrap the Kuffiyeh (Palestinian scarf) around their face properly and spelled the armed wing of Hamas, known as the Qassam Brigades, incorrectly and wrote it with one “s” instead of two. These two instances have not resulted in any criminal charges.
Despite the media claims and the assertion from US President Joe Biden, that the protests have been violent, an independent report issued on the topic found that 99% of the protests across the country have been non-violent.
The Protests Are “Well Funded”:
While it is impossible to track possible funding to every pro-Palestinian encampment, there has been no evidence of them receiving financing and cash donations. On the contrary, there is public evidence of the counter-demonstrators being financed. Some have pointed to Jewish Voice for Peace allegedly receiving 150,000 dollars in grants from the George Soros connected ‘Open Society Policy Center’, between 2019-2021, as proof that Soros is funding the encampments. However, only 15% of the budget raised by JVP is from private donations and there is no evidence for direct financing from George Soros to the pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses.
The NYPD appeared on corporate media to present bike locks, used to lock “Hind Hall” at Columbia University, as proof that “professionals” were running rampant in the student protest movement. Despite this then giving the corporate media the excuse to begin claiming that professional agitators were being used, when the NYPD were asked how many non-student demonstrators they arrested, they failed to even give an answer. So far, there has been no evidence that pro-Palestinian “professionals” are being employed to aid the demonstrations.
Free Speech:
There is no evidence for the targeting of Jews, and the movement is clearly against the Israeli government, not anti-Jewish in any discernable way. Even if you believe that the protests are espousing hate and creating discomfort for Jewish students, according to the First Amendment, the demonstrators still have the right to protest.
While the likes of FOX News, Republican Party representatives, and the social media conservatives like Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin have spent the past years screaming about the “Woke Left” censoring speech at academic institutions, they now find themselves lying and smearing anti-war protesters as “racists” in order to justify censoring them. They claim to be against “safe spaces”, but want “safe spaces” on campus for Zionists; they want to call anyone and everyone a Nazi, racist, and anti-semitic for criticism of the Israeli government while distorting the meaning of pro-Palestinian chants. These self-described “free speech absolutists” now justify violent police crackdowns on students for expressing their right to free speech.
Identity politics and the two-party paradigm have confused many popular right-wing social media influencers. They’ve strayed from their proclaimed principles and amusingly compare recent events to their revered protest of January 6th.
Watch More: https://t.co/C1vNzPO278 pic.twitter.com/zFTyQxvzWJ
— The Last American Vagabond (@TLAVagabond) May 3, 2024
It is very clear that these people are not interested in free speech, they are just grifting off of the culture war in the US, playing the role of the Right-wing identity politics crowd. They claim to be against cancel culture and identity politics, yet exactly embody this when it comes to defending Israel and never take issue with the unconstitutional laws adopted in 38 states that make it illegal to boycott Israel.
These same bad faith actors are now trying to present the pro-Palestinian protesters as part of their made up culture war. They point to some of the protesters, in some cases many of them, being supporters of Black Lives Matter, or them having pink hair, as an example of how they are part of the “Woke Left”. These arguments are immature and the only way they can distract their audiences from the fact that they are trying justifying, and even advocating for, violently cancelling the free speech of the anti-war protesters. If you believe in free speech, then you don’t have to agree with every single protester, nor do you even have to agree with what they are saying and advocating for, but you do have to support their right to speak.
On a personal note, what we are currently seeing across college campuses in the United States is unprecedented and deeply inspiring. If you were to tell me 7 months ago that there would be a nation wide student’s movement opposing Israeli war crimes in Gaza, coupled with non-stop street protests across the country, and that a 25-year-old active-duty airman, Aaron Bushnell, would light himself on fire screaming “free Palestine” until he dropped dead, I would have called you crazy. All of this demonstrates just how committed to justice many are in the US, to the point that it has shocked the entire world. This issue has united right and left, becoming one of the largest anti-war protest movements in US history, an amazing reflection of the spirit of free speech and human rights values that are enshrined in so many Americans.
