A national pro-Palestine student organization is calling for a “day of resistance” on college campuses Thursday in support of brutal terrorist attacks on Israel, emphasizing that they are not only in solidarity with Palestine, they are “PART of this movement.”
A toolkit released by the national Students for Justice in Palestine calls for the student movement for “Palestine liberation” to organize a national day of resistance on college campuses across the U.S. and Canada. The organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,” the toolkit messaging says in bold. “This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement. All of our efforts continue the work and resistance of Palestinians on the ground.”
At least six chapters have already announced such events for Oct. 12, according to the Anti-Defamation League: Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Butler University in Indiana, University of Louisville in Kentucky, University of Binghamton in New York and the University of Virginia.
“We must continue to resist directly, through dismantling Zionism and wielding the political power that our organizations hold on our campuses and in our communities,” the Students for Justice in Palestine toolkit says. “We are asking chapters to host demonstrations on campus/in their community in support of our resistance in Palestine and the national liberation struggle—one which they play a critical role in actualizing.”
If a protest is not possible, the national Students for Justice in Palestine encourages other forms of engagement, such as a sit-in, “disruption” or “educational event.”
The Anti-Defamation League expressed concerns about such tactics: “Although these are all nonviolent tactics, they raise the real possibility of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, and the confrontational spirit that permeates the toolkit raises the concern that these actions could lead to acts of harassment or vandalism targeting Jewish students and organizations.”
Victoria Coates, vice president of The Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday that “the corrosive antisemitism that infects American higher education today has been on ugly display since the terrorist attacks against Israel over the weekend.”
“Instead of denouncing the genocidal Hamas terrorists who hunted, tortured, murdered and took Jews hostage, all too many in academia have come out in favor of their depraved and savage rampage as if it were somehow legitimate because the victims were Jews,” Coates said. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
She added: “This bigoted response stands in stark contrast with the wave of support for Ukraine after [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022, when the same campuses that will host these anti-Israel rallies flew Ukrainian flags in solidarity with the victims of Putin’s attack.”
The calls for demonstrations come after the terrorist group Hamas infiltrated Israel over the weekend, firing more than 4,500 rockets and slaughtering more than 1,000 people, including many women, children, and babies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday declared war against Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization since 1997.
Media reports continue to describe unspeakable atrocities committed by Hamas. An Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said Tuesday that Israeli soldiers had found beheaded corpses of babies in a town near Gaza.
“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. You see the babies, the mother, the father, in their bedrooms, in their protection rooms, and how the terrorists killed them,” IDF Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv said as reported by Fox News. “It’s a massacre.”
But the national Students for Justice in Palestine messaging states that “when people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
“Normalize the resistance,” the messaging says, urging students to describe the current events as a “struggle for national liberation,” rather than a war or a conflict.
The invasion shows that “Israel is fragile,” the messaging continues. “The Zionist entity is fragile, and Palestinian resistance is alive.”
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine groups at universities such as George Washington University in Washington, D.C., are expressing support for Palestine without acknowledging the atrocities that the terrorists have committed in Israel.
“This past weekend we witnessed them break free, tearing down the prison walls, and making it known to the world: WE WILL BE CAGED NO LONGER,” says a statement from GW Students for Justice in Palestine. That statement praises the invasion as “history in the making” and “the beginning of a new era in our struggle.”
“GW Students for Justice in Palestine maintains unwavering support for our people’s resistance, in all its forms,” the statement says. “Every single act of resistance moves us closer to the liberation of our homeland. We will never capitulate to the colonizer or his sympathizers, and we stand firm and steadfast in support of our people’s right to resist. We call upon all our people and those in solidarity with us to join us in this struggle.”
Jewish Insider editor-in-chief Josh Kraushaar reacted to the student statement by calling it a “look at the intellectual/moral climate on top college campuses.”
Lawyer and commentator Erielle Davidson tweeted: “My skin is crawling at the thought that American universities allow bloodthirsty freaks to carry their degrees. GW has a high Jewish population. Despicable.”
And Israeli television anchor Lidar Grave-Lazi said in a social media post that “the world is finally opening its eyes to see the true face of the ‘Pro-Palestinian’ movement.”
“It is not about human rights,” she said. “It is about brutality, barbarism, hatred and the annihilation of Israel. Unfortunately, they have infiltrated college campuses across the U.S. and not enough is being done to counter their hatred. Just look to @Harvard’s deafening silence. Anyone who is civilized and has a shred of humanity should condemn such statements and call them out for what they truly are.”
George Washington University did not immediately respond to requests for comment as to what steps it is taking to ensure the safety of its Jewish students.
Tyler O’Neill contributed to this report.
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