Anti-Israel activists came out in droves across the United States and Canada in early July. Why? Ostensibly, to protest the prospect of Israeli “annexation” — or, more accurately, the potential application of Israeli sovereignty to certain areas over the Green Line (which has yet to occur). Of course, chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” like those heard in Brooklyn, undermined any semblance of level-headed protest against Israeli policy.
In an ode to Palestinian terrorist leader Ghassan Kanafani, the next spate of protests has been announced for Aug. 7-9, including in Brooklyn once again, and has already garnered over 100 endorsements from other organizations.
While these protests were planned by the likes of Samidoun and Jewish Voice for Peace, it is student groups that have truly taken the lead this time around.
These students continue to demonstrate their bigotry and willingness to piggyback off the strife of the black community by drawing supposed similarities between Palestinians and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, when the reality is anything but. Likewise, they proved their ability to effectively coordinate various protests on a national level. This should worry anyone devoted to pushing back against their nefarious agenda.
As the Washington Examiner reported, the July 1 march in Washington was led by Harvard senior Christian Tabash, an organizer for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine and the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee. Protesters held signs supporting BLM and the Palestine Liberation Organization, while Tabash led their chants and proclaimed that the Palestinian movement is “intrinsically tied to Black Lives Matter.” At one point, Tabash read from a poem that referred to Israel as the “puppet master of continents,” a centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews running the world.
“These students continue to demonstrate their bigotry and willingness to piggyback off the strife of the black community by drawing supposed similarities between Palestinians and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, when the reality is anything but.”
Ironically and tragically, the puppet masters are neither Israel nor Zionist Jews, but student activists such as Tabash and his ilk. They shamelessly hijack unrelated political issues, not realizing they are being manipulated and undermining their own cause in the process.
At a Toronto rally on July 1 organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), activists called for Palestinians and the black community to stand against structural racism and called for boycotts against Israel. At a separate July 4 protest organized by students in Mississauga, Ontario, the crowd was heard chanting in Arabic that “Palestine is our country and the Jews are our dogs.”
In Boston, Hamas slogans were chanted outside offices of the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council, ostensibly because they facilitate joint police training between Israel and the U.S. The oft-heard argument is that these joint efforts contribute to racial inequality, police brutality and white supremacy. In reality, joint training programs primarily focus on counterterrorism tactics, not community policing, and have been praised by African-American police for their emphasis on building relationships and maintaining peace among diverse populations.
Moreover, during the protest, a leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Boston University promulgated the “Israel is guilty of Palestinian genocide” canard. This lie is easily debunked by examining the soaring Palestinian birthrates and life expectancy since Israel began administering the West Bank and Gaza.
In San Diego, the Palestinian Youth Movement organized a protest in the form of a caravan. Appallingly, participants harassed Jewish organizations such as Hadassah and Hillel, neither of which are Israeli organizations. The conflation of Jewish Americans with Israel is another form of antisemitism.
Numerous other rallies were co-organized by SJP chapters, including in Philadelphia, Houston and Los Angeles.
The temerity with which these students boldly declare falsehoods about Israel, apologize for terrorism and engage in antisemitic vitriol is indicative of not only an increasingly organized movement, but an increasingly accepted one. Do not let these activists fool you: The protests have nothing to do with justice, Black Lives Matter or potential “Israeli annexation”; they have everything to do with demonization of Israel and the deceitful takeover of other political movements.
Originally published in New York Daily News.
Contributed by CAMERA’s Israel campus advisor Eitan Fischberger.