While the Israel-Hamas ceasefire has brought hope to Jewish students like me this week, I wish I could say similar progress toward civil discourse and peace is being made at the University of Missouri.
Despite our concerted efforts to hold discussions and draw attention to the facts of the matter, pro-Palestinian students on campus have made civil discourse nearly impossible.
The Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine’s recent lawsuit regarding its participation in the homecoming parade is just one example. The group wanted to display a sign accusing Israel of “genocide”; administrators said no, citing a new policy that prohibits political expression in the parade. So, the group sued for viewpoint discrimination.
During a recent protest, the pro-Palestinian group also referred to the “most well-documented genocide in history,” as was stated on MSJP’s official Instagram page.
The idea that there is a genocide taking place at the hands of Israel is an absurd notion. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the main factor for military action to be considered a genocide is intent.
The fact that the Israeli government drops leaflets every time the IDF is set to bomb a site in Gaza, or even cancels the operation as a whole if there is too much civilian activity in the area, shows the factor of intent to be missing. At every chance possible, civilian life is spared.
The Hamas-led massacre two years ago on Oct. 7, however, would certainly fall under that category. When terrorists infiltrated Israel by land, air and sea, their sole stated purpose was to kill as many Jewish and Israeli people as possible, and they have said they will do it again and again. This is true intent.
Unfortunately, SJPs across the nation stubbornly cling to their false beliefs, forcing us to repeatedly confront them. Mizzou’s chapter of the organization is no different.
Last year, on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, both MSJP and the pro-Israel group Stand With Us had tables in the designated free speech area on my campus.
While conversations were civil for the most part, a few members of MSJP did not engage civilly. Instead, they created a hostile environment and made discourse between the groups nearly impossible. When Jewish students asked for respectful conversations, one pro-Palestinian was overheard saying “you can’t respect people who killed 50,000 people.”
Other pro-Israel students were called names and yelled at. Some weren’t even given a chance to speak. MSJP members don’t often have a “normal” conversation, and refuse to listen to what we have to say.
Those who deigned to speak with us pushed the same libelous arguments: Genocide. Starvation. Apartheid. They have wrapped their identities around being right and righteous, so our refutations of their lies never seem to sink in.
This is not new, and it still has not changed. The former president of MSJP is currently on probation; she was not allowed to attend the Homecoming Parade and she can’t host events on campus due to an incident with a student while tabling last March, as was reported in The Columbia Missourian.
So far this year, I haven’t seen MSJP officially tabling on campus, presumably due to the ongoing lawsuit. However, its members are effectively hiding behind another group, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, this fall by tabling together. Same keffiyehs. Same people. Same toxic messaging. Just different branding.
Meanwhile, their lawsuit regarding the homecoming parade is on-going.
MSJP recently won a federal court injunction allowing it to be included in this year’s Homecoming Parade, contingent on it agreeing to follow the black and gold theme that has been outlined for all groups.
However, the larger viewpoint discrimination claims of the lawsuit are still being considered in court.
In the article posted to CAIR’s website detailing the lawsuit, attorney Gadier Abbas stated that MSJP is “seeking relief from the court for that constitutional violation” as well as a demand “that the University not repeat its mistake by excluding Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine again in this year’s parade.”
Although MSJP’s parade display didn’t mention “genocide” this year, the group’s true colors have come through. The consistency of the behavior that has been displayed on campus has been noticed by officials, and the blanket that once covered the truth of the actions of this organization is slowly being removed.
With the help of like-minded individuals and organizations on campus, the time to push back against this behavior and the false narrative is now. We will continue to speak out against the hateful, heinous lies and educate as many students as are willing to listen about the realities so that we – like Israel and Hamas this week – can hopefully some day come to peaceable terms.
This article was originally published on The College Fix.
