UC Davis' anti-Israel protest: here I go again
I was a student at UC Davis when the murderous wave of Palestinian terrorism known as the Second Intifada broke out in 2000. Just like today, the problem for many on campus was not the suicide bombers eviscerating hundreds of innocent civilians, but Israeli “genocide”, occupation, and Zionism. These things not only justified the lethal campaign but equally “proved” that Israel had no right to defend its citizens from the onslaught.
Those anti-Israel protests were not on the scale of today’s campus unrest. There were no permanent encampments, no professors egging on the anti-Israel students, no one sacked any buildings, and much less media attention fanned the flames. Still, we had our moments. Pro-Hamas protestors set fire to the Israeli flag hanging from the side of our Hillel House, torching a portion of the building. When a group of us wanted to set up a booth for Sukkot on the Quad, the administration refused to allow it: someone, they said, had threatened “to throw a grenade in there” if we dared show ourselves publicly, and the school didn’t want to risk it. We held our pro-Israel rallies, waved our Israeli flags, and dealt with the same old taunts of “Hitler should have finished the job,” “child killers” and, of course, “free Palestine.”
We also had our small victories. We laid out tables by the Quad so people could come talk to us directly (there was no social media back then). When anti-Israel speakers came to campus, we didn’t shout them down or demand they be canceled; instead we would sit in the front row of the auditorium, then during the Q&A force the presenter to either call on our raised hands or be shown to purposefully ignore us. It was effective in making people realize the speaker had perhaps something to hide, or couldn’t answer simple questions about whether Israeli teens really deserved to be blown up at a night club. Those were a heady couple years defending Israel.
I was back at UC Davis two days ago and took the opportunity to check out the anti-Israel encampment that took over half the Quad. The camp is ringed by a fence that seals itself off save for two entrances where visitors are required to “check-in” behind a “guard” minding a sliding gate. A sign next to the entrance says “Cop Watch Zone. We Hate You.” There is a heightened sense of vigilance.
Stationed around the outside of the fencing are more “guards” with walkie talkies. As I walked around they reported me to each other: “suspicious guy in shorts and gray shirt taking pictures. He’s walking away from me now, coming towards you,” “Thanks, I got him, will follow”. Everyone is wearing keffiyehs to cover their faces, even in 80 degree heat.
And then there are the signs. “Jews with Palestine” un-ironically hangs next to a sign extolling the virtue of killing Jews all over the world: “Davis to Gaza / Globalize the Intifada.” And “We Don’t Want No 2 State, We Want 48,” a reference to rejecting the creation of Israel in 1948, eliminating it in favor of a single Palestinian state. “Fuck Israel,” “Destroy Zionism,” and so on. One of the tents inside the encampment was labeled “PFLP” — the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP hijacked airplanes, massacred civilians at airports, murdered students at supermarkets, blew up teenagers at pizzerias, killed worshippers at synagogues, and kidnapped and executed Israeli children. But here they are in their tent at the heart of a great liberal American institution that I called home for four years.
This is not a peace encampment. It’s not opposing war but continuing it against Israel, Zionism, and the West more broadly. This is not a welcoming community but a menacing one. There are no peace signs, no calls for coexistence, no inclusion of those not already committed to their inflexible ideology, no statements that any lives matter besides a narrow group of Palestinians victimized by Israel (Palestinians murdered or persecuted by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, or anywhere else aren’t mentioned).
There is no pro-Palestinian message. Instead it’s an onslaught of anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, and anti-Jews who are not willing to renounce both those things (which is most Jews).
I don’t want to oversimplify or generalize an entire movement. These mass demonstrations on American and European campuses are about a lot of things beyond the demonization of Israel, even if that is the centerpiece. People are drawn in for all sorts of reasons. Outright Jewish hatred, anti-Western criticism, feelings of powerlessness, or simply wanting a fun social experience in the midst of global attention.
As a generality, though, what strikes me about this movement is that it’s so profoundly negative. It’s dark, violent and hyperbolic. Here in the privileged heart of central California these students are cosplaying at being victims, pretending that they are being persecuted while they call for the mass murder of Jews. The real reason for the keffiyehs is so they can act with impunity, much like creating a fake email account to send death threats. Why, they think, should they deal with any consequences for supporting a child-killing terrorist organization and calling for the worldwide murder of Jews? Why should there be any pushback for harassing Jews walking across the Quad? They purport to believe in this cause but aren’t willing to even show their faces for it.
When I look back at the campus protests of the 1960s/70s, in whose image today’s demonstrations are favorably compared, I see a movement that brought millions of Americans together in a shared vision of progress. Yes, there were dark aspects similar to today’s protests, such as advocating violence, support for communist dictatorships, a hope for a violent end to the West, etc. But in hindsight the movement as a whole emphasized, with varying degrees of success, global peace, women’s liberation, gay rights, youth participation in politics, greater equality, and broader social and economic inclusion. It was so powerful in reshaping culture and society precisely because it offered such an expansive, hopeful vision.
The anti-Israel movement has none of that. Its nastiness overrides whatever decent intentions might be behind some of the participants who genuinely want to see an end to war, and have legitimate criticisms of Israel. The tenor is hardly “pro-Palestinian” as these protests don’t speak to any positive vision of Palestinian progress, save the violent destruction of Israel and the Zionists Jews. Indeed, their hope for Palestinians is that they’ll continue living under the evil warlords of Hamas, which hardly seems like a “free” Palestine. Representing the Palestinian “cause” has become more important than the actual Palestinian people. The movement betrays no real understanding of Israeli society, Middle Eastern politics, or the dilemmas facing all parties in this conflict.
The protestors are entitled to advocate for legitimate policy goals, even ones I disagree with, such as divesting from Israel, demanding a cease-fire, and forcing the resignation of university officials. But those aims are overshadowed by their extremism. So while the protests have captured the nation’s attention, I wonder whether they have much staying power as a centripetal force.
School is starting to close down for the summer, giving everyone — students, faculty, administration, and the media — a couple months to cool off. Already some encampments are dismantling or moving elsewhere. We’ll see what happens comes September. Do the encampments return, or does it die out? Are they going to pull more students in, or will it return to the particular niche of anti-Israel advocates that it has always been?
I’m skeptical that a movement pushing only hate, and representing some of the most morally depraved organizations on the planet, is going to attract too many more people. Rather than offer an uplifting vision for the future, this movement looks only for more violence, darkness, and despair. That’s not the American way.
In-person presentation June 9
Come see me in-person at the 36th Annual East Bay Tikkun — A Day of Learning in Honor of Shavuot. Registration (free) required here. Shavuot is a spring festival marking when the Israelites received the Jewish law at Mt. Sinai, and is often celebrated by learning.
JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA
Sunday, June 9, 2–8pm (not sure what time my session will be yet)
My talk: Who Killed Chaim Arlosoroff? How a 1933 unsolved murder on the beach in Tel Aviv explains Israeli politics. Get ready for twists and turns!
This Week’s Episode: The Hostages
Hamas is holding 132 hostages, war crimes perpetuated each day of their captivity. Israel is faced with impossible choices getting them home. Yet the rest of the world treats the hostages as just one facet of this war, when for Israelis it’s the most important.
Find the podcast episode here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Find today’s written transcript below:
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Picture of the Day
Rows of graves for fallen soldiers at Mt. Herzl Cemetery, Jerusalem. Photo: Jason Harris
Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, was a few days ago. The entire nation came to a stop to remember both fallen soldiers and those killed in terrorist attacks. Israel counts 25,034 men, women, and children “killed in defense of the Land of Israel since 1860.” Of those about 5,000 were victims of terrorism.
Since last year’s Memorial Day, 760 soldiers and 834 civilians were killed, most of them associated with the October 7 massacre and ongoing war.
On Memorial Day a siren goes off at 11:00am throughout the entire country, and everyone stops in their tracks to stand still in remembrance of the fallen.
Memorial Day ends in the evening and immediately turns into Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israel’s Independence Day. This years marks Israel’s 76th Independence Day.