America’s Universities Are Now a Dangerous Place for Jews

Many young people in today’s world aspire to attend an Ivy League university. Recently however, many of these colleges have proven to be an extremely threatening place for Jewish students and professors.

Protests Break Out Across American College Campuses

Pro-Palestine and Pro-Hamas (and I would argue, also pro-Iranian) students have been illegally taking over campuses across the United States. Some of these states, like Texas, have taken matters into their own hands to rid their universities of this act of blatant anti-semitism, and even arresting many of these ignorant protestors.

Many of these protesters have been seen donning their keffiyehs and repeating phrases they don’t fully understand. Their lack of knowledge doesn’t end at the words they are shouting; the keffiyeh represents the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). While these adults are attempting to show “solidarity” with the Palestinian people, they don’t fully understand that the goal of the PLO, according to their charter, is to once again return “Palestine” to its boundaries at the time of the British Mandate, which is considered to be a regional indivisible unit. 

The actual issue may not be immediately clear, but with a little bit of historical context, “Palestine” under the British mandate was the entire state of Israel. Historically, the British chose to call the land of Israel “Palestine” and all the people who resided there were, at that point in history, “Palestinians”. This includes the Jewish people who were living there at that time. This means that the goal of the PLO was (and still is) to completely abolish the land of Israel and in the name of “holy war” murder every Jewish person who lives within it.

The keffiyeh isn’t the only genocidal display across these campuses. Students at Columbia University in New York recently hung a banner out of a window at Hamilton Hall bearing the chilling word “intifada”. The students have since been arrested and removed from the campus, but through their actions, it is apparent that these students don’t understand the events that took place during the first and second intifadas because if they did, it would be considered criminal, not just to those around them, but also to themselves, to call for such a horrendous act.

In regards to the students calling for an intifada, there needs to be a bit of a historical dive into the first and second intifadas to fully understand what this call means. The first intifada started in 1987 and lasted roughly six years. What was the act that began the vicious onslaught of the Jewish people? First, two Israelis were killed in a terrorist attack in Gaza. Then, an Israeli vehicle struck an Arab one, killing four people. This was perceived by the Palestinians as an act of revenge for the murder of the two Israelis. Soon after the intifada’s inception, the Palestinians’ rocks and molotov cocktails turned into even more lethal attacks with rifles, hand grenades, and explosives. In response to this violence, the Israelis had no choice but to defend themselves.

The Second Intifada proved to be bloodier and more gruesome than the first. This intifada, that began in 2000 and ended in 2005, was started by the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This one act resulted in riots by the Arabs and later showed the clear progression from the weapons used in the first intifada to the use of suicide bombings in the second. Following a suicide bombing that claimed the lives of thirty people, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield and began to strengthen their presence in Judea, Samaria, and parts of Gaza (this was prior to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005).

As the students who are currently camping out on college campuses in America call for a third, larger intifada, they hold onto the premise that its purpose is to reject the Israeli occupation. In reality however, they are calling for the aggressive attack and murder of the Jewish people under the facade of freedom. Neither of the intifadas proved to be peaceful and if a third intifada were to take place, the results would undoubtedly be concerningly violent and lethal.

In addition to the  numerous calls for violence against the Jewish people and the State of Israel, student “protesters” took down the American flag that flew over the campus and replaced it with a Palestinian flag. This is an insult to every American citizen and those responsible should be held accountable. Thankfully, Chancellor Lee Roberts of the University of North Carolina, where this incident took place, immediately restored the American flag to its rightful place.

Through all of this darkness, some humorous contradictions can be found. While students were “protesting” the “Israeli occupation of Palestine”, this New York Times headline read, “Protesters at Columbia Occupy Hamilton Hall”. This act of illegal occupation in order to protest an alleged occupation is entirely hypocritical and should be easily recognized as such by all those who have witnessed these deranged actions.

The Concern That Maybe These “Protesters” Do Actually Understand What They Are Saying.

These protests that have broken out across college campuses across America can be quickly disregarded by the belief that these are young, brainwashed college kids who are just following what they think is “cool” right now. What if this isn’t actually the case? What if many of these students know what the phrases they are shouting mean? What if they believe that intifadas and the 1947 borders of “Palestine” must take place and be reinstituted? What if, by neglecting the entrance of Jews into the schools they study and teach in, these are the beginning steps into another heinous Holocaust? These “young and naive kids” are not kids; they are adults who are old enough to understand the weight of what they are repeating. 

The thought that these protestors fully understand their true meaning is far more concerning and frightening than what anyone may have ever imagined. If these adults are knowingly calling for the death of Jews in and out of Israel, then where does that place the morality of any person or nation? People have sworn for over 70 years that what was inflicted upon the Jewish people during the Holocaust would happen “never again,” yet , unfortunately, it appears that it may very well be close to happening again. 

In many cities across the world, the Jewish people can no longer walk in freedom or without fear for their own safety simply for being Jewish. If anyone wants to stop the modern war against the Jews, it is more critical now than it has been in many of our lifetimes to stand up with and for the Jewish people, to call out the evil lies being propagated against the Jewish people, and to, if necessary, lay down our lives for their safety. As Jews are no longer being granted access to many places, one can only wonder how long it may be before more people and places fall in line with this frighteningly familiar denial of rights. If we do not stand up and put a stop to this abhorrent evil during this horrifying repetition of history, may God forgive us all.