After class yesterday, I found a table and chair near Mudd Field and set up shop to do some work outside on a beautiful, unseasonably warm December Day.
Unfortunately, this would not be the pleasant, peaceful experience I imagined. Resist WashU was organizing a Rally for Palestine on Mudd field. For those who do not know, Resist WashU, formerly known as WashU BPL (Black and Palestinian Liberation), prides itself in hating Jewish people and WashU more generally. They repeatedly call Israel an illegitimate settler colony engaging in genocide and equate Zionism with Apartheid. They have also condemned Birthright Israel, a free trip for Jewish students to explore their religious homeland, as upholding White Supremacy. They also despise WashU for supposedly supporting Israel by investing in defense contractors that work with the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF. Their hatred of WashU does not end there, as they also think the university plunders the St. Louis community and deliberately upholds systems of racism. Needless to say, I believe any semi-rational person should steer clear of the group, but they’re impossible to avoid as they make deliberate points to menace the campus. They have vandalized Chancellor Martin’s House and The Underpass, and repeatedly engage in behaviors generally disruptive to an open campus environment. All that to say this is the group organizing the protest
Despite having a modest turnout of about 50 people, they made quite a presence, waving Palestine flags and shouting vulgar chants. There are two I want to break down further, as they reflect the clear hypocrisy of the group, and pro-Palestine campus movements more generally.
The first chant of note is “Andrew Martin you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide”. Besides the fact that Chancellor Martin isn’t actually hiding1, the message is clear- that by investing in groups who in turn support the IDF, WashU is supporting Israel’s self-defense, which Resist considers a genocide. The hypocrisy comes in the form that these people who believe that WashU is helping commit genocide still voluntarily attend this university! It is a privilege to attend here, less than 3 in 20 students, most of whom are already impressive, who apply are accepted. Far more people want to go to WashU than are able to. Yet these people, who hate the school and its leadership so much that they think the school is committing genocide, still decide to attend. If they really think the school is supporting acts that are so heinous, they should act on their principle and drop out.
The second chant of note is “Israel is a terror state”. The country they are supporting instead ironically literally is a terror state, at least as recognized by nearly every Western country. Gaza is governed by Hamas, a terrorist group who in their stated charter wants to kill all Israeli Jews. They frequently launch attacks targeted at Jewish civilians, with the October 7th attacks being by far the largest and most destructive. They know they cannot beat Israel in a conventional military battle, so they resort to unconventional tactics to keep Israelis scared, which is the definition of terrorism. While the West Bank is governed by Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Fatah party, who does recognize Israel, many residents of the West Bank still support Hamas and endorse its terroristic behaviors. In a poll conducted by The Arab World for Research and Development, 62% of West Bank Palestinians strongly support Hamas and another 26% somewhat support the group, leading to just 14% either somewhat or strongly opposing Hamas. Furthermore, the same poll showed that 68% of West Bank residents strongly supported the October 7th terrorist attacks, and another 15% somewhat supported it. And while the Fatah is certainly not as cruel as Hamas, they still run an authoritarian state in the West Bank that largely supports anti-Israel terrorism. Israel, on the other hand, is a thriving democracy that produces world-leading biotech and pharmaceutical products. In order to preempt terrorist attacks from Palestine, Israel does have to engage in heavy-handed border defense and active security measures. Whether these are always justified or excessive is certainly a matter up for debate, but these measures are clearly taken in the pursuit of self-defense, not terror. Again, Israel is not perfect and engages in quasi-illegal behaviors such as settling the West Bank. However, to call them a terror state while supporting Gaza which literally is a terror state is asinine.
As Resist marched around the campus chanting these and many other disturbing slogans, I was clearly unable to get any work done and moved inside.
I understand that the point of protests is that they are supposed to be disruptive- we live in a free country where we can say what we want. While I admire the devotion this group has to their cause, I would implore people to think twice about what they are really standing for if it makes any sense, and that it has real-world implications of creating a more hostile environment for Jewish students and the campus population more generally.
- Editor’s Note: Indeed, I saw Chancellor Martin while on a walk around campus last week. ↩︎