Follow Steve Postal: @HebraicMosaic
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With such slogans as “Hamas, we love you,” “Freedom for Palestine means death to America,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “From the River to the Sea,” many among the campus protests against Israel call for violence and genocide. So naturally, the protesters have generated gushing praise from some of Israel’s archenemies. In a nod to the heinous October 7 Hamas attack known by its perpetrators as the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the leader of Hamas praised the campus protests as the “great student Flood,” and has similarly called for a “legal Flood,” a “media Flood” and a “jihadi Flood” against Israel. Additionally, the PLO/Fatah, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Houthis, and Students/Faculty for Palestine are making the following claims:
The protests are coordinated. The PLO has suggested that the university protests have been coordinated. For example, WAFA, the official PA news agency, reported the PLO Executive Committee member Osama Al-Qawasmi claimed that “this protest movement came as a result of an effort that the Palestinian communities there have made for many years.”
Further evidence of coordination of the protests can be found in an interview on Jordanian TV with Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb, a professor at California State University and a member of the group “Faculty for Justice in Palestine.” During the interview, Muhtaseb suggested that her group is coordinating with the Students for Justice in Palestine in the campus protests. Muhtaseb states: “We have two main movements in the American universities: first one is called ‘Students for Justice in Palestine,’ and there is also a faculty movement, a new movement that was created in order to support the student movement. It is called ‘Faculty for Justice in Palestine.’” Additionally, Muhtaseb admits that she is talking to students about “the continuity of the movement” into the summer break and fall semester.
The protests are a vehicle to isolate (and destroy) Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), which the United States has recognized as a terrorist organization since 1997, states that the campus protests are part of a larger operation to isolate Israel. According to the Deputy Secretary-General of the PFLP, “Now, the world is aligning with our people’s cause in ongoing advocacy campaigns and isolating the aggression of the occupation. The achievements of the international popular boycott movement on economic, cultural, academic and political levels have been notable with the university uprisings being a significant highlight.”
Fatah’s youth movement, Shabiba, used the protests to de-legitimize Israel. Shabiba “expressed its appreciation for the student protest movement at the American universities supporting the Palestinian cause… [At] a time when our Palestinian people is dealing wherever it is with a policy of discrimination and apartheid and with the war of occupation, which has been continuing for more than 75 years (i.e., since the establishment of modern Israel).” By accusing Israel of the canards of “occupation” and “apartheid,” and that claiming that Israel has been engaging in such behaviors since its founding, Fatah seeks to delegitimize Israel.
And Hezbollah hopes that the protests bring about the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem wished that the protests will usher in “…a new stage, and maybe one of these days, America will no longer support Israel to such an extent. Without support, Israel is nothing. We would not have to work hard in order to destroy Israel. Without support, it will be destroyed.”
Accusations of Israel’s supporters being violent. In an Orwellian tone, the Houthis, long perpetrators of terrorism against Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Gulf region generally, are claiming that Israel’s supporters are being violent. Yemeni-Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi stated “This oppressive pro-Zionist regimes in the West have turned to targeting the student protests with violence, cruelty, humiliating arrests, and strong beatings. They have launched offensive media campaigns, and have made offensive statements by officials against the students.”
Claims that the campus protestors are tolerant and peaceful. In another Orwellian twist, Fatah’s youth movement Shabiba whitewashed the protesters, calling accusations of anti-Semitism at the rallies a “false accusation.” Fatah/the PA/the PLO has long espoused anti-Semitism, anti-Israelism and jihad.
Similarly, paraphrasing Nahar Al-Da’wah [River of Preaching] Telegram channel, which is affiliated with London-based Egyptian Al-Qaeda ideologue Hani Al-Siba’i, MEMRI stated that Al-Siba’i engaged in whitewashing of the protests: “Al-Siba’i described the pro-Palestine student protests in the United States as ‘the university intifada,’ and he condemned the “demonization” of the students in American media, as well as the mobilization of American institutions to suppress and silence the protests, which he said are non-violent. He denied assertions that the student protestors are antisemitic, explaining that they are rising up against the injustice being done to the Palestinian people.”
The real problem is the “Zionist lobby.” The PFLP capitalizes on the protests to repeat anti-Semitic tropes about the “Zionist lobby.” According to the Deputy Secretary-General of the PFLP, “The university intifada in America has struck a nerve with the Zionist lobby there.”
Similarly, Yemeni-Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi praised the campus protesters as having “…exposed the Zionist in the West – the Zionists of America and the Zionists of Europe, who used to speak about liberal values, and about freedom rights, and all that…” And Hizbullah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem stated “As long as the Muslims, the Arabs, and the free people cannot form a lobby that will be stronger than the Zionist lobby, this ‘popular lobby’ can play a role in changing the point of view and this is more important than the [political] lobby above.”
The campus protests against Israel have united Israel’s key archenemies in their ongoing war against the Jewish state. Such public praise suggests that these groups may be providing material support to the protests. Local and federal authorities need to investigate and prosecute any terrorist ties to the mayhem going on in campuses.
