Student encampments like those seen at Columbia University and UCLA are not unique to the US Last week, I visited the encampment at my alma mater, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, organized by a blob of pro-Palestinian groups on the university's MacInnes Field.
What I witnessed was a massive disappointment for my generation, and showed that antisemitism is alive and well, even in progressive Canada.
Various glorifications of "martyrs" wearing keffiyehs and "fighting for Palestine" were displayed proudly around the encampment. The now-provenly antisemitic chant "from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" was promoted abundantly, as were maps of Palestine with Israel seemingly wiped off the map.
If this is what a "tame" encampment looks like, Jews in the Western world are in more trouble than was feared.
There was no clear policy goal beyond students' their general call for UBC to "divest from genocide." Organizers have completely opted out of discussions with the university, stating "they have blood on their hands" and "we don't dialogue with genocide."
I was made to read their community guidelines, a requirement before entering the "safe space." Among the listed guidelines were that no protester should talk to "cops," "Zionists" (who they do not define), "counter-protesters," adversarial media, and "university administration." If they were to break these rules, the encampment member would be kicked out and treated as an enemy. The encampment had designated enforcers to remove dissenters. They all wore masks to protect themselves from the consequences of their dissent.
Codes of conduct have been spotted at numerous encampments across North America, and make clear that the pro-Palestinian student movement is completely disinterested in engaging with the other side. "Neutrality equals fascism," one of their most prominent cardboard placards read.
Various signs and chants signaled that any existence of Israel would be intolerable, and met with "resistance" and "globalized intifada."
These are not the words of peaceniks, but of extremists glorifying hate and violence against Jews. No one responsible for the peace process and a potential two-state solution could ever accept these terms. The truth is, they are not interested in peace.
One of the groups organizing the encampment, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), has had numerous incidents involving support for recognized terrorist groups. In 2017, scarves with the Arabic-language message "Jerusalem is ours! We are coming!" affiliated with Hamas were sold at a campus SPHR event, denounced by B'Nai Brith Canada. The poster for one of their events, a presentation and discussion hosted on November 17, 2023, also features propaganda directly from the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group recognized by Canada, the US, the European Union, and Israel.
Samidoun, another encampment organizer, has direct ties with the PFLP, leading to calls from prominent Jewish groups like the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs of Canada to designate Samidoun as a terrorist entity. One of Samidoun's organizers, Charlotte Kates, was arrested for an antisemitic hate crime for praising Hamas in a public speech. These are not accidents.
While some of the students certainly have pacifist intentions, they may not realize that their group and backers, like Hamas, PFLP, or the Islamist regime in Qatar, support mass violence against Jews. Student movements should do better, and we all should call it out and demand better. Meaningful change can only be brought about through dialogue, with a significant shift away from extremism.
