There are a million thoughts floating around in my mind about what to share with our students right now. Unfortunately, the most necessary one at the moment is simple: stay safe.
While our grad students all over North America are rallying to collect funds, supplies and food for relief efforts, others on campus have a different response: a massive “Day of Resistance and Rage” outrightly justifying, no: celebrating, Hamas and their barbaric massacre of over 1,200 Israeli civilians this past weekend. The fact that this is even happening is hard to fathom.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an organization with documented ties to Hamas, is organizing a National Day of Resistance tomorrow, Thursday October 13, 2023 on campuses throughout the country. They have blasted a “Toolkit” on social media with instructions for the day. Excerpts include:
“Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance…as the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization…National liberation is near—glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people…Liberation is not an abstract concept. It is…a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary.…It calls upon us to engage in meaningful actions that go beyond symbolism and rhetoric…We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement. This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement.”
It’s important for us in the Jewish community to take these inciting statements at face value. Make no mistake: words like “mass mobilization,” “any means necessary” and “martyrdom” are not metaphors to these authors, as they themselves write. This initiative directly and imminently threatens the physical safety of Jewish students and organizations and will undoubtedly lead to acts of targeted vandalism, violence, or worse G-d forbid. Not to mention exponentially raising the temperature for visibly identifiable Jewish students in an already hostile campus environment.
Tomorrow will be a painful and difficult day. It may be tempting to stand up for the truth amidst these demonstrations glorifying terror, but unfortunately our voices will fall on deaf (and potentially violent) ears. SJP leaders have been instructed on how to resist “facts” that counter their twisted narrative. With that in mind, and following briefings by advocacy and security experts, we are sharing a few critical points of advice with our students:
1. STAY AWAY. Find out where protests will be held and avoid those areas, or if unavoidable move through them as quickly as possible.
2. DO NOT ENGAGE. Even if something appears to be a peaceful protest, it could quickly escalate into violence. By no means should you take photos or videos, or do anything else to draw attention to yourself. They are watching the crowd and you do not want to become a target.
3. STAY VIGILANT. If at any point you feel even slightly in danger, call campus security or police immediately. See something, say something.
4. BE STRONG. Do not let anyone bully you or make you feel afraid. Keep your head up, do not make eye contact, and keep moving calmly until the coast is clear.
The same advice applies equally when encountering similarly unsafe spaces on social media. Realize that much of the spread of SJP and others’ hate-filled propaganda is a deliberate campaign of psychological warfare against Jewish students and anyone sympathetic to the suffering of Israelis, to make us feel hopeless and outnumbered. Do not get sucked in or allow these posts to gain any traction whatsoever.
And while it may seem that SJP’s voice is the loudest on campus right now, they are a minority among a sea of supporters across the political spectrum including, gratefully, our government and most of the American public.
Stay vigilant and safe, and know that we will get through this together.
Am Yisrael Chai.
