After the DC shooting it’s clear: The pro-Palestine movement must be purged of violent extremism
Vigilante actors do nothing to help the Palestinian people at a time when they are in desperate need of allies
A pro-Palestinian protest near the U.S. Capitol July 24. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
I was not surprised that the suspect behind the cowardly assassination of two young Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. last night screamed “Free, free Palestine,” as he was apprehended.
I’m a Palestinian American who grew up in Gaza. I speak regularly on college campuses about Hamas and Gaza, the realities of life under a terrorist regime and how pro-Palestine activism can better reflect Palestinian sentiments in the coastal enclave. My goal is to promote a new discourse characterized by radical pragmatism and moderation, in a desperate bid to sideline this sort of extreme and pro-Hamas perspectives which have become mainstream within the pro-Palestine movement
Strangely and bizarrely, “pro-Palestine” protesters raucously interrupt some of my talks and screech “free Palestine” at me, as if I am somebody who is opposed to Palestinian freedom and independence.
If you can scream it at a Gazan who has lost dozens of family members due to Israel’s bombardment, then it was only a matter of time before this slogan would be weaponized for a hate crime and an act of terror.
Right when the extremism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of his far-right extremists and partners was attracting international outcry, this immoral act of antisemitic hate is sucking the oxygen out of the room and diverting crucial attention away from Palestinian suffering.
It is time to rid the pro-Palestine movement of the violent extremism that has gripped it in recent years.
This ubiquitously stated chant has become one of the most meaningless declarations of support for the Palestinians, a hollow expression of solidarity that says nothing about what is a free Palestine and what should it look like. At best, it’s the rallying cry of the ill-and misinformed masses who have nebulous goals and unachievable objectives. At worst, “Free Palestine” as a slogan has, sadly, devolved into an expression of hate and violence, as evidenced by the Capital Jewish Museum suspect (who is not of Palestinian or Arab background).
Since the tragedy on Wednesday night, social media and online commentary has been littered by support for the attack, dismissal of this tragedy as a false flag operation, attempts to justify by saying look at what is happening in Gaza, or saying that all Israelis are implicated in a genocide and therefore should expect consequences.
Online, a toxic union of deranged far-left and extreme far-right is peddling in exaggerations and misinformation which have the deadly potential, as we now see, to motivate violence, all mobilized by the Palestinian cause in the most unhelpful ways.
A few days ago, I encountered many large “pro-Palestine” accounts on X and other social media platforms sharing incendiary and inaccurate claims, riling up anti-Israel sentiments in incredibly dangerous ways. They have claimed that Israel has killed a million Palestinians in Gaza. They have repeatedly said that the “genocide” in Gaza is “the worst in human history,” at times going as far as claiming it to be even worse than the Holocaust. One white “activist” with more than 420,000 followers claimed that the entirety of Israeli society is “uniquely evil and psychopathic.”
Some of the most vicious attempts at delegitimization, incessant harassment, and credible threats to my life that I have experienced since Oct. 7 have not come from Palestinians who are upset with my views. Instead, they were from far-left, extremist online, social justice “activists.”
These are the people who have made it critical for me to always have security at events where I speak. They have made it difficult for pragmatic and moderate Palestinian and Arab voices to come forward and share new perspectives about the pathway forward. And they inspire individuals like the Capital Jewish Museum suspect.
For the sake of the Palestinian people’s just and urgent aspirations for freedom, independence, and dignity, the movement alleging to care about Palestinians must make decisions not to self-immolate at a time when the Palestinian people are in desperate need of true allies.
Impulsive sloganeering has consequences. Being good custodians of the Palestinian message is not only beneficial to the Palestinian people in Gaza and beyond; it is also critical to prevent the incitement of violent lunatics who engage in vigilantism that hurts the entirety of the Palestinian cause and those who care deeply about it.
The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were at an event of young and aspiring diplomats who cared about interfaith exchanges and engagement, and were open to pragmatic ideas about Gaza and beyond. This tragedy, like Oct. 7, will shrink the pool of those who reject extremist tendencies and will likely cause more to harden their minds and hearts to the prospect of peace in coexistence.
My work is to normalize multiple truths: We can hold space for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and a rejection of Israeli unjust policies in the war, while also rejecting Hamas’ violent extremism that harms Palestinians and Israelis alike. I want to provide a new political home for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims and their true allies who are not represented by the current toxic discourse being carried out on college campuses, in the streets, online and beyond.
If there is any hope for a new pathway forward, it must entail the wholesale rejection of maximalism, zero-sum equations and black and white thinking. The pro-Palestine movement must be purged of radical extremists, hateful antisemites, and promoters of armed resistance.
