EDITORIAL — Protesting for the right reasons

Protests against Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas are mounting in universities all over the US. In New York University the crowd grew large enough that the university had to call in the police to handle things in case it turned violent.

As usual, the protesters were chanting “From the river to the sea Palestine must be free” as well as anti-Semitic slogans.

It is not wrong to call for Israel to back down from unnecessary violence. Even we have to agree that Israel has gone above and beyond just fighting this war. Innocents have died as a result of their thirst for revenge, we can see this in the news every day.

But protesters must also take care that calls for Israel to stop the bloodshed not morph into a show of support for Hamas, because Hamas has already proven itself to be a terrorist organization during its attacks last October 7 when they killed or abducted young and old, men and women, Jews and non-Jews.

We have been saying for a long time now that Hamas doesn’t represent all the Palestinians. We are sure that there are Palestinians who never supported Hamas and that there also those who did but are now condemning them for forcing Israel into this war.

We are also sure that not all Palestinians are terrorists like Hamas is and did not approve of their actions last October 7.

We also hope that such calls for an end to unnecessary violence do not translate to anti-Semitic sentiment, because this seems to be just the case. In campuses and cities all over the US, Jewish people are suddenly finding themselves the target of anti-war protesters, whether or not they approve of the war or showed support for it.

To highlight this development, some Jewish students recently filmed how safe it was to be a Jew in NYU. They quickly found out it wasn’t.

Those who protest must do so for the right reasons. It would be wrong to support terrorists. It would also be hypocritical to call for an end to violence against a certain people but at the same time encourage the same against another.