There are multiple attempts to discredit student protests on university campuses calling for the liberation of Palestine and calling on their colleges to divest from businesses that profit off of Israeli occupation and war. Some belittle the students by saying their actions will not stop Israel's war on Gaza nor shift Israeli, European or American political stances on the war. Others go so far as to accuse the protests of overshadowing the events taking place in Gaza.
Central to this argument is that these protests, strikes and divestment efforts will ultimately benefit Hamas. Some right-wing pundits even accuse the protesters of inadvertently supporting Hamas. While some isolated instances of students using a particular slogan or carrying a specific flag are being used to discredit the entire movement, these sweeping accusations are entirely baseless.
And since the First Amendment gives Americans the right to free speech and people are allowed to chant "Free Palestine", "Stop the massacre", or "Boycott Israel", right-wing factions are grasping at straws to smear protesters by claiming that the term intifada—an Arabic word meaning shaking off—is antisemitic. This is not a harmless linguistic or cultural misinterpretation; it is a well-intentioned tactic to discredit the movement.
With all these attacks on student activism, we are left to assume that critics prefer that students remain silent. And if students insist on exercising their rights by protesting, these critics have no issues with police crackdowns, which is not that different from Israeli tactics of collective punishment. Israel is not only punishing Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank for Hamas's 7 October attack, it is also trying to silence anyone who criticises Israel's war on Gaza.
