Following the Hamas attacks on Israel, thousands of protestors across the world have been coming out in support of either Israel or Palestine. But the differences in the demonstrations between the two have been stark, with mostly mourning from pro-Israel demonstrators and justifications for violence and even calls for Jewish genocide from among the pro-Palestine protestors.
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants began an attack on Israel, leaving 1,400 dead and roughly 200 abducted. Mostly civilians, including the elderly, women, and children, were among those who were killed or tortured.
Many pro-Palestinian protests have shocked the world, such as one in Australia where demonstrators chanted, “Gas the Jews,” “F–k the Jews,” and “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic). The protest drew roughly 1,000 people who chanted in front of the Sydney Opera House holding flares and Palestinian flags.
Across the world in the U.S., many smaller protests took place in cities and on college campuses. In Indianapolis, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protestors faced off.
The pro-Israel protesters sang songs while carrying signs that said things like, “There is no excuse to killing babies” and “Hamas=ISIS.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Palestine protestors echoed a common chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” This chant is a call to action to make the State of Palestine occupy the land from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Israel is in between, so if this actually happened, Palestine would become the 57th Islamic state by fully eradicating Israel, including “ethnically cleansing” the Jewish people who currently live there, as the Palestinians have decreed that they refuse to live alongside the Jews.
At George Washington University, dozens of students gathered for a planned “Vigil for the Martyrs of Palestine.” Many of the attendees covered their faces. Daily Signal Reporter Mary Margaret Olohan was given a face mask and told to wear one by the pro-Palestine participants so “they” wouldn’t identify her later in pictures.
On the George Mason University campus, an alum said the pro-Palestine protest there was “terrifying” for the Jewish students on campus. She added that the protests were “enabling Hamas to continue to oppress the Palestinian people.”
On Oct. 17, a pro-Palestinian group called for a cease-fire outside the White House. Forty-nine of these protestors were arrested for allegedly blocking entrances and crossing barriers.
The following day, pro-Palestinian protestors entered a House of Representatives office building protesting and calling for a cease-fire. Over 300 were arrested, and at least three were charged with assaulting a police officer, according to the Capitol Police.
“Demonstrations are not allowed inside congressional buildings,” Capitol Police said on X (formerly Twitter) before the protests. “We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating, and when they did not comply, we began arresting them.”
Many American college students have come out in support of Palestine, including over 30 Harvard student groups that said they held Israel “entirely responsible” for the Hamas attacks.
At George Mason University in Virginia, many of the students denied the atrocities that happened to Israelis or tried to justify it.
“The one time [Hamas] decide[s] to fight back because it is their land, they’re just going to make a big deal of it, that doesn’t make any sense to me,” one student said.
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