In the club’s limited existence, Tulane Students For Palestine has embraced hateful rhetoric and mischaracterized the complicated relationship between Israel and Palestine. The club has used incendiary terms when they do not apply and failed to recognize the reality of what occurred at Tulane University on Oct. 26. 

On Oct. 23, an Instagram account called “tulane4palestine” made its first post, which included a statement outlining demands to Tulane. The next day, the group — which is not a recognized student organization — began to advertise a rally that would be held the following Thursday. 

During the rally, people chanted the following phrases on Freret Street, steps from Tulane’s campus: “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution,” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and a third chant which had various beginnings, but ended with “we charge you with genocide.” 

In the group’s chant,“There is only one solution, intifada revolution,” Tulane Students For Palestine articulate that they believe the “solution” to the conflict is an intifada, which refers to an armed uprising against Israel. This slogan dismisses dismantling Hamas, the recognized terrorist group that governs Gaza and routinely endangers its own civilians by launching rockets from places like schools and hospitals. 

There have been two intifadas since Israel was established: the first from 1987 to 1993 and the second from 2000 to 2005. Hamas formed during the first intifada and has only grown its control over the Gaza Strip in the following decades. Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas took over power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. In both instances, the intifadas resulted in thousands of Israeli civilian deaths through terrorist attacks carried out in public spaces such as restaurants and public transportation. These attacks, far from any battlefield, showed Israelis that they could not escape terrorism. 

These terrorist attacks lead to Palestinian deaths as well, when the Israeli military responded with counterattacks. Therefore, when Tulane Students For Palestine chants for an intifada, their message is that the “only solution” is the continuation of violence that targets civilians and further escalates the conflict. 

For those unfamiliar with Hamas’s tactics, Hamas uses civilian areas to wage war. The Israel Defense Forces exercises more caution when attacking those areas, but inevitably, when they do strike, there are civilian casualties. Hamas has shown that attacking Israel is more important than the lives of the people they claim to protect.  

The word “genocide” has been used by Tulane Students For Palestine to describe Israel’s military response to Hamas’ attacks, not only in their rally chants, but in their first statement as well.

On Oct. 7, 1,400 Israeli citizens were murdered, and more than 240 people were taken hostage. To characterize the Israeli military response to this terrorist attack as a genocide is a dangerous misuse of a powerful word. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular race or nation.”

The OED also notes that the term came into use in reference to the Holocaust, which killed roughly 6 million Jewish people: two-thirds of the entire Jewish European population. 

The claim of Israeli genocide enacted on Palestinians is a false equivalence to the Holocaust. Civilian casualties can occur in wars without meeting the standards that the term genocide evokes. To claim that a military response — which has taken precautions to avoid civilian deaths — is on par with some of the worst atrocities in human history is disingenuous and repugnant. 

Even if this charge of genocide is meant to refer to the time since 1948 — the establishment of the state of Israel — there was not a dramatic decrease in Palestinian population like those during Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, for example. The Palestinian population has grown from 1.1 million in 1948 to roughly 5.1 million today, with no sharp decline or even stagnation that is typical of a genocide in the last 75 years. The deaths that have come from this crisis are tragic, but the culpability lies with the terrorist group that has made every effort to target civilians.

While exact numbers are unknown, it appears the majority of pro-Palestinian protestors were not Tulane students. Many did not even seem to be college students. So why protest on a street separating buildings of a college campus? 

Tulane Students For Palestine might say it’s because they want Tulane to divest from Israeli occupation, defined by Tulane Students For Palestine in an Instagram post as a “US-Israel Energy Center and its collaborations with Israel universities.” Lockheed Martin, Tulane is not. This rally happened on Tulane’s campus because this campus has a 40% Jewish student body. The real reason for the location was not the message, it was who they were chanting their message at: Jewish students. 

During this rally, a red truck passed through the street that divided the two sides of the protest. When passing through Freret Street, one individual in the back of the truck attempted to burn an Israeli flag, facing students who themselves were wrapped in that same flag. The video of what followed has been viewed across America. An individual holding a Palestinian flag used the metal flag pole, raised it and struck a Tulane student in the head. Then, two other pro-Palestinian protesters punched counterprotesters in the head and shoved them backwards. 

Reality does not remotely resemble the version of events posted by Tulane Students For Palestine. They described Zionists “rushing into the street” and “violently attacking” the person who tried to burn an Israeli flag. 

No rational person could watch those events and believe that Zionists rushed into the street, violently attacking someone. In fact, Tulane student Nathaniel Miller grabbed the flag without harming the person who tried to burn it. 

Furthermore, Tulane Students For Palestine claimed outrage at the media for twisting a “peaceful protest into an attack on Jewish students.” To be clear, the protest became violent, and Jewish students were attacked. Tulane Students For Palestine objects to the facts of what transpired on Oct. 26.

Chanting to “free Palestine” and calling for a ceasefire are diametrically opposed goals. A ceasefire while Hamas still holds hundreds of hostages will only embolden them to attack Israel again, the well-being of their own civilians be damned. 

I firmly believe that Israel fights to kill terrorists while attempting to avoid civilian deaths, and Hamas fights to kill civilians. If Israel laid down their weapons, there would be a second Holocaust. If Hamas laid down their weapons and returned their hostages, there would be peace.