It is no accident that the word “free” is used in relation to “Palestine.” This is a clear – and historically inaccurate – reference to the Free South Africa Movement that fought the apartheid system
By NAYA LEKHETSoccer Football - International Friendly - Northern Ireland v Israel - Windsor Park, Belfast, Britain - September 11, 2018 Free Palestine message displayed on a hill outside the stadium(photo credit: CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS)
In the ballooning anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses, there’s no shortage of outrages for Zionist students to confront. But there’s one phrase bandied about that requires particular urgency: “Free Palestine,” a staple of anti-Israel language on campus, which cuts to the essence of deceptive marketing and packaging by those whose real goal is the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state. It is essential to expose it.One of the most common and insidious catchphrases in the anti-Israel campaign is “Free Palestine,” a notion seemingly of liberation but actually a negation of Jews’ rights to land that has been included in daily prayers for thousands of years. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace use the call to “Free Palestine” as a rallying cry on college campuses. The phrase is often adopted by other progressive groups – such as Black Lives Matter and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations – under the aegis of intersectionality.The bad faith nature of the “Free Palestine” movement revealed itself in November 2019 at the University of California, Berkeley’s “Protest Gaza” event. Club Z alumni invited the founder and executive director of the organization, Masha Merkulova, to attend the event and show her support for Israel. To expose the hypocrisy of the movement, Merkulova held a sign that read, “Free Palestine = Kill Jews.”As expected, the student who understood the message the clearest was none other than a member of SJP, a radical anti-Israel student organization that works to demonize and delegitimize Israel. According to Merkulova, the student approached her with a smile asking if he could borrow the poster. “Finally!” the student exclaimed. “So cool, can I take it with me?” Reflecting the widespread ignorance of some Jewish and pro-Israel students on the matter, several thought her sign was intended to incite violence against Jews. In reality, Merkulova is a longtime Zionist activist, dedicated to cultivating the next generation of proud and proactive Zionist leaders.It is no accident that the word “free” is used in relation to “Palestine.” This is a clear – and historically inaccurate – reference to the Free South Africa Movement, which fought the apartheid system of South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. “Free Palestine” leaders consciously tie their cause to actual apartheid as it existed in late 20th century South Africa. But the analogy is faulty from the start. Ending South African apartheid meant the end of the country’s nationalist government and the ushering in of majority rule by black Africans, the indigenous population. The Arab-Israeli conflict, by contrast, pits an Arab population that never had an independent nation of its own against the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel, which just happens to be the world’s only Jewish state.The term “Palestine” is also problematic. There was never a country known as Palestine. The name stems from its status as a province – actually an outpost – of the Roman Empire. Its name arose after conquering and exiling the Jews from their ancestral homeland of Judea. Under the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over the Levant for nearly six centuries, the word “Palestine” was used as a general term, referring to the land south of Syria. It was only after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1919 that the British applied the name “Palestine” to the territory under the British Mandate, which included present-day Israel and Jordan.Lessons from history’s villains are vast; totalitarian regimes employ language wherein everybody knows what is meant without actually having to say it. The “Final Solution,” used both internally among high-ranking Nazi officials and externally, was a sanitized answer to the age-old “Jewish Question” posed by the antisemites: Kill the Jews. Likewise, the Soviet anti-cosmopolitan campaign spearheaded by Joseph Stalin in the late 1940s to go after the “rootless cosmopolitans” was a signal to both high-ranking apparatchiks and the society at large, that Soviet Jews were enemies and thus to be excised.Today, enemies of the Jewish state use language to indicate Israel should cease to exist. A logical question ensues when calling to “Free Palestine” – what will be of the Jews once “Palestine” is freed? Three options emerge: 1) Israel becomes an Arab country and Jews once again take their historic place in Arab lands as dhimmis (second-class citizens), 2) all Jews will be exiled from Israel or 3) a war will be waged against Israel by her enemies with the goal to eliminate all Jews from the land.There are real-world consequences to this type of deceptive language. A war is not fantasy. The Palestinian Authority regularly incites violence against the Jewish state. Its arch rival, the terror group Hamas, whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel, is responsible for launching thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza. More than 1,350 innocent Israeli lives have been taken by Palestinian terrorists since 2000. Iran repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel, and the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah stated that it would be easier if all of the Jews moved to “occupied Palestine” in order to be chased down for the “final and decisive battle.”For anyone truly preoccupied with human rights, all three options, with varying intensity, leave Jews in a dangerous predicament all too familiar.
As this year’s high school seniors prepare to enter college, it’s vital they learn about slogans used to vilify Israel – such as “Free Palestine” – and how to counter them. In Club Z, we expose students to the language antisemitic activists use to demonize Israel. Our teens gain the tools they need to combat antisemitic activism and stand up for the Jewish state before they arrive on college campuses. It is critical that the next generation of proud and proactive Zionist leaders are adequately prepared to fight – and ultimately defeat – the PR battle waged against the Jewish state.The writer is the director of education for Club Z, a US-based Zionist youth movement cultivating the next generation of proud and articulate Zionist leaders.
