Today’s Gen Z students have a (perhaps unfair) reputation for caring more about their social-media profiles than they do about history or international politics. So, it’s puzzling why so many would be spurred into activism by, of all things, an Islamic terrorist group committed to the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel, let alone one responsible for the mass murder and rapes of innocent Israeli citizens last year on Oct. 7.
Yet, however illogically, Hamas — which couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to the postmodern secular agenda that predominates academia today — has become the cause célèbre on the campuses of Columbia, Harvard, Yale and other institutions of purportedly higher education around the country.
Seeing students from privileged backgrounds at elite U.S. universities donning black-and-white-checkered Palestinian keffiyehs chanting, “From the river to the sea” — an implicit call for the eradication of the Israeli state — raises grave concerns about the next generation of American leaders.
To be sure, the student demonstrators, who have been aided and abetted by radicalized faculty and inept administrators, are not a homogenous group. Many of them aren’t even students. Likely more than a few are participating for the thrill of it or to avoid going to class rather than acting out of any conviction, to judge from the painfully clueless man-on-the-street interviews that have circulated on social media. And surely some portions of the demonstrators are justly disturbed by the terrible human toll of Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza and simply want the bloodshed to end.
But there is a radical core at the center of these protests whose actions can’t be so easily excused. How these young people have shouted down free speech, justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities, and spewed antisemitic hate at their Jewish classmates is truly shocking. Any Christians who have gotten sucked into this mayhem should be especially ashamed of themselves. The Jewish people are our elder brothers and sisters, as Pope St. John Paul II said.
Though the large numbers of adults who entered the Catholic Church this Easter in many parts of the U.S. don’t fit the narrative, we’re told this is the age of the “nones,” those who profess no religious belief. So, perhaps, the ugly scenes we see unfolding now aren’t surprising. Without God, something must fill the void.
But as Proverbs 4:23 reminds us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” There are many noble causes worth sacrificing one’s studies, reputation and future for. Hamas is not one of them.
The students involved in these protests are sorely mistaken to align themselves with an organization based on violence and hate. Years from now, when their children and grandchildren find those keffiyehs among their college keepsakes, they’ll have to explain why they once embraced such a venomous ideology — and ended up on the wrong side of a truly dark moment of history.