Free Speech or Intimidation?

Student-led protests against Israel’s participation in the war with Hamas have swept across universities in America over the last few days, giving university leaders problems so significant they have called in police to clear areas where protests have been setup.

And yesterday, those protests had spread to Sydney, Australia, with students making many calls for an intifada to solve what they perceive to be the problem for the Palestinians they claim to support. According to some of them, that problem is Zionism.

But do these students really understand what they are calling for when they appeal for an intifada? According to the encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Intifada’ is originally an Arabic word that means ‘shaking off’. In the Palestinians’ context this refers to removing Israel from lands they claim as their own.

Intifadas have been extremely violent affairs. The Second Intifada spanned almost five years and resulted in more than 4,300 deaths among Palestinians and Israelis. In March 2002, one suicide bombing attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya killed 30 people and injured 140. As usual, the terrorist’s targets were civilians.

Calls for such extreme violence are clearly intimidating for Jewish students, many of whom have now been advised to stay away from their university campus.

This report by Sky News Australia: