What Unites Millions Around The ‘Free Palestine’ Cause?
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The Israeli West Bank barrier. (Photo by MissyKel)
(OPINION) What moved hundreds of thousands of people around the world to support the BLM cause? Was it a bleeding heart for Black Americans? Or did something else animate this global phenomenon?
Today, we can ask in a similar spirit, “What unites tens of millions worldwide around the ‘Free Palestine’ cause?” Is it a heart of compassion for the needs of the Palestinians? Or is something else animating this global phenomenon?
When it comes to the latter, there is no question that hatred of the state of Israel, and more broadly, hatred of the Jewish people, helps animate the pro-Palestinian cause. If people really cared about the Palestinians themselves, there would not be Palestinian refugee camps in countries like Lebanon and Syria, and the Palestinians would have been granted full citizenship in the surrounding Arab countries at some point after the 1948 war.
When it comes to Black Americans, since when have the other nations that joined in the BLM protests — such as South Korea, Bulgaria, Denmark and many others — cared about the plight of Black Americans? Since when was alleged American police brutality a point of concern for the international community? Surely there is no international concern about the plight of suffering Black people in other parts of the world, such as Nigeria, where tens of thousands of Black Christians have been slaughtered in recent years.
No, there is something else that animates these worldwide protests, something that unifies these widely disparate cultures and peoples, straight out of the Marxist playbook.
As explained by Jeff Fynn-Paul in his book “Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World”:
“The origins of today’s radical anti-Europeanism—the same anti-Europeanism that has gone mainstream in the past few years — lie in the intellectual ferment of the 1960s and ’70s. As New Left campus Marxism reached a high-water mark in the 1970s, Marxist historians began a concerted assault on the foundations of American history. The problem with American history from their perspective was that it made capitalism look too good: American democracy empowered the people; its melting pot welcomed everyone, albeit not without serious friction, and its economic system rewarded hard work more often than not. Marxist historians therefore determined to rewrite American history to show their version of the ‘truth’: that America was a ‘system’ rooted in unrelenting oppression.”
This view was popularized by the radical American historian Howard Zinn. As Fynn-Paul explains:
“In Zinn’s view, history always consists of precisely two groups: the oppressor and the oppressed. The ‘system’ perpetuates conflict between these two groups, ensuring the domination of one group over another. In Zinn’s pessimistic view, oppression rather than freedom was the very foundation of the United States and its Constitution.
“Thus, critical feminist scholars ‘discovered’ that history revolved around males oppressing females, while critical race theorists discovered that history revolved around the oppression and slavery of black people by white people. Post-colonial theorists accordingly discovered that history revolved around the oppression of Indigenous People by Europeans. Soon, critical ‘intersectionality’ theorists lumped all these identity-based oppressions together, discovering that wealthy, straight, white European males were the ultimate oppressors in history, while poor, black, gay or gender-fluid Indigenous women of color were the ultimate victims.”
Put another way, “Down with the evil colonizers! Down with the oppressor class!”
The connection to Israel is not hard to see, as the Jewish people are portrayed as European colonizers and oppressors, the evil intruders who displaced the native peoples of Palestine. Add to this a little antisemitism to help fuel the fires, just as a little anti-Americanism helped fuel the worldwide BLM protests, and you have an explosion.
To be clear, Fynn-Paul does not deny the sins of our European forebears, writing:
“Though we now find it difficult to believe, the extent of European cruelty toward Native Americans was well researched and publicized before the rise of social media. Thus it was common knowledge among historians that Europeans were responsible for population decline, forced conversions, provoking wars, countless treaty violations, the Trail of Tears, the California Indian massacres, the extinction of the buffalo, racial prejudice and discrimination, confinement on reservations, and continued marginalization of many Native groups.”
He simply pushes back against highly biased, academically imbalanced reconstructions of American history. Similarly, sound historians today do not paint an entirely blameless picture of the State of Israel. They simply resist the distorted, even propagandistic, retelling of recent Middle Eastern history.
As Fynn-Paul notes with regard to rewriting American history, “These narratives have been filling the minds of Western journalists, bureaucrats, and politicians with the same old 1970s theories, dressed in alluring new clothes.” (For an in-depth treatment of the impact of Marxist ideology on America today, see Christopher Rufo, “America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything.”)
That’s why Kyle Morris was right to note, “The anti-Israel movement roiling major American cities and college campuses following the outbreak of Israel's war with Hamas bears a striking resemblance to other movements favored by social justice activists, experts suggest.”
And Morris quoted Rufo, who said, “The left-wing academics who have been cheering on violent 'decolonization' against Jews have been pushing the same hideous rhetoric against 'whiteness' for years. Same ideology. Same hatred. Same bloodlust.”
Absolutely, undeniably true.
Rufo pointed out that the “academic left treat the Hamas fighter as a noble savage who symbolizes revolt against the West and through whom the academic can experience the thrill of violence.” And he explained that “the fighter is seen as the physical embodiment of the jargon: ‘decolonization,’ ‘resistance,’ ‘power.’ Time to connect the dots and fight it together.”
Time to connect the dots indeed. And time to fight back together, with the truth serving as our most powerful weapon.
Dr. Michael L. Brown, who has a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, is founder and president of AskDrBrown Ministries and host of the nationally syndicated daily talk radio show “The Line of Fire.” He’s served as a visiting or adjunct professor at seven leading seminaries and has written more than 40 books. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is a recognized leader in Jewish apologetics. His Twitter handle is @drmichaellbrown.