Discovering that 54 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds agreed with the statement that “the state of Israel should not exist” — and that just 21 per cent disagreed — I was saddened, yet not surprised.
I was not surprised because since October 7 we have seen the worst crisis on campus for Jewish students in a generation. Jewish students have told the UJS that they feel “isolated, alone and terrified for… [their] community”; that they feel “displaced, isolated, delegitimised, collectively put on trial”.
What saddens me the most is that we have seen a resurgence of an intellectually flawed duplicity. When students were angry about the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, they rightly exercised their right to protest to criticise the war. Yet they did not condemn the very existence of the US as a result of the war. However, rationality goes out the window when we discuss Israel. As demonstrated by this polling, condemnation of the actions of the Israeli government in response to Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7 supposedly necessitates calling for the cessation of the existence of the state of Israel itself.
We cannot afford to be silent in the face of these figures, because I fear silence means the next generation of Jewish students won’t have a connection with Israel. If Jewish students only engage with Israel when they are charged by their peers with being murderous genocidal individuals, it stands to reason they might buckle to the pressure and live their lives without engaging with Israel.
