When browsing through college-related Facebook pages, I am often appalled at the crazy stuff these students actually believe about Israel. Student activists fall for the BDS party line, assuming that all they have to do to make their mark on the world and help millions of starving Palestinian children is boycott Israel.
A lot of these students are so bent on making a change that they make it a point to infiltrate student governments. one such student government member is Katie Nelson, a second-year Philosophy student at Concordia University in Montreal. Yes, the university that rioted so hard when Benjamin Netanyahu came to speak that he had to flee for his safety. The same university that passed BDS last fall, with her spearheading the YES TO BDS campaign. Radical doesn’t even begin to describe her as it would be an understatement. Any anarchist, Marxist, ultra-radical cause, and this girl not only supports it, but is willing to riot for it to the point of racking up thousands of dollars in fines. Of course, this means that antizionism is a part of the package, as anyone who was ever a leftist knows, you’re supposed to accept the whole package or you aren’t a real leftist, not a good person, not truly dedicated to social justice, and not credible as a scholar.
Why am I drawing attention to this lowlife? It’s not like she wants to get a job, with all her criminal charges, her (proudly) abrasive and confrontational behaviour, and her major in philosophy. It’s to highlight the kind of students who serve as decision-makers on student governments across the world, from Canada to USA to Europe, the very type of student who votes for BDS. She’s the kind of student people look up to on campus, unfortunately, because not being afraid to defy authority seems to be something young people admire.
Why does Katie Nelson want to be a student leader? Why is it that radical leftists in general are so prone to infiltrating student politics? The answer is simple: They have a drive for change that exceeds anyone else’s. The more moderate students just typically want to study, get good grades, party, and get a practical job when they graduate. These radicals are constantly bombarded with stories about how the world is unjust and they want to do something about it. Now. Learning about oppression fuels them to want to make the world a better place. That’s a noble intention, until they get carried away and everything becomes problematic.
They learn to see patterns in the stories of oppression they read – after all, that’s how the mind works – the mind loves to put things and people into categories. Those who are oppressed are typically darker-skinned and the oppressors are white skinned. “Darkness” begins to mean nobility and virtuous suffering, while “whiteness” becomes seen as inherently evil. identity politics are a huge deal, to the extent that in radical leftist circles, only those who are experiencing the oppression have the authority to talk on the subject. They have gatherings for “Queer People of Color Only” because they feel that only people of color who are queer can understand and discuss their unique experiences. That’s why non-Palestinian, or at least non-Arab voices are often not given nearly as much weight as Palestinians and Arabs on the conflict in leftie circles, and we all know how indoctrinated they are to hate Zionism and all it stands for with vile blood libel and propaganda since birth. Since the Jews are “the oppressors,” our voices are given no weight at all because of course (to them) the oppressors will try to weasel their way out of responsibility.
The last layer on top of the leftie cake is the fact that governments of democratic first-world countries tend to officially support Israel. Therefore, these lefties believe that the anti-Israel voices are disproportionately silenced. As a result, they feel the need to “make room for marginalized groups.” In other words, they wish to overcompensate by disproportionately sharing the Palestinian perspective
All of these notions combined make it fully understandable why these groups are so pro-Palestine. They only let their opinion on the conflict be influenced by the “oppressed,” assuming they’re automatically right and virtuous, (what my friends like to call “underdogma”). Their way of thinking is extremely conducive to that point of view.
At Concordia, there is a group called the Political Science Student Association (PSSA). As with most other student societies, the exec has been infiltrated by student activists with a radical anti-Israel agenda. Pro-Israel student posts get deleted (even some outspoken pro-Israel students are removed from the group), and even a post opposing the Baltimore riots was recently deleted because it supposedly “promoted white supremacy and was therefore racist.”
Why am I talking about PSSA? Because after reading Katie’s remarks on that group, I realized that this is what student activists like her are trying to do to shift the discourse in the radical direction. They’re the ones with the drive to run these groups (while most students don’t particularly care and just want to get good grades and graduate on time). Katie is an extreme example but her comments are not unheard of.
Because of her parents’ white privilege, Katie has the luxury of not needing to work to pay her tuition So instead, she focuses on joining radical working groups, designing protest signs, attending protests, writing in her blog, and posting anti-Israel vitriol on Facebook. But wait – isn’t she too privileged to be able to speak for the oppressed with any credibility? Oh, yeah, I forgot. That rule only applies to those who disagree with the party line.
One scan of her Facebook shows someone who clearly has no interest in working anywhere outside Amnesty International or UNWRA. Having that much hate inside must be exhausting!
Okay. She looks like your regular run-of-the-mill angry-at-the-world antizionist
Either she’s minimizing the holocaust or demonizing Israel. Either way, she needs some serious education!
I never thought I’d say this but she makes Naomi Wolf look like Benjamin Netanyahu in comparison.
Because armies are all about killing people, nothing else. Duh.
(Wow, this girl needs to get out from that rock she’s been hiding under.)
What if I was just a clerk at a desk, or even a member of the IDF choir or band? Forget privilege, girlfriend, it’s your ignorance that needs to be checked.
Honey, ever heard of Pallywood?
Yeah, okay, we get it. Jews are Nazis. That one is old. Also total rubbish.
Yeah, because supporting the only non-racist country in the middle east that gives equal rights to minorities is super-racist. #RadicalLeftieLogic
Her behaviour during the BDS campaign period: Guilt-tripping and character assassination.
Why am I choosing Katie? Because she is familiar. She is not unique. I’m sure most college campuses have at least one Katie: an ordinary non-Jewish white girl who has no stake in the conflict whatsoever who hates Israel with the flaming passion of a thousand suns and never wants to let you forget it.
People like Katie have a drive nobody else has to make a change. They will do whatever it takes to upturn the status quo and take advantage of student ignorance and apathy to further her agenda of antisemitic hate under the guise of love and empathy. With her strong opinions, she will be making a point to influence and “educate’ as many people as possible toward her causes. Even if her heart is in the right place, her naivety and ignorance are taken advantage of by those with an agenda to wipe Israel off the map. That’s why we need to be proactive, and why proper pro-Israel advocacy is desperately needed. We need to beat the Katies of the world at their own game.
Why is Katie so full of hate for Israel, and why is this an important lesson? If you’ve read the rest of my Hasbara Guide, you might have determined that at some point, Katie’s emotional switch was flipped. Some people go on a rampage and never stop when their switches are flipped. Fortunately, if we can do a better job at flipping the emotional switch, we can recruit some Katies of our own – folks with as much passion and determination – for our side.
