Images of pro-Palestinian students blocking the entrance of American or Sciences Po campuses in Paris make headlines these last days. It may be a minority of activists, according to commentators and university professors invited on television sets, but the tone is set and that image will last. Once again, Israel lost the war of images. Those of October 7 pogrom have been erased a long time ago, to the point that some people start even doubting their veracity. This is how a new negationnist message is made up. In Israel, some people address an appeal to the government, asking it to send to the US competent people who would come to explain to the American youth the Israeli position, which is the consequence of the massacres of October 7. There is certainly much to explain to young people who ignore sometimes the history and even the geography of this region for which they are undoubtedly sincerely mobilized in the face of Palestinian suffering. However, we may fear that other members of that youth chant the slogan of Hamas perfectly consciously, calling for the creation of Palestine: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, which would implicitly result in the destruction of the State of Israel. How far we have come in a few years! Palestine is today’s Vietnam for this generation of students. And unlike their 70’s elders who protested against the “imperialist” war waged by their leaders on a foreign land and participated in a global movement in the West advocating “Peace and Love”, this generation is mobilizing against a war led by another State for safety reasons, a democracy whose politics is certainly reprehensible and it requires its disappearance. In this case it will be the peace of cemeteries !
It is not by changing public relations agencies that Israel will succeed in convincing this youth who probably includes tomorrow’s leaders. It is by changing policy.
David Chemla
On May 14th, at 8 p.m., we shall have a videoconference meeting in order to analyse this propalestinian contest movement, both in American and French universities. To register click HERE
