In the days following Oct. 7, support for Israel was widespread. Now, seven months later, that does not seem to be the case. So, where has this support gone?
According to The Washington Post, the Free Palestine hashtag has been used on more than 11 million posts, which is 39 times more than the #StandWithIsrael hashtag. Similarly, “on Instagram, the pro-Palestine hashtag is found on 6 million posts, 26 times more than the pro-Israel hashtag.” TikTok shows a similar disparity.
Junior Noa Chorowsky believes that the lack of pro-Israel representation on social media stems from the fact that “people are scared to speak out for fear of being labeled as ‘un-woke.’”
Junior Anabelle Gononsky recently identified this lack of pro-Israel representation at protests. On May 6 at 7 pm, she was “looking out the window of [her] apartment, watching as a protest began to form.” She reported, “At first, only a few pro-Palestinians were waving flags and wearing Keffiyahs. My dad went downstairs and stood there waving an Israeli flag. Within the hour, the small group of pro-Palestinians had grown to some couple hundred, all chanting and holding posters. It was only then that the rabbi of our community and a few Jewish teenagers joined my dad.” She continued, “In total, there must have been 300-400 pro-Palestinians while there were only 5-6 pro-Israel individuals, including my dad.”
In the past few months, as I have toured colleges, I’ve noticed this disparity as well. While touring Tulane University in Feb., I walked through a pro-Palestinian protest consisting of 10-15 students while the pro-Israel counterprotest consisted of less than 5 people. Around campus, I noticed pro-Palestinian graffiti and posters while there was very little pro-Israel representation. This was particularly shocking to me considering that Tulane has a robust Jewish population of over 40%. I wondered why there was so little Jewish representation while there were so many Jews in the community.
A recent visit from alum Charlie Covit reminded me of the answer. While speaking during Hachana on Friday, May 31, he referred to the term “silent minority,” which I think accurately explains what Anabelle, many others, and I have noticed. While it may seem that every day and on social media there are more people who support Palestine, in actuality, it may be that some in the Jewish community feel a need to remain silent.
This silencing was not felt, though, at the Israeli Day Parade on Sunday, June 2nd. There, Jews from all over united in hope and pride, song and dance to give us all strength in these hard times. That day served as a great example for how we as Jews can publicly and proudly voice our support for Israel.