Student-led encampments in support of Palestine at universities across the country have taken the media by storm. These encampments even reached our own beautiful city of Seattle.
Local radio host and my father, Ari Hoffman, went to investigate a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Washington (UW) campus on Wednesday, May 1, after students had been threatening to establish their version of an encampment inspired by the one at Columbia University.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, my father called the camp on the UW quad “too pathetic for words,” as it consisted of only a dozen tents. He also wondered, “How many are actual students and not outside activists?” Little did he and many people know how this encampment would grow into a dangerous gathering of activists promoting hatred toward Jews.
Within a week, the encampment grew exponentially into over 150 tents, occupied by students, professors and non-student activists. The leaders of this camp made demands from the university calling for divestment from companies associated with Israel including Boeing, a major university benefactor.
I witnessed the encampment firsthand after attending a speech by Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA at UW. His presence on campus was met with outrage by members of the violent activist group Antifa.
During the Q and A, I left to see the encampment with my dad and some of his friends and listeners. We aimed to verify reports of the quad being blocked and Jewish students being denied entry. At the first entrance, we encountered a gate lined with activists wearing keffiyehs, popularized by terrorist leader Yassir Arafat. We met a group of Jewish students who were refused entry simply because they were Jews. We then proceeded to go to another gate where the main protest was taking place, with protesters chanting “intifada, intifada!” and others calling for the genocide of Jews living in Israel when they chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” I then noticed an activist in tactical gear who appeared to be negotiating with administrators. It was later revealed that he was Michael Moynihan, who is currently up on charges for blocking the Interstate 5 freeway in downtown Seattle on January 6th, with other Hamas supporters. That interaction with the administrators was the end of an eventful night.
I returned to UW on May 12 to attend a pro-Israel protest led by the non-denominational church Pursuit Northwest in partnership with StandWithUs Northwest, a pro-Israel group where I am currently an intern. About 500 people showed up in support of Israel and marched peacefully, from UW to the church. The hatred that I felt from the pro-Palestinian side was immense. Police were called in by the university for the first time since the encampment started to maintain peace between the two sides. It’s ironic how the people who vandalize the campus with anti-Semitic and anti-police graffiti are OK with the police being there when they are protecting them. As the protest passed the main gate, I led my father and two fellow NYHS students to another gate where activists stood guard and chanted at us. I held up a megaphone and started shouting pro-Israel chants. As we walked to another gate, a member of Antifa came up behind my dad and stole his American flag, which he was wearing. As he fled with the flag, another NYHS student tried to intercept him, and the cowardly Antifa member saw him and changed direction to head back to the safety of his barricade. Later, a person who claimed to have stolen the flag posted a video on social media, showing them burning it.
NYHS students and I, who have been present on campus during the unrest and witnessed the discrimination, are left asking ourselves why any Jewish student would choose to go to the University of Washington in this current anti-Semitic climate. How can UW expect to recruit at schools like NYHS when they can’t even protect their own Jewish students? This reflects an overwhelming problem at universities in America that negotiate and give in to the demands of these violent activists. Jewish students should stop looking to go to universities like UW and look into places that care for the safety of their Jewish students.
