Pro-Hamas encampments and their cultlike attraction to Western young people

What is it that made the encampments so attractive to the Western young people that took up residence in them? Surely it could not have been the free pizzas, pup tents and port-a-potties. Living under such conditions would become old very quickly.

The answer lies deep within our social norms, to which students have been exposed since birth. Outside the home and school, pressures to conform are brought to bear on young and vulnerable students – peer pressure, advertising, social media, and “influencers.”

There was a period in the seventies and eighties when the term “Moonies” caused people to shudder and to fear for their friends and loved ones, especially among the young. The so-called “Moonies” were a cult founded by the Korean Sun Myung Moon. The “Moonies” have faded into obscurity, but in their wake, they left a trail of broken lives and irreparably damaged friendships and family relationships. While there are some differences, it is difficult not to see the parallels that exist between cults and the anti-Israel encampments that have proliferated on university campuses worldwide.

Increasingly, at the university, secondary and elementary school levels, critical thinking has been replaced by indoctrination and propagandizing. Students have not been taught to think for themselves or to figure things out. It is not surprising then, that few are equipped to stave off the pressures which are upon them from all sides. Speakers whose views stray from acceptable narratives are barred from campuses, or shouted down if they do come. Students’ need to feel “safe” or be given “trigger warnings” are prioritized over robust debate and exchange of ideas. Professors use their classrooms as a place to pursue agendas of their own, much of which have little do with providing students with the skills necessary to navigate life outside the educational institution.

In an Israel National News article entitled Faculty Social-Cultural Marxism is Behind the Campus Riots, author Chaim Cohen points out that social-cultural Marxism has seized control of the arts faculties at most universities, enabling antisemitism. And through the faculties of education, now controlled by the universities, it is making its way downwards into the secondary and elementary schools, as newly-minted teachers pass on what they themselves have absorbed as undergraduates. This would not have been possible had students been taught to evaluate what they are told, and vigorously debate ideas.  

The process is one of surrendering one’s humanity and critical judgement in exchange for solace and certainty. In the classic novel 1984, George Orwell said, “In exchange for eradicating individual thought, citizens received a sense of belonging to a great, immortal movement that was fighting to save mankind.” So is it with the encampers, who are driven by a need to belong, to be part of something bigger than oneself, to make the world a better place.

How does the process work? The first and most obvious step is the establishment of the encampments. By setting up shop on private property, the land belonging to the university, the residents of the encampments signal their utter disdain for the laws which govern our society. Like the cults which are often found in communes or in remote areas, the encampments serve to hive off the students from family and friends, from anyone who might try to dissuade them from participating. Acting as giant echo chambers, they prevent students from exposure to anything other than their own cause. Access and egress are tightly controlled, with anyone wishing to enter the encampment required to prove their bona fides by expressing the accepted political stance. Jews are particularly vulnerable. Wearing Jewish symbols is sure to earn the wearer jeers, orders to “go back to Poland,” or even injury. There is no point in trying to have a dialogue or reason with the encampers. The brainwashing is complete.

This is especially true of journalists. Only those journalists deemed “friendly” to the cause are allowed in. There are activists constantly circulating through the encampment, whose job it is to intervene if someone who has not been approved, dares engage an encamper in conversation or interview. The encamper may direct the journalist to the “media tent,” or the intervenor may insert him/herself into the conversation and take over, sending the journalist packing. In one case, an intervenor at the University of Toronto, told the encamper that the reporter was not to be trusted, that everything the encamper said would be “edited” to reflect a particular bias.  

Encampers are encouraged to utilize certain expressions and forms of language. Words and terms such as colonialism, oppression, and Zionism pepper their speech and are understood to be expressions of evil, accepted at face value. The West and whiteness are seen as the embodiment of this evil and treated as such.

Chanting is frequently used at rallies, protests and marches. The encampers are taught chants, few in words and simple in cadence. Easy to learn, e.g. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Chants have many uses. Chanting stops the chanter’s mind from wandering into areas where it might question the ideology. Quite simply, chanting silences any doubts or questions that might pop up.

Cult deprogrammer Ted Patrick described chanting as a form of self-hypnosis. The act of chanting seals whatever you’ve been taught to think.

Sadly, the woke youthful and naïve participants have been persuaded that they are building an ideal world. Their view is Manichean – everything is either good or evil. They see the Palestinians, especially the Gazans as oppressed, and Israelis, aided by world Jewry, as oppressors.

Like cults, the encampments are a symptom of social disintegration. Because of the indoctrination they have undergone, the encampers have no concept of how to navigate a complex and nuanced world.  

Nonetheless, the encampments have provided a useful service by exposing the rot within.

I am reminded of the summer I turned 17, when I worked for a brief time harvesting butternut squash. Once in awhile, we would see a squash that looked perfectly fine, only to discover when picking it, that it was completely rotten under its outer skin. That may well describe our universities. The encampments and the responses from university administrators, with a few notable exceptions, have exposed the rot that lies within, a vile combination of students unable to think for themselves and actively encouraged not to think, by a tenured neo-Marxist professoriate.

The second favor the encampments have done for the public is the realization that there must be an insistence that the universities open their books. While the Israel-haters want to see where the university has invested its money, we should be far more concerned about the sources of its funding. A massive research project undertaken by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) under the direction of Dr. Charles Asher Small revealed that masses of money were flowing into US universities, especially the ones with the most egregious antisemitism problems, from the Middle East, laundered through various organizations and charities. It would be naive not to assume that the same phenomenon is not occurring elsewhere.

We should all be asking to see the books and to find out where the money is coming from and for what it has been earmarked. And then we should insist on a total overhaul of our education system, from kindergarten through college and university.