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“Students Flood NYC for Gaza” is the name of the Oct. 7 rally being organized by a coalition of groups. While not an official NYU function, the gathering will begin at Washington Square Park, surrounded by NYU campus buildings, and is endorsed by the NYU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Free expression is a fundamental and critical right in the United States, and that includes the freedom to take sides in a foreign war or to express ideas that others find traumatizing. But make no mistake, the rally’s timing and language are designed to create a hostile environment for Jews on NYU’s campus. The organizers made sure of it through deliberate choices they have made. 

Manipulating language has long been a favored tactic of antisemites to avoid condemnation for explicitly inciting violence. Why “flood” New York City for Gaza? Because Hamas called its Oct. 7 massacre “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” On that day, Hamas brigades pulled off an impressive military coup — which happened to feature the rape, torture, mass murder and kidnapping of hundreds of Israeli civilians, all filmed on body cams for the enjoyment of many in Gaza and around the world. Sadly, this receptive audience includes the organizers of the Oct. 7 rally in Washington Square Park. We can count on them to bring out their slogan, to resist the existence of a Jewish state “by any means necessary.” This rallying cry is a conscious effort to normalize violent discourse on the edge of our campus. 

The organizers will also summon another shape-shifted blood libel against Jews, by labeling Israel’s retaliation against invasion, murder and hostage-taking as “genocide.” The genocide libel did not start on Oct. 7; it has been in play on Gaza for over a decade. The organizers’ own signs show that Israel is accused of carrying out genocide against Palestinians for 76 years, notwithstanding the fact that the population of Palestinians has increased more than five-fold in that same time period. Israel launches retaliatory strikes in Lebanon? Genocide. This false charge doubly antagonizes Jews, whose population worldwide has still not recovered to pre-Holocaust levels. As Hamas and Hezbollah have continually and explicitly called for “killing the Jews” and “the destruction of Israel,” the deflection is cynical cruelty at its best. 

Holding a rally on Oct. 7 sends a targeted message. Why choose the date marked by the mass murder and kidnapping of Israelis if the protest is meant to highlight the tragic deaths of Palestinians? The organizers know full well that Jews — or to avoid the label of antisemitism, “Zionists,” as Martin Luther King Jr. observed — will be holding vigils on that day, mourning the dead and praying for hostages who have remained in brutal captivity for a full year. The timing of the “flood” is an endorsement of the violence that occurred and a willful effort to exacerbate the emotional trauma and fear within the Jewish community.

Freedom of speech and viewpoint diversity are vital to the academic environment, enabling individuals to express their perspectives on global issues. Human decency appends to this freedom a responsibility to be sensitive to all members of the community. In contrast, the upcoming rally is designed to terrorize Jews. This Oct. 7, your Jewish friends, classmates, colleagues, teachers and students are already traumatized by the memory of the massacre itself without the added burden of antisemitic chants across the street. Universities are meant to be places of learning and respectful dialogue, not battlegrounds for violent ideologies. Actions that incite fear or propagate harm undermine the inclusive atmosphere essential for education and only serve to deepen divisions within the student body.

WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.

Contact Yoav Bergner and Batia Wiesenfeld at [email protected]