Students for Justice in Palestine chapters traveled to the District of Columbia on June 8 to surround the White House. Zachary Marschall, editor in chief of Campus Reform, was in DC that day and was able to see firsthand the disturbances they were causing.
"I think they're all terrorists," he tells AFN. "You have terrorists, and you have Americans. Americans support Israel and protest peacefully …. Terrorists use intimidation or violence or threats of violence to influence and change political decision-making."
He adds: "I can tell you that they … acted like rabid animals in the sense of you could see the hate and the vitriol they have for anyone who is not them – and especially against Israel and America."
Marschall admits being appalled to see it reported there were no arrests. "I think the intimidation that they displayed at the White House definitely merited their arrest, and I am just outraged that this was allowed to happen," he offers.
According to Marschall, the chants shouted by the demonstrators were equivalent to verbal harassment and intimidation.
"… And this can be through coded messages about intifada here in the United States. Global intifada about … 'liberation for Palestine,' which means the destruction of the Israeli state," he explains. "So, whether you are looking at their props with their rhetoric, this is definitely them trying to have the [Biden administration] change policy on Israel through intimidation and through harassment of Jewish Americans."
And the pro-Hamas demonstrators, he concludes, want America to do whatever it can to support the creation of a Palestinian state. "And what does that look like? That looks like another October 7th."
