OPINION:
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, various leftist groups across the United States have been staging protests in support of the “liberation” of the Palestinian people. They see anti-Israel activism as a way to express some kind of solidarity with “oppressed peoples” fighting “colonizers.” Too many have even resorted to violence.
Washington has seen more than its share of anti-Israel demonstration, but one incident in my neighborhood drove home the absurdity of leftist activism. I live in a quiet part of Northeast Washington called Eckington, far from the National Mall and the other usual scenes of protest. A few weeks ago, though, that changed overnight.
As I walked out of my apartment one morning, I noticed someone had affixed a number of posters to streetlamps around the neighborhood. Some are emblazoned with fatuous slogans such as “Free Palestine!” or “Hands Off Rafah,” while others try to make more complex points. Although one rather doubts how effective this propaganda will be, these posters showed me just how delusional anti-Israel leftists have become.
One of the more ridiculous posters reads “Queers for Palestine.” Upon encountering it, I wondered if the person who made it knows that homosexuality is legally banned in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has been known to imprison and execute gay people. Even in the West Bank, gay Palestinians face persecution from both vigilante Islamists and their own government. Whatever the “Palestinian struggle” may be, it is certainly not a campaign for gay rights.
Another quotes a line from a Tupac Shakur rap to criticize the U.S. government: “They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.” On the face of it, it is simply absurd to suggest that the United States spends more on the military than on fighting poverty. Just last year, entitlement spending — “feeding the poor” — was about 55% of the federal budget.
Meanwhile, over 80% of Gaza’s population lives in poverty, but Hamas directs its massive influx of cash from Iran and other sources to building its terror network and killing Israelis.
The most chilling poster simply declares “Freedom by Any Means.” Regardless of what one believes about the conflict, nothing can justify the horrific means Hamas employed on Oct. 7 and since. Nearly 1,200 people, overwhelmingly civilians, were killed by the terrorists on that dark day. There are hundreds of eyewitness reports of terrorists committing sexual assault. The 133 hostages still held by the terrorists likely face the same kind of torture. The poster’s slogan straightforwardly glorifies rape, terrorism and genocide. “Freedom by Any Means” is a despicable thing to believe.
Pasting these posters on public lampposts is technically an illegal act of vandalism — which means, of course, that the agitators in my neighborhood can even claim the noble mantle of “civil disobedience” for themselves. The late writer Tom Wolfe famously described this kind of leftist activism as “radical chic.” Causes like “Palestinian liberation” become a fashionable way for members of the powerful classes to signal their virtue to the world. It is an activism so abstract it becomes essentially meaningless.
For all their slogans, though, the leftist residents of Eckington are hardly poster children of the revolution. The median home price here is nearly double the national median, and one house on my block sold recently for $1.2 million. A local filmmaker even wrote and directed a poignant movie, “Residue,” about how bad gentrification is getting in our neighborhood. Eckington is not home to the noble proletariat struggling against capitalism and empire — this neighborhood is fast becoming colonized by the rich and entitled.
A real revolutionary spirit would look to the ways it could uplift the afflicted in our own neighborhood. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, the homelessness rate in D.C. increased by 18%. Last year, one-third of Washington residents experienced food insecurity. Violent crime in the nation’s capital is up by 39%, in stark contrast to other parts of the country. We have plenty of our own problems here at home, and I sincerely wish my left-wing neighbors would turn their attention to these concerns.
By now, many of the anti-Israel posters around the neighborhood are starting to tear away at the edges. A few have been pasted over by new posters declaring environmentalist or pro-abortion messages. At the end of the day, all that is left is a fading reminder that activism is a delusional hobby.
• Michael Lucchese is a Krauthammer Fellow at the Tikvah Fund, and the CEO of Pipe Creek Consulting.
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