Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by RealClear Education on April 10, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission.
Last week, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrapped up their “Week of Rage,” a week-long series of programs intended to intimidate and threaten those unsupportive of their cause. Despite their best efforts, SJP has quite the uphill battle; the student group’s views about Hamas and Israel are simply not in line with the rest of the nation at all. Since their reactivation coincided with the very day Hamas committed the greatest act of terror against Jews since the Holocaust, SJP has completely failed to build a coalition around their views and appears to have actually turned off the younger Americans who were initially the most supportive of their dangerous and deranged cause.
In the almost 18 months since over 1,200 Jews were murdered and over 250 hostages were brutally captured by Hamas, data from the March 2025 Harris-CAPS Poll reveals trivially low favorability rates for Hamas among the American electorate. Just nine percent of American voters hold a “very favorable” or “favorable” view of Hamas. This is not a partisan issue either; only 10 percent of Republicans and Democrats, respectively, hold favorable views of Hamas. Those across the income and educational spectrum also agree; they do not support Hamas.
[RELATED: The Anti-Semites and Their Betrayal of Conservatism]
Weeks after the October 7th massacre, about 32 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds held a positive view of Hamas. Fast forward to today, and the support among young Americans has diminished to 16 percent. Notably, only five percent of those between 45 and 55, and six percent of those 55 to 64, hold a favorable view of Hamas. Public support for Hamas has dwindled in just under a year and a half.
In the time since October 7th, the numerous “rage weeks” and student protests and acts of extreme violence to garner attention have had little influence on public support for the cause of Hamas, despite heavy outside support, counsel, and coordinated social media work. From Barnard and Columbia to Northwestern and UC Berkeley, these SJP groups have had strongly coordinated and seemingly unending messaging on social platforms, along with endless protests and demonstrations on campuses that sent out constant streams of images and posts of support for Hamas and calling Israel’s self-defense an act of genocide.
Even with SJP’s impressive coordination, their attempts to show that their repugnant views have widespread support on our college and university campuses has managed to fool very few; Americans see that the SJP messages are disgusting, dangerous, illiberal, anti-American, and anti-Semitic and these efforts are not creating much positive feelings or care for Hamas among younger Americans or Americans collectively whatsoever.
It is in keeping with this that Americans overwhelmingly support Israel over Hamas by a ratio of 77 percent to 23 percent. While progressive Democrats gain attention in the press and on social media, that is a misrepresentation of the Democratic party, where a majority of Democrats stand—72 percent—still support Israel over Hamas. Eighty-three percent of Republicans and 77 percent of Independents support Israel over Hamas as well. Even younger Americans—those whom campus protestors typically reach out to through their social media channels—do not support Hamas over Israel. A majority of 18 to 24-year-olds (52 percent) and 25 to 34-year-olds (65 percent) now support Israel over Hamas, and the number climbs to over nine in 10 among those over 65 years old.
It is also the case that Americans want the hostages who are in captivity and being tortured released—a fact that is routinely ignored by protestors who support Hamas and continuously paint Israel as a genocidal, colonial aggressor. About 80 percent of Americans support Hamas releasing all remaining hostages without any conditions or face serious consequences, with 78 percent of Democrats and 87 percent of Republicans agreeing. Again, majorities of all age groups support this statement, with 65 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds and 72 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds in agreement, and the number climbs with age.
[RELATED: Sarah Lawrence Must Answer to Congress—And Rightly So]
While it is true that the “Justice for Palestine” allied coalition of groups has been unsuccessful in swaying public opinion in the United States toward their deeply unbalanced view of Israel and Zionism, this does not mean that the deep anti-Semitism on campus and the dangers it poses to Jewish and Zionist students, faculty, and community members is trivial.
From repeated violence and trespassing to preventing Jewish and Zionist students from partaking in regular collegiate life, these groups create trouble and need to be held accountable for their unethical and often illegal behavior. When it comes to changing hearts and minds, college education has failed these SJP-aligned groups and their student members; none of them have learned anything about civility, debate, and persuasion based on ideas. Instead, SJP members think that threats, screaming at and harassing others, and playing the victim card will move policy and promote action, and it has now done just that with increased scrutiny of higher education now from Congress and the White House, which is changing the tune and behavior of many schools nationwide. But SJC has been utterly unsuccessful in having any real impact in changing public opinion in support of their views.
Image: “Students for Justice in Palestine @ UC Berkeley” by Ariel Hayat on Flickr
“week-long series of programs intended to intimidate and threaten those unsupportive of their cause”
That is the textbook definition of “terrorism.”
College kids want to be popular and to fit in — not wanting to confront bullies doesn’t mean that they support them. And the thing that needs to be understood is that — from a student perspective — the “administration” supports Hamas.
One needs to remember that from the student perspective, authority figures are the last people whom the institution would consider authority figures — the dormitory staff, the cafeteria staff, the graduate student TA, etc. — and the problem is that these people support Team Hamas.
There is a need for a very clear concept of “conduct unbecoming” — we need to reintroduce the original AAUP concept of student academic freedom and expand the noninterference concept to these support personnel.
I’m not saying hire on the basis of political belief (as much as that might help me personally) but make it damn clear that the employee’s right to support Hamas (or hate Trump) ends when one is “on the clock.” That there is no license to indoctrinate.
And I don’t think that that the upper admin realizes the authority that the lower level folk have.