The delusion of the pro-Palestinian campus protestors

Much has been made in recent weeks, and especially in recent days, about the degrees of ignorance often displayed by those protesting for the people of Gaza and Palestine. To put it pithily, many don’t seem to know from which river and to which sea they chant about with such passion. Such ignorance has prompted some to conclude that these protests are less about showing solidarity with beleaguered Palestinians and more an excuse to vent incoherent anti-Western sentiment, or, more sinisterly, old-fashioned anti-Semitism.

Similarly, the cosplay in evidence at university campuses in the USA has also cast doubt on the authenticity of these demonstrations. In their fondness for pretending to be starving refugees in a warzone, bedded down in tents right opposite cafes and restaurants, many of these cosseted, affluent American students appear to be grotesquely detached from reality – less bothered about Gaza and more concerned with self-indulgently ‘feeling their pain’ in these ostentatious, ersatz displays of solidarity.