‘We’re not in a fight about facts’: Professor says feelings fuel post-Oct. 7 anti-Israel campus protests

Feelings rather than facts have been driving anti-Israel protests globally since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Alvin Rosenfeld, a professor of Jewish studies and director of Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Rosenfeld explores this phenomenon in the new book he edited, “Toward the Last Encampment: Campus Culture and the Jews Before and After October 7,” which brings together contributions from 13 scholars and academics examining the rise of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on Western university campuses following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack.

Combining firsthand accounts and academic analysis, the contributors examine the ideological, cultural and political forces behind the protests.

Rosenfeld also has personal experience with the campus demonstrations, having approached anti-Israel protesters at Indiana University in 2024 to question their knowledge of the issues they were protesting.

“I saw a lot of students milling around, and lots of very similar tents, probably paid for by a well-financed source,” Rosenfeld told The Times of Israel. “Students were shouting slogans about the Intifada, so I approached one and asked what he knew about the Intifada, especially the Second Intifada.”

Rosenfeld said he was surprised to discover that the student did not know that approximately 1,000 Israeli civilians had been killed in terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005.

“Nonetheless, he kept on shouting,” Rosenfeld recalled, referring to the popular anti-Jewish slogan “Globalize the Intifada.”

“We’re not in a fight about facts,” the professor said. “The facts can be all wrong. We are in a fight about feelings, and those feelings are very impassioned, very determined, very aggressive.”

“After October 7, Jew hatred is a global phenomenon, particularly on college campuses,” Rosenfeld explained. “This book charts the progress of those developments at campuses in America and abroad, with a great deal of detail previously unknown.”

The book also examines how quickly anti-Israel demonstrations spread across university campuses following the Hamas attack, raising questions about the extent of prior planning and coordination. More than 30 student organizations at Harvard University publicly condemned Israel after the Oct. 7 attack, even before the Israeli military launched its ground operation in Gaza, he said.

For instance, two organizations – Students for Justice in Palestine and Faculty for Justice in Palestine – published an online handbook for “resistance” against Israel just 24 hours after the Oct. 7 attack.

“There was clearly preparatory work done ahead of this,” Rosenfeld explained. The professor said he was disappointed with the ignorance on the Harvard campus concerning Israel and the conflict in the Middle East.

“This was at a university where people are supposed to know a thing or two,” Rosenfeld said after interacting with the student. “I could have told this student that he doesn’t know what he is talking about, but I didn’t. They weren’t interested in dialogue at all. They were just interested in demonstrating.”

Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, who wrote the book’s opening chapter, recalled the anti-Jewish sentiments he experienced while serving as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. In December 2023, Wolpe resigned from the university's antisemitism advisory committee, calling the Harvard system "evil."

The new book "Toward the Last Encampment: Campus Culture and the Jews Before and After October 7" can be purchased online here.