Schaeffer Hall, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Photo: Flickr.

Last October, the University of Iowa student-led Middle East and North African Students Association (MENASA) collaborated with Iowans for Palestine (IFP) and Eastern Iowa Jewish Voice for Peace (EIJVP) to host a panel called “Humanizing Palestine.”

Although the event was promoted to “combat dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding Palestine,” the speakers presented a biased narrative amounting to hateful anti-Israel propaganda.

Their falsehoods fell into two categories: distortions about the current war, and misrepresentations about the conflict’s history.

One current undergrad, an anti-Zionist and member of two of the anti-Israel groups, used her platform to demonize Israel and declare her “commitment to fighting against all injustices, including the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza…” Later, she denied the connection that the Jewish people have to Israel.

For over a millennia, Jews have called Israel home. As the center of Jewish faith, Jerusalem is revered as their holiest site. An honest reading of past and current international law shows that not only have Jews always had legitimate claims to establish and defend their country, but that their military has gone above and beyond to stop all Palestinian attempts at genocide.

Another speaker, the cofounder of a pro-Palestinian charity foundation that boasts about supporting organizations with proven ties to terror groups, emotionally manipulated the audience with pleas to “consider Palestinians when they are killed,” implying that the only way to do so is to blame Israel for every civilian casualty. In reality, Israel has made more effort than any other military in modern history to protect Palestinian civilians.

Furthermore, the war in Gaza only occurred because Hamas massacred and raped 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, and voted to repeat that attack until Israel was destroyed.

Another member of EIJPV outrageously claimed that her early education led her to “connect the dots between the Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza,” and dismissed all accusations of antisemitism towards Palestinians because she had “never once experienced antisemitism from a Palestinian, or from anyone at these [anti-Israel] protests, or from anyone carrying a Palestinian flag.”

Not only is this an oblivious and self-centered stance, but she would have needed to actively ignore so many incidents on and off our campus in the past year to make that claim with a straight face.

Further, her comparison is a horrific insult to all the Jews who were tortured, forced out of their homes, and murdered during the Holocaust. Life in the Warsaw Ghetto was defined by deliberate starvation, disease, and the constant threat of death. The uprising was an act of courage by Jewish men and women fighting back against Nazi forces who were actively working to wipe out an entire people.

While the situation in Gaza has its own challenges, they are suffering from the consequences of a self-inflicted war, not an attempt of extermination. In fact, the population in Gaza has gone up multiple times since 1948, while the level of Jews worldwide has still not come close to recovering from the Holocaust.

This comparison is Holocaust Inversion, and echoes the antisemitic belief prevalent in Palestinian society that the Holocaust was necessary to save the world from all future evils committed by Jews.

The bottom line is, the people involved in this event are trying to convince our community that it’s perfectly acceptable when people refuse to condemn Hamas, scream “I am Hamas,” or deny the rape of Israeli hostages. Apparently, the only way to humanize Palestine is to demonize Jews.

If that isn’t antisemitism, then nothing is.

The University of Iowa should make clear their official positions on such dangerous and contentious claims and offer equal support to events that platform a variety of perspectives in order to show their commitment to free speech and balance — so students can critically engage with opposing views and strive for justice and peace. Problematic events like these do nothing but spread hatred and disinformation.

Jasmyn Jordan is a 2024-2025 CAMERA Fellow and senior honors presidential scholar at the University of Iowa, double majoring in Political Science and International Relations, with a minor in Journalism.