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Source: https://www.jpost.com/podcast/jpost-sits-down-with/article-885942
Former Pro-Palestinian Activist Explains Why She Left the Movement
(Jerusalem Post) Taryn Thomas, a former pro-Palestinian activist at Stanford University, has described her experience inside the campus protest movement following Oct. 7. She said she joined with good intentions, driven by strong emotional reactions to images from Gaza. She trusted peers, professors, and social media narratives without question. Thomas said she encountered almost no coverage of Hamas's attack on Israeli civilians in her social media feeds or on campus. It was not until a year later, when she visited a Nova music festival exhibit, that she viewed footage of the attack, which she described as emotionally overwhelming. She also detailed the cult-like dynamics within campus protest groups, including internal policing, exclusion of dissenting voices, and hostility toward anyone labeled a "Zionist." Antisemitic rhetoric and acts, including vandalism and threats, were dismissed or excused in the name of the cause.