You're not an activist, you're a 'white saviour'

The Israel-Palestinian conflict has forever been a topic of debate among student activists in the UK, despite both the geographical and cultural distance from the region. Since the October 7 massacre, more students have engaged in pro-Palestinian activism by protesting on campus, reposting infographics, and demanding Israeli boycotts and divestment from their universities. However, the majority of this ‘activism’ is not driven by a genuine understanding of the conflict or a commitment to promote peace, but by a superficial need to virtue signal. This form of student activism stems from white guilt, simplifies a complex issue, and ultimately fails to support those it claims to help.

Superficial Activism, Virtue Signaling and Orientalism

Pro-Palestinian activism on UK campuses has become a way for students to boast their moral righteousness. In a society so obsessed with the colonial and imperial histories of Western culture tainted by racial injustice, more young people from a white British background feel guilty about their privilege and project it onto popular social injustice issues like the Israel-Palestine conflict. This has meant that this conflict has become a broader representation of oppression and resistance that resonates within Western ideals of social justice and intersectionality. However, many of the students have little actual understanding of the conflict and reduce it to a simplistic ‘oppressor versus oppressed’ narrative, overlooking the complexities of the actual situation and the lived experiences of those affected. As a result, the activism becomes performative and does little to advance meaningful change. 

By believing that camping out on campus, reposting AI-generated images, or sharing shallow messages will somehow advance the process of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, these ‘activists’ are actually projecting orientalist stereotypes and adopting a ‘white saviour’ mentality. This approach also implies that Israelis and Palestinians are simply pawns that play into Western ideals of intersectionality and social justice. This kind of reductive slacktivism ignores that the dynamics, cultures, and civil and political structures in the Middle East diverge from those in the West, and so applying Western models of social justice, oppression and intersectionality distorts the conflict’s true nature. Actual relevant factors like Pan-Arabism and radical Islamism are not only omitted but rejected. As a result, western ‘activists’ rob Palestinians of their moral agency and become unwilling to admit how they are the primary obstacle to peace and are themselves responsible for perpetuating the conflict.

This performative activism often escalates into harmful rhetoric that blatantly spreads hate. Commonly heard chants such as “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution” and “We will free Palestine within our lifetime from the belly of the beast” reflect that for these activists, Palestinian liberation is not at all peaceful, but involves violence and the elimination of the Jewish state. This kind of rhetoric alienates real people involved in the conflict who are genuinely seeking peace and promotes antisemitism. 

Selective Outrage and Ignoring Hamas’ Role

When student activists distil such a complex conflict into a simple ‘good-versus-evil’ dichotomy, they very often become unwilling to condemn Hamas at all, and in fact project the actions committed by Hamas as resistance. By absolving Hamas of its mass responsibility for the violence and suffering in Gaza, students are infantilising Palestinians and betraying them by aligning them all with their oppressors. It is at the height of irony that actual Gazans are turning against Hamas yet their so-called ‘allies’ in the West are refusing to condemn them, and instead celebrating them as a resistance group.  

The large majority of these ‘pro-Palestine’ student activists have not acknowledged that those suffering the most at the hands of Hamas are the Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip with an iron fist since its coup in 2007, diverting civilian resources and financial aid towards terror rather than public welfare, such as turning sewer pipes into rockets and stealing humanitarian funds which would otherwise be used to better the lives of Palestinians. The Freedom in the World report ranked Gaza a score of 8/100 on the Global Freedom scale, underscoring the severe restrictions on political and civil liberties that Gazans face under Hamas’ rule. Since the start of the war following the October 7 massacre, there have also been countless reports of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid from trucks and killing civilians who are suspected of taking aid before it could be confiscated. Ultimately, those suffering most under the hands of Hamas are the Palestinians, who are denied access to basic necessities such as food, water and healthcare. Yet, Western activists remain silent about these atrocities, infantilising Palestinians by denying their agency and aligning them with their oppressors.

Overshadowing Positive Israeli Contributions and Real Palestinian Voices

In stark contrast, it has been primarily Israeli groups and individuals who have been advocating and spreading awareness about Hamas’ oppression of Palestinians. For example, Canadian-Israeli activist Vivian Silver did a lot of work to aid Gazans who didn’t have access to healthcare, work, or proper quality of life. This included programmes to help them get jobs in kibbutzim, cross-cultural projects to help promote business between Israelis and Palestinians, and volunteering with charities to transport Gazan patients to hospitals in Jerusalem. She continued this humanitarian work until her murder by Hamas on October 7.  

Another example is The Aguda, an Israeli non-profit organisation that advocates for LGBT rights, including those of Palestinians. LGBT Gazans face “severe persecution and ostracism” under Hamas’ control, so groups like The Aguda have been working with the Israeli Knesset to support them, by helping grant them asylum in other countries. Yet pro-Palestinian protesters don’t mention the well-documented persecution of LGBT Palestinians under Hamas. 

These student activists also tend to ignore the voices of dissenting Palestinians who speak out against Hamas. Gazans have little freedom of expression or press, and those who speak out against Hamas risk their own safety and that of their families. Organisations like The Center for Peace Communications (PeaceComms) have worked to platform these voices and spread awareness about Hamas’ oppression. There have also been a few instances of Palestinians rebelling against Hamas despite the dangers involved. Yet, these perspectives are often missing from the narratives promoted by Western campuses, where activists refuse to acknowledge that Hamas is not a resistance group that seeks to secure Palestinian statehood, but a terrorist group looking to secure the elimination of the only Jewish state.  

As a journalism student at a London university, I’ve also observed how the large majority of the students taking part in pro-Palestinian activism are not Palestinian at all, but rather from privileged backgrounds with no connection to the Middle East. This was even pointed out by a Palestinian student at SOAS University of London, who claimed that Palestinian student voices are sidelined within the SOAS Palestinian Society and that the conversations held there are incredibly out of touch with reality. This leads to a heightened disconnect between Western activists and the reality of the conflict and Palestinian peace activists.

How to Be a Real Activist for Palestinian Liberation

Many so-called Pro-Palestinian activists seem to have no problem ignorantly condemning Israel and calling for its abolishment whilst spend no time addressing the moral agency and role of Palestinians and their leaders in the suffering of their people. Acknowledging Hamas’ role in the October 7 massacre and in the suffering of the Palestinian people in no way means you do not stand with the Palestinian people. 

As someone who supports both Israel and the foundation of a Palestinian sovereign state, I firmly believe that these positions are not mutually exclusive. Supporting one does not mean rejecting the other. Condemning Hamas and acknowledging the suffering it imposes on Gazans is critical in calling for a better future for Palestinians. While it is tempting to fall into manichean ways of thinking, nuance and balance are essential to avoid idealising the Palestinian side to the extent of justifying atrocities like the October 7 massacre and Hamas’ continued mistreatment of civilians.

True activism and solidarity with Palestinians should mean acknowledging the full complex reality rather than remaining wilfully ignorant and forcing the conflict into Western frameworks. It is crucial that a clear differentiation is made between self-serving and hateful ‘activism’, and actual work that is being done to advance peace in the region. Above all, it must be acknowledged that a liberation for the Palestinians would involve working towards governance reform and no longer being governed by Hamas or other radical Islamist groups.