Recent footage of the prestigious Stanford University showed a large group of students proudly singing the national anthem at what appears to be a fraternity social function. The California university was not spared from the national trend of campus protests that featured tense exchanges between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups.
However, it appears that the aggressive presence of the nationwide anti-Israel protests has incited a patriotic reaction from other students, such as the fraternity boys at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who bravely defended the American flag in the face of hostile protestors.
Furthermore, other southern colleges, such as Ole Miss and the University of Alabama, featured pro-America counterprotests that far outnumbered the pro-Palestine crowd, sometimes drowning them out with “USA!” chants. Additionally, the apparent patriotism seen at Stanford would suggest that even some of the most stereotypical liberal universities are seeing reactionary behavior toward the protests.
Recent reports from Stanford indicated that there has been tense dueling between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups who organized side-by-side protests. A Jewish Student group, the L’Chaim Club, expressed their goal of drawing attention to the to fight antisemitism amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
“This is a message of humanity and it’s a message of people coming together to stand against terror, and to stand against hatred,” said the club’s president, Joshua Jankelow. “We pride ourselves on the fact that it was an interfaith rally, that it was a coalition, that it was built. What people are scared about is not just Jews blaming things as being antisemitic. It is genuine hatred, genuine antisemitism.”
As mentioned above, earlier this month fraternity members at UNC fearlessly stared down a crowd of angry pro-Palestine protestors defending the American flag which was previously replaced with a Palestinian flag. The group of young men surrounded the flag, refusing to let it touch the ground as they were pelted with water and other objects.
One individual who helped defend the flag recently spoke about the experience while voicing his love for the country. “I love America. I love that side of America. It’s like we all just kind of connected our brains and stood there protecting one thing,” he said. Watch footage from the Stanford party below:
The student further detailed his dedication to standing up for the Red, White, and Blue. “And I think I made a joke. I was like, I don’t know if it’s a joke, but I was like, I was like, I died for this flag. And everybody was like, yeah, they get any closer, we’re gonna start throwing hands. Like we’re not gonna we’re not going anywhere. I don’t care that they’re gonna have to tear me off this flag like about my dead like dead body,” he added.
He later described why the incident has become so popular, stating, “Because people want to see that people want to see people not bending that don’t bend a knee to these people. They want you they want you gone they want to take over they want to just destroy like what this country stands for, bring their own twisted ideology into every orifice of this country and you don’t let them do that. Don’t let them do that. So take a stand. pm Han take a stand,” he said.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
"*" indicates required fields