Opinion Columnists |

S.E. Cupp: The unseriousness of pro-Palestinian protesters

“I have a daughter in Brooklyn! Get the f–k out of the way!”

The exasperated driver, whose identity is as of yet unknown, had to finally get out of his car in Manhattan and scream at a group of more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters who decided this week that the best way to draw attention to their cause of the fighting in Gaza was to block traffic and access to several bridges and a tunnel in the most populous city in America.

As a mom myself, I can tell you — anyone who came between me and my child wouldn’t get as polite a warning.

“Our aim today was to clog the arteries of New York City to draw attention to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza,” said Jamil Madbak, the 29-year-old organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement — the same group that has previously celebrated terrorism against Israel and the murders of innocent Jews.

“American bombs and American-made internationally prohibited chemical weapons are being dropped on Arabs again, financed by American tax dollars and protected by the American media, again. Those in power think they can get away with this, but us being out here every week is our way of saying we won’t let them.”

No word yet on whether this stunt to snarl traffic using the Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges, was successful in lobbying the Biden administration or Israel to change their course in the war against Hamas in the wake of the terrorist group’s barbaric slaughter of more than a thousand innocent Jews and the kidnapping of hundreds more on Oct. 7.

But it did end in the arrest of more than 320 protesters in New York.

Similar protests blocking access to JFK, LAX, and Chicago O’Hare airports over the holidays — on the busiest travel days of the year — also resulted in dozens of arrests and delays for legions of frustrated travelers who couldn’t get to their flights.

If you’re wondering how these obnoxious, self-important, unserious, and even dangerous antics would be an effective way of eliciting sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians suffering in wartime Gaza, your guess is as good as mine. I’m betting that most weary travelers who couldn’t get to work or missed a flight to see their loved ones aren’t going to be buoyed by the fact that, “Hey, at least it’s for a good cause.”

In the wake of that awful tragedy in October, pro-Palestinian groups like PYM and Students for Justice in Palestine have embarked on misguided and arguably ineffective stunts like these to get their point across and try to bring some favorable attention to their efforts. But harassing unsuspecting bystanders hasn’t done the trick. Nor has it endeared them to anyone but each other.

Nor have the countless videos of young anti-Israel activists tearing down posters of Israeli hostages all over our cities. Nor have the threats against Jewish students on college campuses. Nor have all the strongly worded letters demanding various institutions denounce Israel for the death of their own civilians.

What this all misses is that there are plenty of Americans who are persuadable on this, who simply want peace in Gaza, who are sympathetic to the suffering of the Palestinian people, who might even object to Israel’s political objectives. But holding up their flight or keeping them from their family is itself a version of indiscriminate hostage taking, and that is sure to change no one’s hearts and minds.

Neither is blaming Israel for the murders of its own people, refusing to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization, or calling for the genocide of Jews with signs on college campuses like “Holocaust 2.0.”

It’s stuff like this that starts to verge on Westboro Baptist Church territory. When the infamous hate group protests the funerals of gay people and AIDS victims with signs like “God sent the killer” and “God hates f-gs,” it’s hard to imagine that needlessly and heartlessly harassing these grieving people is going to win anyone over to a point of view that is already controversial and offensive to many. And outside of that small group of activists, it just turns everyone else off.

The cause of peace for innocent Palestinians and an end to the war in Gaza is a serious, righteous and good one, at its core. It needs serious voices, and deserves advocates who promote compassion and clarity, not callousness and chaos. But these unserious performances — which range from silly to annoying to deeply offensive — are only hurting that cause.

S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.