Rabbi says media, college campuses 'normalize Jew hatred' in response to Hamas terror attack

Anti-Israel hatred is being "normalized" on college campuses and in the media, one activist argues, with far-reaching consequences for Jewish people around the globe.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believes this attitude can already be seen in how a majority of major media outlets are reporting on the devastating Hamas terror attack, which has left hundreds of Israelis dead. He argued several outlets are downplaying the atrocities unfolding in Israel, such as refusing to call Hamas "terrorists," and using gentler terms like "soldiers" or "militants" instead.

"Soldiers don't kidnap little toddlers. They don't kidnap grandmothers. They don't go around neighborhoods, just firing indiscriminately into homes or setting fire to the bomb shelters to force people to come out so they can murder them on the spot," Rabbi Cooper told Fox News Digital. 

"You know, you don't go to a peace concert and rape young girls and murder 262 concert-goers. You don't behead your enemy. You don't kidnap people, and use them as human shields. Those are all the things that Hamas has boasted about and indeed in many cases actually shown the video as part of the psychological warfare against Israel and against the Jewish people," he said.

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Rabbi Abraham Cooper spoke to Fox News Digital about the effects of antisemitism on college campuses and media coverage of Hamas' attack on Israel. (The Simon Wiesenthal Center | Getty)

"So what we have here is not the possibility, but the absolute certainty. It's already begun," he added.

The leader of the Jewish human rights organization said anti-Israel voices are getting promoted in society, from the White House to college campuses to the media.

"Take a group like CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations], which was listed by the White House as a reliable organization fighting anti-Semitism, which has denounced people who come out to defend the Israeli people here," he said. "So we can expect from all of the anti-Israel forces on campuses, among pundits in the media, but especially on the campuses, to have, essentially, continuous anti-Israel campaigns, demonstrations, threats, embracing what Hamas has just done as a great victory and providing a moral blank check to do whatever it takes in order to destroy Israel."

After the brutal attack, more than two dozen Harvard student organizations blamed Israel as "entirely responsible" for the violence.

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People march in support of Palestinians in New York on October 8, 2023 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel.  (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators also marched through New York City on Sunday celebrating the terror attack. Several chanted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" – a chant that the Anti-Defamation League notes can be understood as a call for the elimination of Israel. Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine often use the chant as an anti-Israel rallying cry.

The protest was organized by the Democratic Socialists of America – a group that boasts six members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including members of "the Squad."

The Harvard students' reaction and the protests that have sprung up celebrating the terrorism against Israel "further normalize Jew hatred," Cooper said.

"It's one thing to see a swastika painted on a door or even, God forbid, on a synagogue. But what we're seeing unfold here is a global campaign of celebrating what Hamas did," he argued. "You're celebrating the rape and mass murder of innocent Jews. You're celebrating the broadcast and the beheadings of young soldiers."

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Democratic Socialists of America protest in solidarity with the Palestinians in New York City October 8, 2023. Per NYPD some 1000 protesters attended rally. (Peter Gerber for Fox News Digital)

Cooper said that despite some calls from progressive Democrats for a cease-fire, Israel should continue fighting back against the terror threat, which he says appears to be the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The rabbi sees larger implications for how U.S. cultural leaders and institutions continue to respond to pro-Palestinian extremists rationalizing the terror.

"This stuff is all pre-baked. This is not about where the two-state solution is going to come in and bring peace. This is about the forces that want to see the demise of the lone Jewish state in the world, America's democratic ally. Academia, overall, is not averting their eyes. They're empowering this kind of horrific [violence]," he said.

"So we're looking at two parallel universes with decent people recoiling at the inhumanity, the barbarity on the one hand, and then the cheering section for people who hate Israel saying anything goes," Cooper added. "We already know what we're going to hear, you know, from these validators and supporters of mass murderers. That is the challenge ahead on antisemitism." 

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Fox News' Peter Aitken contributed to this report.

Kristine Parks is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Read more.