Pro-Palestinian protesters display symbol of hands soaked with Jewish blood
Last week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) was mobbed in the Senate hallway by a group of anti-Israel protesters.
One protester assailed the senator, saying, “You are creating a Holocaust in Gaza.”
Hawley responded by saying, “You are!”
“You are supporting genocide,” the protester insisted.
“And it is Chinese money,” Hawley continued unabated. “You people are funded by China. You are funded by what they do.”
“You are here to be antisemites,” Hawley insisted. “You are here to try and destroy the state of Israel.”
The protesters held up their hands, displaying their palms, which had been painted red. Palms painted red have become a symbol of pro-Palestinian protest. The reed hand symbol representing the Palestinians was thrust to the forefront of the political debate at the Oscar Awards Ceremony in March when several celebrities were spotted wearing a pin from Artists4Ceasefire, a group of advocates and artists calling for Israel to withdraw from Gaza, effectively leaving Hamas intact and in control of Israel’s southern border. Over 400 artists have signed a letter supporting an immediate cease-fire on Artists4Ceasefire’s website.
The Artists4Ceasefire symbol is a red hand with a black heart in the center. For Israelis, this symbol has an alarming history. In 2000, two Israelis serving in the reserves inadvertently entered Ramallah and were taken into custody by Palestinian Authority policemen. A mob of more than 1,000 Palestinian civilians surrounded the PA police station. The IDF immediately heard about the incident. It was decided that a rescue operation would inflict too many Palestinian casualties, so it was not attempted. Palestinian rioters stormed the building, murdering and mutilating the bodies of both soldiers.
At this point, a Palestinian (later identified as Aziz Salha), appeared at the window, displaying his blood-soaked hands to the crowd, which erupted into cheers. The crowd clapped and cheered as one of the soldier’s bodies was then thrown out the window and stamped and beaten by the frenzied crowd. One of the two was shot and set on fire, and his head was beaten to a pulp. Soon after, the crowd dragged the two mutilated bodies to Al-Manara Square in the city center and began an impromptu victory celebration. PA police and civilians attempted to confiscate media footage of the incident, physically assaulting the media.
The Israeli government commented on the symbolism. Ofir Gendelman, an Israeli government spokesperson, wrote on Twitter, “This is what every Israeli and Palestinian thinks of when he sees a red hand: the lynching of 2 Israelis by Palestinians in 2000 in a police station.”
“The murderers drenched their hands in their victims’ blood, celebrating their murder. Don’t support that.”
“The ‘red hand pin’ is a grotesque symbol of homicidal Jew-hatred, and wearing it reflects, at best, the wearer’s stunning ignorance, or, at worst, support for the genocide of the Jewish people,” Brooke Goldstein, the executive director of the Jewish civil rights firm Lawfare Project, said in a statement to Fox News Digital about the display of the symbol at the Oscars.
“The origins of this pin… is a symbol of bloodlust” that is part of an “Islamist agenda,” Goldstein added.
“The red pins were meticulously fashioned under the guise of a ‘cease-fire,’ yet their sinister origins trace back to the grim events of 2000,” Liora Rez from the group StopAntisemitism told Fox News Digital. “Amid the glamor of Hollywood, an insidious undercurrent of antisemitic sentiment persists.”
Noa Tishby, who briefly served as Israel’s antisemitism envoy, noted on Twitter that yellow ribbon pins symbolizing solidarity with the Israelis being held hostage by Hamas were notably absent.
“If you’re calling for a ceasefire without calling for the release of the hostages, you are promoting Hamas’s agenda by questioning Israel’s right to self-defense,” Tishhby wrote.
Social media graphically noted the disturbing correlation between Aziz Salha’s red hands and the current symbol of protest.
Students at @georgetownlaw protesting against a speech by @rudy_rochman dressed like a Palestinian lynch mob – Aziz Salha in Ramallah in 2000 helped murder and mutilate 2 Israeli reservists who made a wrong turn. This red palm thing is a thing, like the KKK & burning crosses! pic.twitter.com/j88dSTWXoe
— Jewlicious
(@jewlicious) March 24, 2024
This parallel was hammered home by the pro-Palestinian crowd last month when Georgetown Law invited Rudy Rochman, an Israeli advocate, to speak at an event. Before the event, potential protesters were confronted with the disturbing connotations of their adopted symbol. Rather than choose a different symbol that did not imply murdering Jews, pro-Palestinian protesters showed up dressed as Salha, complete with blood-red palms, removing any ambiguity concerning their chants of “From the river to the sea” and “Intifada revolution.”
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