Shortly after 7 October, my university had its first protest. I only saw it announced chalked on sidewalks around campus that morning. Seemingly zero org affiliation or announcements on the local leftist/university social media accounts. A fairly conservative university with a small DSA chapter and nothing else. The Anti-Zionist side had around 100 students. The Zionist side, with multiple Jewish orgs on campus that are always doing religious events without any issue, gathered 5-6 people. At least two of them were wearing shirts from some birthright trip org. I've seen one Israeli flag in a city that was full of Ukrainian flags, and that might have been taken down by now. Meanwhile "Free Palestine" and Palestinian flag stickers show up everywhere and the protests seem to be coalescing around regional orgs while growing. Even at the Aaron Bushnell vigil right after the self-immolation, there was not a single counter-protestor the whole event while 50-100 Anti-Zionists were there throughout the evening.
If there's any local support for Israel, people don't show it or show up for it. We don't seem to have a tent protest yet so I'm not sure what the general right wing counterprotest will look like, but they couldn't amass 1/10th of the size right after their millionty-billion 9/11 when the worst atrocity porn was taken as fact.
Shortly after 7 October, my university had its first protest. I only saw it announced chalked on sidewalks around campus that morning. Seemingly zero org affiliation or announcements on the local leftist/university social media accounts. A fairly conservative university with a small DSA chapter and nothing else. The Anti-Zionist side had around 100 students. The Zionist side, with multiple Jewish orgs on campus that are always doing religious events without any issue, gathered 5-6 people. At least two of them were wearing shirts from some birthright trip org. I've seen one Israeli flag in a city that was full of Ukrainian flags, and that might have been taken down by now. Meanwhile "Free Palestine" and Palestinian flag stickers show up everywhere and the protests seem to be coalescing around regional orgs while growing. Even at the Aaron Bushnell vigil right after the self-immolation, there was not a single counter-protestor the whole event while 50-100 Anti-Zionists were there throughout the evening.
If there's any local support for Israel, people don't show it or show up for it. We don't seem to have a tent protest yet so I'm not sure what the general right wing counterprotest will look like, but they couldn't amass 1/10th of the size right after their millionty-billion 9/11 when the worst atrocity porn was taken as fact.
It is nice to think this but cynically I think zionists know they don't have to waste their time showing up. We will see how that pans out though.