VICTOR JOECKS: How CRT leads to justifying Hamas’ terrorism

Blaming Israel for Hamas’ terrorism is the logical outgrowth of believing critical race theory. Little wonder students at many elite universities are siding with the Islamic militants.

Last weekend, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel. Reports indicated they beheaded babies. They raped women and girls. They burned civilians alive. The death toll in Israel is more than 1,300. That includes at least 27 U.S. citizens.

It shouldn’t have been hard to figure out the bad guys. Yet, students at elite universities — such as Harvard, Columbia , Georgetown and Virginia — came out in support of Hamas. Many explicitly blamed Israel for Hamas’ terrorism. So did law school students at places such as NYU, Michigan and Columbia. Sadly, there are too many examples to list them all.

Consider this letter from Harvard students, which more than 30 groups signed initially. Some have withdrawn after public backlash.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” reads the letter, which came out Oct. 8.

This is morally reprehensible. Even a 5-year-old could tell you who’s responsible for these atrocities. Yet many students at one of the country’s top universities are blaming the victim. It’s not just a matter of moral depravity. As the rest of the letter makes clear, they’re applying critical theory and its offshoot, critical race theory, to this situation.

“Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the groups write, claiming Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.

“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years. From systematized land seizures to routine airstrikes, arbitrary detentions to military checkpoints, and enforced family separations to targeted killings, Palestinians have been forced to live in a state of death, both slow and sudden.”

Set aside the many falsehoods here and think about the assumptions underlying their argument.

Two stand out. First, is the source of human evil. The Judeo-Christian tradition places it in each individual. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 reads. But CRT divides people into arbitrary racial groups — Black and white or Palestinian and Israeli. Those in the victim group are innocent, based on their “oppressed” status and regardless of their actions. Evil stems from the power structures imposed by the dominant group.

This is why the students blame Israel. Their CRT worldview doesn’t give them the capacity to blame Palestinian terrorists — even for raping girls and killing babies.

The second assumption is how people are saved from that evil. For Christians, salvation comes from believing that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for a one’s sins and calling on the name of the Lord. In CRT, salvation comes from tearing down the power structures, systems and institutions that trap those in the victim group in oppression. In this view, Hamas is doing only what is required to help those in Gaza escape supposed “Israeli violence.”

It’s a racially tinged version of the class revolution sought by Karl Marx. As a reminder, the global death toll from communism is estimated to be more than 90 million.

This explains the paradox of universities cracking down on “microaggressions” but ignoring students who defend Hamas’ barbarism. It’s worse than mere hypocrisy. These universities are indoctrinating students in these ideas when they push CRT, “diversity, equity and inclusion” and decolonization. It’s even in many K-12 schools.

Most people don’t think about the assumptions beneath their worldview, but they should. Ideas have consequences. As what’s happening on college campuses reveals, the ideas underpinning CRT are deeply immoral, wrong and dangerous.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.