Hillary Clinton calls US pro-Palestinian protesters 'ignorant' of Middle East history
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"I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now. They don't know very much at all about the history of the Middle East. Or, frankly, about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country," Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, has said that students who support Palestine on college campuses throughout the country lack knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's history.
Pro-Palestinian protests have been happening on college campuses after Israel attacked Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas, but in recent weeks, the level of activity has dramatically escalated.
On Thursday, Clinton on MSNBC's Morning Joe said that the continuing protests are being driven by a lack of understanding of "the history of the Middle East," adding that young people are also ignorant of American history.
"I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now. They don't know very much at all about the history of the Middle East. Or, frankly, about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country," Clinton said.
Clinton went on to recall her husband, former president Bill Clinton, trying to mediate a "two-state solution" agreement between the Israeli government and the then-dominant Palestinian Authority during the 2000 Camp David Summit.
The former first lady referred to the non-agreement of former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat as "one of the great tragedies of history" and emphasised that a Palestinian state would have been in place for many years had an agreement been achieved.
Clinton stated that Arafat "wanted" to sign the pact but was "pretty sure he'd be killed" by Hamas militants, citing the assassinations of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as examples of extremists pursuing peace.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict's historical settlement efforts were described by the former secretary of state as "a very important piece of history to comprehend if you're going to take any kind of position concerning what's going on right now."
Clinton said that pro-Hamas "propaganda" on social media and in the classroom may have tricked college demonstrators, adding that young people are receiving material that frequently has a hidden "agenda" or are without "any kind of context."
"Propaganda is not education. Propaganda, whether it's on TikTok or in the classroom, is actually the opposite of education. Anybody who is teaching in a university, or anyone who is putting content on social media, should be held responsible for what they include and what they exclude," Clinton said.
"So much of what we're seeing—particularly on TikTok—about what's going on in the Middle East, is woefully false. But it's also incredibly slanted: pro-Hamas, anti-Israel. And it is not any place where anyone should go to get information on complex manners, like what's going on there," she added.
(With inputs from agencies)