Much discourse on college campuses centers on identity politics—the idea that one’s identity, or the way one identifies, deserves attention and respect more than classical ideals of the academy. Instead of discussing philosophy, ethics, or what it means to live a good and moral life, students, egged on by their professors, engage in conversations about marginalization and who stands as the most oppressed.
The fact that this conversation has escalated in this direction over the course of the last few years has drastic consequences not only for students, who become deprived of the opportunity to seek the truth and practice virtuous citizenship, but also for larger nationwide discourses that are informed and driven by what students discuss on college campus, and by how they choose to engage in politics, or what they define as politics.
One of the clearest beneficiaries of the rise of identity politics has been the idea of Palestinian national identity. Although no sovereign nation called Palestine existed before the past century—the term historically referred only to a region—and although it remains unrecognized by the one nation whose recognition would matter most, Israel, Palestinians and their supporters continue to promote the myth of a long-standing nation of “Palestine.”
Still more damaging, anti-Zionists, including many anti-Zionist students, believe in and spread the unsubstantiated notion that Palestinians are the “native” or “indigenous” inhabitants of the land of Israel. This is, of course, historically inaccurate, as the Palestinian people were created as a refugee populace in the 1948 War of Independence when Arab nations told the Arab inhabitants of Israel to leave so that they could destroy the Jews, giving these inhabitants assurances that they would regain the land once this was done. This, much to the chagrin of the Arab nations and Arab inhabitants, did not happen, and Israel was able to defend the political claim it had to the land through the Balfour Declaration.
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The idea that Palestinians are the native inhabitants of Israel is a fiction. The presence of several or even many generations of Arab residents on the land does not make them indigenous people, any more than the descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1619 are the indigenous people of North America. In both cases, descendants of a founding immigrant group gained a sense of ownership, but that sense doesn’t magically transform them into “indigenous people.” The world is more complicated than that. The Jewish people are not “indigenous” to Palestine either, but their continuous presence on this land dates to at least 3,000 years ago.
What transforms contemporary Palestinians into a supposedly cohesive indigenous people is a kind of “ethnogenesis” conjured by identity politics. The historically unmoored nature of this identity is vividly displayed in a post by a Columbia University graduate who observed, “Christ was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, a Muslim majority country.” However, it would create serious issues for the Palestinians and those who support them if they were not construed as the native inhabitants of Israel. They would not be able to align themselves with the historical struggle of any other actually native peoples, such as Native Americans, Aboriginals, or Indigenous Indians. Their entire framework for resistance would collapse because their claim to the land and their position as unjustly oppressed under the Israeli oppressors would be undermined. Therefore, they must deny history and tangible evidence in order to perpetuate their spurious identity.
Another beneficiary of modern identity politics is the trans movement.
While trans people make up only a minuscule percentage of the population—though this amount has quintupled among 18-24 year olds in less than a decade—the trans movement has exerted considerable influence in the medical and social spheres, even prompting one study published by the National Institute of Health to portray social transitioning in children as young as seven in a positive light. This ideological driver acts to the detriment of children, as some research has shown that 67 percent of children end up desisting from their trans identity upon reaching adulthood, choosing instead to live as gay adults.
The promotion of an individual’s trans identity also seems to take precedence over actual health or even the continuance of life, as the side effects for hormone therapy include stroke, cardiovascular issues, and infertility.
In a similar way to how the Palestinian people and those who support them propagate a false identity by denying history, transgender people promote their own category of identification by denying biological science. As I argued in an earlier paper, transgender people suffer from a severe kind of body dysmorphia. They would benefit more from therapy to address that mental illness than surgery or drugs to disfigure their perfectly healthy bodies.
Yet, trans people are constantly affirmed in their delusion. Instead of questioning whether trans people’s feelings about gender align with biological reality, doctors often affirm the delusion, mutilating healthy bodies and deepening the denial of science.
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These two types of denial, historical denial for Palestinians and anti-Zionists, and scientific denial for transgender people and those who support them, strengthen identity politics generally by negating the need for truth claims to actually contain truth. In both cases, the feelings of the individuals involved take predominance over reality and what would be better for the academic and human community.
But in the case of Palestinians, and sometimes in the case of those who are transgender, when they are denied their supposed right to their fabricated identity, they resort to violence.
It is not surprising that the first and second intifadas, as well as Oct 7, have become capstones in the Palestinian resistance movement. Nor is it surprising that people fear violence from those who are transgender. People who cannot use their words use their hands.
And when words will not supply the truth, and others can see through the falsity, the victims may become the aggressors.
Cover designed by Jared Gould using the Flag of Palestine and the Transgender Pride Flag, both on Wikimedia Commons.
