The Skibidi Toilet Free Palestine Generation

Consider yourself blessed if the term “Skibi Toilet” means nothing to you. The term, which has become popular among Gen Z, but even more so among Gen Alpha, is the result of an unfortunate internet meme. If you have overheard this term and wonder what it means, all the googling and ChatGPT will be unable to help you. Urban Dictionary defines Skibi Toilet as “The work of Satan. It is the worst meme possibly conceived, if you can even consider it a meme. It is so unbelievably wretched and cretinous to where anyone over the age of 5 knows that it is terrible.” Unserious though it is, the high correlation between the use of Skibidi Toilet and Free Palestine with its various watermelon, red triangle, and Palestinian flag emojis should cause all serious people to stop everything they are doing. 

While elections across America have been showing that social media is not real life and that support for Israel is still strong, social media does create real consequences. After the October 7th attack, a Pew Poll showed one-third of 21-30-year-olds condoned Hamas’ heinous attack on Israel. Another December Harvard/Harris poll showed 67% of 18-24 year olds believing that Jews “as a class” are oppressors. A later poll found only 15% of GenZ felt “more sympathetic to Israel”, all this above 66% of millennials not knowing that the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, in which more than a million Jews were killed, even existed. 

The lack of knowledge about the Holocaust and support for Hamas have real consequences. A Brandeis survey found that 16% of non-Jewish college students are hostile to Jews, and another 15% are hostile to Israel. Unsurprisingly, four out of ten Jewish students hid their Jewish identity on campus, and 44% of students said they “rarely” or “never” identify as Jewish on campus.

So how is it that a movement that is all about the Middle East is causing such little impact in the Middle East and such a huge impact on US campuses? How are the lives of millions of American Jews so altered by the young Free Palestine movement? 

Like many dangerous populous movements, within the emptiness of its mantras lays its captivating danger. Like Skibidi toilet and other meaningless memes, the “Free Palestine” movement has put a statement in the mouths of billions, with no clear idea of what that idea means. In the words of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Ask those who call for a free Palestine if they can find it on the map if they know about Iran’s proxy warfare or about the politics of the Muslim Brotherhood, and they will most likely not know. It doesn’t matter. The moment they are powered by that mantra, anything can happen. Anything is normalized. 

Sitting with a brilliant Holocaust survivor who was a close friend of the late Elie Weisel, I was saddened to hear that, like during the time of his childhood, there are too many people today who would kill a little Jewish child, as long as one of their mantras ran in their heads. In the eyes of members of the free Palestine populist movement, as long as the magic words “colonizer,” “resistance,” and “free Palestine” are uttered, everything is possible. To its followers, the use of any of these words permits just about everything that follows. Facts or not facts, this is their reality. The Free Palestine movement has become a license for the worst behaviors college campuses have seen in their history: abusive behavior towards blue-collar workers and members of the police, not to mention the most depraved acts of antisemites. 

In 2016, the Oxford Dictionary decided that “post-truth” would be its word of the year. Oxford’s Casper Grathwohl shared with the world that post-truth is “one of the defining words of our time”, very much due to the use of social media as a trusted news source. Eight years later, we are so desensitized to the fabrication of facts and news that we have accepted that as a reality. Had you told Mr. Grathwohl that eight years later, social media users had amplified a blood libel claiming Israel had bombed a Palestinian hospital, killing five hundred people, the world’s most prestigious newspapers would publish something so made up on their front pages, he probably would not be surprised. The Free Palestine movement is the logical conclusion of almost a decade in which truth no longer matters. There is a good reason the Free Palestine bubble finds its most devout followers on TikTok. The less need for reality, the more the Free Palestine truth can fill your heart. 

Yet just like the world of public health and financial systems, foreign policy cannot run on Skibi Toilet meaningless chants. Palestinian groups remain loyal to Iranian proxies that are a danger to the Western world, Saudi Arabia and most of the Sunni Muslim world. No matter how popular Hamas will be on TikTok, they will still never care for the Palestinians or cease using hospitals and schools, and bases for their terrorist activity. Responsible adults who value democracy, prosperity, and the future of their children must stop politely entertaining a movement driven by hate and nourished by falsehoods. It is time for society’s responsible adults to call out the bluff of the a-factual Skibi Toilet Free Palestine movement before it further endangers our national security or and further unravels the fabric of our society.