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‘Distressing’: ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Suggest Backlash To College Protests Is ‘Far-Right’ And Media Ploy

'Distressing': 'The View' Co-Hosts Suggest Backlash To College Protests Is 'Far-Right' And Media Ploy

Two co-hosts on “The View” on Monday suggested that the backlash to anti-Israel protests on college campuses stems from right-wing and media manipulation.

Anti-Israel protests have spread across college campuses throughout the United States, including Columbia University, with encampments springing up that have blocked students from attending classes and clashes with law enforcement ensuing. “The View” co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg responded to the pushback on these disruptive, and in many cases, antisemitic protests by accusing “far-right” entities and the media of shaping public perception.

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“I think these are anti-war protests, and I think it’s very distressing that we are framing these as pro-Palestinian protests or pro-Israeli protests,” Hostin said. “These are anti-war protests … the students are telling me, this is a humanitarian crisis. What we also don’t talk enough about is the fact that 35,000, mainly women and children that are Palestinians, have been murdered. What we also don’t talk about, I think enough, is that for some reason the discussion of against Israel’s policies which the U.N. has called war crimes, which the international criminal court is investigating as war crimes, what we don’t say is these are people. These are civilians, and we must protect them. Even President Biden at this point has said, you have gone too far.”

“So it has never been in my life, in my career, that criticizing policies of government is equated with antisemitism, and that, I think, is a far-right, comes from the far-right,” Hostin added. “It comes from the authoritarian leanings, where they don’t want students on these campuses to voice their opinions because they want to change the narrative going forward, and I think we have to be very, very careful about that.”

Law enforcement began breaking up a pro-Palestine protest encampment on the Northeastern University campus on Saturday after people heard shouts of “kill the Jews” and other antisemitic slurs on Friday night, according to the university in a Saturday X post.

“I’m sorry. I do have to do this,” Goldberg said. “It is one of the great rights as an American to stand up and say something’s wrong. Regardless of what your color is, if you’re a woman, man, it doesn’t matter, and we must teach our people how to be on the lookout. Part of our problem is the media takes what is the best clickbait. So you see the same posters or you see the same people, but you don’t see the folks who are doing peaceful stuff and saying, here’s what we want to do.”

“I would caution the media to be very careful about what they’re doing, and how they’re handling this because what they seem to be doing is pushing a narrative that people are pushing against, which students are pushing against, which I’m thrilled to see because I like when students get mad and say we want a change made,” Goldberg added.