“The Zionists are not Jews,” one young man told me. “We have a lot of Jews who stand with us.” (This is misleading. A 2021 Pew survey found that more than 80 percent of American Jews considered Israel “essential” or “important.”)

The marchers tended to romanticize the land of Palestine before the arrival of the Zionists in the late 1800s, portraying it as a harmonious blend of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Zionism, they insisted, was little more than “white supremacy.”

And they appeared to know little, if anything, about the ancient Jewish connection to the Holy Land—including the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem and dispersal of the Jewish community, in 70 AD; the subsequent emergence of the Jewish diaspora, six centuries before the birth of Islam; and, of course, that diaspora’s nearly 2,000-year ambition to return to Israel, which wasn’t fully realized until 1948.

[It’s well worth bookmarking this. Subramanya debunks the arguments proferred by her interview subjects here, with links to supporting facts. It could come in handy for those who get into arguments on line over this subject. Subramanya treats her subjects politely and respectfully otherwise. — Ed]