Confessions of a Former Pro-Palestine Activist

Video Description

Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3DmLpLi When I saw a viral video of Taryn Thomas speaking at an October 7, 2025, vigil at Stanford, I knew she was unique. That’s because only two years before, she was a part of the pro-Palestine movement on her campus. After Hamas’s attack on Israel, Thomas took part in the first encampments that appeared on campuses across the country and fully submitted to the groupthink that Hamas was a legitimate resistance group. She marched with people who wouldn’t dare associate with Zionists, and accepted an invitation to see the Nova exhibit in Los Angeles only so she could report back to her friends about the “Zionist propaganda.” But that’s not what happened. Thomas says seeing evidence of the Nova festival and what truly happened on October 7 opened her eyes. In the months that followed, she took a trip to Israel, listened to the firsthand experiences of Israelis and Palestinians, and made friends from the Jewish community on her campus. Those experiences gave Thomas the fortitude to do something truly courageous: risk her friendships, face her misconceptions, and change her mind. This is our conversation about how a well-meaning, highly educated young person can fall into a destructive movement and what it took to find her way out. I’ve covered the anti-Israel movement on college campuses since October 7, and this is one of the most moving interviews I’ve ever done. I was able to ask Thomas the questions that have been on my mind since October 7 yet could never have answered, because most members of the anti-Israel movement refused to speak to me. We speak about how the anti-Israel cause has captured so many young people, what the Jewish community fails to understand about the movement, and how we might win the information war online.