A rising junior at Stanford University on Friday threatened to "physically fight zionists on campus next year," castigating Israel in a Facebook post.
"Im gonna physically fight zionists on campus next year if someone comes at me with their 'israel is a democracy' bullshit [sic]," Hamzeh Daoud wrote, according to the Weekly Standard. "And after i abolish your ass i'll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state [sic]."
Daoud added a link to a news article about Israel's Jewish nation-state law, which Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed last week. The measure enshrines in Israeli law that Israel is the "nation-state of the Jewish people in which it actualizes its natural, religious, and historical right for self-determination."
Other Stanford undergraduates told the Standard that Daoud is an active member in Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine. One student added that Daoud "has been one of the most aggressive and prolific anti-Israel figures at Stanford."
"[Daoud] will be an RA in a dormitory next year," the student continued, "and this is unacceptable, as he could quite literally threaten the safety of the students in the dormitory."
The Standard noted that Daoud's public Facebook profile contains numerous anti-Israel video clips and anti-Israel commentary, including calls for the abolition of the state of Israel. He is currently an "innovation intern" and a "Stanford in Government Fellow" in Geneva at the United Nations' High Commission for Refugees, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Daoud later changed the word "physically" to "intellectually" in his Facebook post.
"I edited this post because i realize intellectually beating zionists is the only way to go [sic]," he added. "Physical fighting is never an answer to when trying to prove people wrong. Radical love. And a whole lot of smarts! Facts will get you hella far [sic]."
Critics of Israel's Jewish nation-state law have argued that the measure creates "Jewish supremacy" and makes non-Jews, particularly Arabs, second-class citizens. Some have even called the law a form of "apartheid." Supporters of the law note that several European democracies—such as Spain, the Baltics, and Slovenia—have adopted similar "nationhood" constitutional provisions, and that the law does nothing to infringe on the individual rights of any Israeli citizens.
With the new law, Israel still does not have any official religions, including Judaism.