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Confessions of a Former Pro-Palestine Activist
Maya Sulkin
November 19, 2025

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. READ MORE AND HEAR INTERVIEW