Palestine activist turned pro-Israel after meeting October 7 survivors: 'Everything I've ever spoken felt fraudulent'

A student who led a pro-Palestine university encampment has since switched her stance on the conflict after meeting with survivors of the October 7 massacre.

Taryn Thomas, 21, who studies at Stanford University, attended the Nova Exhibition, which documents the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival.

Speaking to GB News, Ms Thomas said: "Everything I've ever spoken felt just fraudulent. The distance that Stanford provides, we never had to get close to the bloodshed and see it in front of us. I realised how gruesome it was.

"I saw half-written goodbye messages and last I love yous to parents, and saw kids my age dancing and fleeing for their lives. I couldn't understand what I was seeing."

She recalled becoming engaged with the Black Lives Matter movement at 16, which she described as her first encounter with the Palestinian movement.

She recalled: "This was my first introduction to Palestine, because I remember seeing Palestinian flags blown at Black Lives Matter protests."

From there, she became exposed to social media algorithms, which shaped the content she was seeing.

Following the October 7 attacks, anti-Israel propaganda and support for Hamas were pushed to the young activist, shaping her perception of the Middle Eastern conflict.

The Stanford student also claimed that the prestigious institution was holding a "stop the genocide" encampment a week before any Israeli soldiers had even entered Gaza.

Due to her perceptions, Ms Thomas decided to visit the Nova Exhibition in October 2024, where she intended to expose the "propaganda".

She told the People's Channel: "I didn't come with an open mind, I came looking for propaganda."

Ms Thomas then added: "But there is no propaganda in a classroom message from a dying girl."

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The student highlighted an audio recording of a Hamas attacker celebrating having killed ten Jews with his bare hands, followed by his father offering congratulations, as a major turning point in her position changing.

She said: "This was who we were calling the resistance. We always said we were anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic, but he was saying he killed Jews with his hands."

Following her visit, the now 21-year-old described losing every friend she had made at University.

Ms Thomas said: "To question or to bring nuance was to lose your whole social circle."

The 21-year-old added: "I didn't even necessarily have a political stance. None of this is political - this exhibit and their stories are none of it's political. It was just trying to share with them what I seen and what I heard."

She added: "I want people to go talk to them and listen to their stories of antisemitism."

Ms Thomas criticised elite universities for failing to challenge their students on critical thinkinhg.

She said: "The most dangerous graduate is just the one that's never been able to question own beliefs. They're going to be our next politicians, they're going to be our next leaders, and unfortunately we need to have people be able to go against the grain."

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