I was out for a walk with my partner yesterday evening. It was unseasonably balmy for Christmas Eve. I had to unzip my coat. It was also unusual for other reasons. Many more shops and restaurants were open than one would normally expect. There are always a few, but it seemed to be more than usual. Most striking, though, is that the theme of the evening seemed to have little to do with Christmas or Christianity, and more preoccupied with the current conflict occurring in the birthplace of Christ, between two non-Christian religious groups.

We were walking along a newly built stretch of the East River Esplanade, one of my favorite walkways in the City. Beneath the walkway flows Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive (FDR Drive), which is the highway that runs up and down the east coast of Manhattan, which, along with the usual traffic noises, suddenly became extra animated with honking and music blaring from megaphones coming out of a passing motorcade. We were seeing the tail end of what was a city-wide pro-Palestinian demonstration mounted on a caravan of motor vehicles. There have been reports of the caravan charging through spots where traditional Christmas events were taking place, like the Carolers in Washington Square Park, and blasting protest music and chants.

Pro-Palestine activists in the city have held demonstrations and marches at many key annual events since the start of the most recent Israel-Palestine conflict. Halloween, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center, Hanukkah celebrations in Times Square, have all been high-profile, high-participation public events that are usually apolitical, but have been visited this year by the Israeli-Palestinian question. And pro-Palestine demonstrators, in a nationwide organizing effort called “shut it down for Palestine,” have been very visible. Part of that effort was to say “No Christmas as Usual.”

The United States is famous for its free-speech culture. Political demonstrations, even highly contentious ones, are common and considered a basic human right. However, an attorney and free speech advocate I know is among those who have expressed concern that the “shutting it down” aspect of this movement is starting to interfere with the rights of others to have peaceful events of their own. Of course, the comfort-level that ordinary citizens feel for certain types of demonstrations vary, depending on the message they hear. The Charlottesville rally of 2017, which turned violent, made people anxious even before it turned violent. White nationalist and anti-Semitic rhetoric of that rally was disturbing to many Americans. Similarly, many Americans are wary when they hear things like “globalize the intifada” because of the historical associations the word “intifada” has had in violent movements, even if the word actually does not have such connotations, as proponents of the slogan have pointed out. Likewise, when people hear “from the river to the sea” they take it as literally calling for Israel to cease to exist. They hear “by any means necessary” and are alarmed because it certainly sounds ruthless, whatever the actual intent may or may not be.

Also, a lot of Middle Eastern politics, just in general, have been an uncomfortable and confusing topic for many Americans. Often these involve ancient rivalries Americans find it hard to wrap their head around. After all, the original enemy of the US was Britain, now its oldest and most trusted ally. Even Germany and Japan, against whom they fought in WW2, the bloodiest of all wars in history, are staunch allies against whom armed conflict would be unthinkable. So, most Americans don’t have a visceral sense of the conflicts in places like the Middle East. Sometimes they even take up the causes without really understanding the meaning. Someone shared a clip on social media a few weeks ago, showing some young Americans shouting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” but were unable to name the river or the sea, when asked. After September 11, 2001, many were quick to jump on the bandwagon to support the war in Iraq, which turned out to have had nothing to do with the attacks.

This year, despite Israel being the US ally in a major conflict, a surprising number of young people have taken up the Palestinian cause. And not just Americans, actual Palestinian immigrants, as well as other Arab immigrants have been openly demonstrating. This is a very different phenomenon from what we saw right after the September 11 attacks, when Arabs and Arab Americans were more on the defensive, and eager to distance themselves from anything that might be construed, rightly or wrongly, as favoring any militant Islamic movement. While many Islamic states have friendly relations with the United States, regimes around the world that have had revolutions in the name of Islam have generally been anti-American, including Hamas, which is the current regime in power in Gaza, the part of Palestine whose “freedom” the demonstrators are calling for. Given this history, the current developments are definitely a new turn in American political culture.