A few days ago, I spoke on a panel in Heidelberg, Germany. The event was about how to reduce the violence Palestinians are living through and how to deal with the injustices we continue to face. I came with other Palestinians who live in Palestine and took the time to come to Germany for it. Instead of listening, a group of students from the Pro-palestine movement at Heidelberg University showed up to shut us down. Before the panel even started, they handed out fake flyers that looked like our event materials. But instead of our message, the flyers urged people to boycott the event. Then the same students came in and tried to derail the discussion. During the Q&A, they accused me of being a “Zionist” and a “collaborator,” throwing around labels based on whether I fit their checklist. Then they walked out and started protesting outside. In the past, our cause was hijacked by Pan-Arabism. Palestine became a symbol for Arab regimes, but actual Palestinians were ignored or used. Now, something similar is happening again; this time, it’s coming from a different direction. Today, we’re being hijacked by what I’d call Pan-Leftism. These ideas spread across Western activist spaces over time but, during the Obama & Biden years, went mainstream. Obama may not have invented these ideas, but his administration helped make them dominant through global NGO networks, academic partnerships, and media coverage. Now, huge parts of the Western left, along with their local followers, push two fixed demands on Palestinians: full boycott of anything connected to Israel, academic, cultural, and economic, and full support for armed resistance. These may not always be mainstream ideas. They became that during and after the Obama years. And now if you question them, you're accused of betrayal. You’re told you’re not a “real” Palestinian. That’s what happened in Heidelberg. A group of university students, who live in comfort and security, thought they knew better than Palestinians actually living there. But here’s the truth: we’ve tried armed resistance for decades. Morally, it’s been used by some militias to attack and massacre civilians. Strategically, it’s failed. It has brought more destruction, more loss, and no real gains. We are the ones who live through this. And when we try to speak honestly about it, when we look for alternatives that might reduce suffering, we are shouted down, not by our "enemies," but by people claiming to be on our side.