Are indigenous land statements a green light for terrorism?

Indigenous land statements, acknowledgment of peoples who lived on the land in centuries past, first became popular in Australia three decades ago as a way to push back upon the conceit that Australia was “territory without a master” prior to its colonization. Such statements have since spread to Canada and grow increasingly popular on U.S. university campuses. Harvard University, where students rally in support of Hamas and against Israel’s supposed “settler-colonialism,” has one. So does Columbia University, whose faculty members justify Hamas terrorism against the Jewish state. Cornell University, whose Jewish students today face death threats, adopted a land acknowledgment in 2021.