US campuses in uproar as Israel-Palestine conflict exposes divide
Tensions spill across universities like Columbia and Harvard as students on each side accuse the other of a kind of bloodlust
To one side, Columbia students stood silently, wrapped in the blue and white of Israel as they gripped pictures of the murdered and abducted. Across the grass and brick divide, a slightly larger cohort of students chanted “Free, free Palestine.”
The faultline between the two ran along the claim by each that the other was pursuing a kind of bloodlust – a charge that has divided university campuses across America in the wake of the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli communities and Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza.
Reactions within US universities to the killing of at least 1,300 Israelis and the abduction of about 100 more have swung from celebration of the Hamas assault as a legitimate act of resistance to occupation to condemnation along with a demand that it not be used to ignore the deaths of Palestinians killed in Israel’s retaliation on Gaza.
You know that only Israel can stop the violence, right? If Palestine stops fighting, Israel continues the violence until they are eliminated. If Israel stops, then Palestine doesn't have to fight back. It's really very simple.
I have to disagree. If this was like the Russia Ukraine situation and one side was destroying and killing people in the other while the other was just defending their country then yes. If Russia stopped today, the war would be over as Ukraine has no history and is not attacking Russia or its people.
In the Israel / Palestine situation they are both attaching each others countries and people and have been doing so for years so if only one side stops, they will be in the same situation Ukraine is in with another still attacking them. Both sides need to stop if this is to end and I had hoped the smart people at Universities would have supported this versus taking a side.
I would take a side if only one was attacking but both are and have been doing so for a long time. I know it is all much more complicated than that,but it really does not have to be. If both sides stopped today, I mean really stopped and let each other just be, it would finally be over. If only one side stops, it will be another Russia / Ukraine Situation which is barely better.
It is easy to destroy, but really solves nothing and worse fosters hate and more destruction.
The worst part about your comment, is that I see the exact same comment but flipped in that it would all stop if Palestine stopped the violence. If both sides feel this way, then both sides are entrenched and committed to more of the same. Unfortunate as I hate seeing the destruction and deaths on both sides including children. Can we please just stop it.
Like in Ukraine, it is not enough for one side to stop the violence, they must also reverse the occupation.
Reversing the occupation would be wonderful for the Palestinians people- unless Hamas take over, since their charter explicitly states that they want to establish an Islamic State in Palestine, which would also oppress the Palestinian people. Which is why both Israel and Hamas must be denounced for the sake of the Palestinian people.
Absolutely. Likewise corruption and social issues in Ukraine must be denounced, although in denouncing aspects of both sides, it must not be implied that the current situation is created equally by the actions of both sides.
I'm sorry, but that is not in any way the same thing. I'm not in favor of corruption in any country, but you're not talking about two different types of severe oppression there.
I agree, the problematic issues within Ukraine are trivial compared to the problems with the way Russia or Hamas operate. However, it's also the case that the actions of Hamas are not comparable to the actions of the Israeli state, most especially in the long term.
Both sides in any conflict must be held to account for their actions or inactions, but in doing so care must be taken not to suggest that both sides are equally the orchestrators of the situation.