Tensions spill across universities like Columbia and Harvard as students on each side accuse the other of a kind of bloodlust

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.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      813·
      1 year ago

      No.

      But that in no way justifies killing a thousand or so people, injuring several thousand more, and kidnapping and threatening to execute hundreds (including children) in an orgy of violence. Both sides are in the wrong here.

      • vind@lemmy.world
        262·
        1 year ago

        You can support the Palestinians and their right to end occupation and not support Hamas. You can be an advocate of Palestinians’ rights and not endorse Hezbollah or Iran’s regime. You can be pro-Palestinian without being anti-semitic. You can support Ukraine’s sovereignty and decry Israel’s human rights abuses. You can condemn terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians and still believe in one’s right to resist.

        These stances are not mutually exclusive.

        End the genocide of Palestinians.

        • skozzii@lemmy.ca
          112·
          1 year ago

          I agree, this is the part I don’t understand. Why do people want to force others to pick a side? They are both wrong and treat each other horribly. Cant we condemn both? Civilian death is completely unnecessary for both sides. Just lay down all the weapons and end apartheid.

          The problem is you have two right wing governments that only know violence. The civilians are the victims.

          • remus989@sh.itjust.works
            111·
            1 year ago

            I’ll tin foil hat for a second. It really feels like there’s a coordinated effort to push this as a really divisive event where you either completely support Israel or you’re a monster. Is that actually happening? Probably not, but it sure does feel that way.

            • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              1 year ago

              You’re not wrong: that’s what propaganda is all about. If you keep people angry, they are not going to be thinking critically or using higher cognitive skills – and they’re also not going to much notice or care that the rights they want taken from others are also being stripped from themselves.

              That is absolutely what is happening, and exactly why I do not watch video news, and why I select my written news very, very carefully. Even WaPo is taking an obvious pro-Israel side. So far I go with BBC News and a select few others that seem to be able to report without obvious calls to emotional response.

          • Ferrous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            74·
            1 year ago

            Because American and western politics are obsessed with explaining the world in terms of good vs bad instead of material conditions. Liberalism has rotted the brains of the western populace such that all events are viewed through the lens of marvel movies. Le epic wholesome Israel Captain America vs evil Thanos Hamas.