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.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I don’t give a fuck what their reasoning is, I don’t root for people that take civilian hostages.

    Or groups that #Trump supports.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Not do I root for murdering thousands of children over decades and committing crimes against humanity against millions as they’re colonised.

        • vind@lemmy.world
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          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.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        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
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          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
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            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
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              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.world
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                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
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              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.

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      “It’s about standing with the people of Gaza, and reminding the world that these are humans who deserve to live in dignity, to deserve to live free from occupation, free from colonial brutality, free from the violence that Israel constantly is constantly throwing at them,” she said.
      “Since Saturday, a little over 1,500 people have already died in Gaza, and a third of them are children. And yet that level of violence against Palestinians is very rarely discussed. Entire families have been killed.”
      Avila Chevalier said she did not regard the protest as celebrating killing but that the violence against Israelis did not happen in a vacuum.
      “No one wants violence, right? What people who are engaging in these protests are trying to get across is that this violence didn’t start five days ago, this violence started with Israeli occupation of Palestine,” she said.

      Desperate people being the victims of genocide and colonial atrocities for decades side with desperate people. More at 11.

    • Floey@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If Trumpers said you should use the toilet would you opt to shit your pants?