The Israel-Palestine issue has stirred up top university campuses in the United States in the wake of attacks by Hamas on Israel and Tel Aviv’s counter attack in the Gaza Strip. The campuses witnesses bitter divide as administrators came at odds with far-left student groups that were pushing a pro-Palestinian narrative.
Over 2,000 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed so far since the Saturday surprise attacks by Hamas on Israel.
What started on campus email lists and in student papers ended up involving members of Congress from both parties, the Republican Senator Ted Cruz and professor-turned-left wing presidential candidate Cornel West.
Messages by college presidents calling for calm and compassion have been met by fierce condemnation by student associations that took Israel to task over its control of the region. While comments by pro-Palestinian students have caused an uproar amid political leaders on the left and the right. Top US colleges like Harvard, Stanford, and Georgetown were caught up in the maelstrom.
The president of the student bar association at New York University School of Law was one such student leader which drew rebuke after he wrote to “not condemn Palestinian resistance” in the association’s newsletter, reported POLITICO.
“This week, I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination,” Ryna Workman wrote in a newsletter message. “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.”
Hitting back at Ryna, Rep. Ritchie Torres said, “If you are speaking to an Israeli mother whose child has been beheaded, I cannot think of anything more callous and cruel than telling a grieving mother: you had it coming.”
The president also drew ire from Jewish students and alumni who said they will take action while the university officials distanced themselves from the communiqué.
Ryna also lost a job offer at Winston & Strawn, a law firm, over the comments.
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