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.

  • NoIWontPickaName
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    Do you root for people stealing stealing peoples land and killing people for decades?

    • Jaysyn
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      Fuck off with your strawmanned whataboutism, terrorist symp.

      • IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
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        Your petulant reaction is entirely appropriate for someone trying to defend the indefensible.

      • NoIWontPickaName
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        Yeah! Fuck the Israeli terrorists and terrorist sympathizers!

        I am glad you stand for the freedom of Gazans against the Israeli errorists, thieves and occupiers

    • gravitas_deficiencyEnglish
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      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
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        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
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          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
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            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.

      • NoIWontPickaName
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        Fuck yes they are both in the wrong, maybe criticize both instead of giving passive carte blanche to one.

          • NoIWontPickaName
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            Look at my comments, I am very clear on where I stand Israel and hamas are both wrong and innocents are paying the price.

            • Ferrous
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              Very impressive making a take that in no way addresses the status quo, which is, and has been, extremely violent with a massive power imbalance.