Israel war: College groups plot ‘Day of Resistance’ and justify Hamas attacks as liberation

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The Hamas attacks against Israel have prompted several pro-Palestinian student groups at U.S. colleges to organize in support of the terrorism, claiming the mass killing of Israelis was justified.

The attacks, which began over the weekend, have claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people on both sides, and Israel has responded by launching a military incursion into the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

ISRAEL WAR: HAMAS TERRORIST ATTACK PUT DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT FOR ALLY TO THE TEST

The campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine have released several statements supporting the violence, with some calling it a necessary response to Israeli colonial occupation that should be celebrated.

At Harvard University, a coalition of student groups said the “Israeli regime [is] entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” prompting the university’s president, Claudine Gay, to say, “No student group, not even 30 student groups, speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”

“As the events of recent days continue to reverberate, let there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas,” Gay said. “Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of long-standing conflicts in the region.”

At Columbia University, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter released a statement that called the attacks a “historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza, who tore through the wall that has been suffocating them in one of the most densely-populated areas on Earth for the past 16 years — an open-air prison blockaded by Israeli soldiers via land, air, and sea.”

Israel Palestinians US Reactions
Pro-Palestinian protesters assemble on 42nd Street in New York City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.


At the University of California, Berkeley, the group Bears for Palestine, an affiliate of Students For Justice in Palestine, released a statement that said they “support the resistance … support the liberation movement … and indisputably support the uprising.”

The University of Virginia chapter of the Palestinian group issued a similar statement that said the group “supports Palestinian liberation and the right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary.”

The national office of the organization has announced a Thursday “Day of Resistance” at several college campuses. The Anti-Defamation League said events are so far planned at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Butler University, the University of Louisville, the University of Binghamton, and the University of Virginia.

“Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” the organization says in a publicly available toolkit. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization.”

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The planned Day of Resistance was condemned by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, and Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), chairman of the subcommittee on higher education.

“While it is the right of all Americans — including students — to speak, it is also the right and duty of all leaders to speak loudly in response to evil rearing its head,” the lawmakers said. “Too many colleges require lock-step discipleship behind woke policies and politics. Sadly, the university system has been captured by anti-American and illiberal ideology that is developing and feeding a hatred of Jews.”

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