The war between Palestinians and Israelis has ignited a firestorm of responses as people take sides on this contentious issue. While there is near-unanimous condemnation for the violence perpetrated against civilians by Hamas, there are others who point the finger at the long-standing Israeli occupation of Gaza as the match that lit the fuse.
Hamas’ attack is extensively condemned as an act of terrorism, yet in what is a surprising development, posters on comment boards are engaged in a war of words about who carries the ultimate blame for the violence that has exploded.
An open letter, authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, stated that students “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”. It was co-signed by 33 student groups.
“Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum,” the statement said.
“The apartheid regime is the only one to blame. Israeli violence has structured every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years,” the letter added.
The student statement, posted on Saturday, was swiftly disavowed by some professors as well as former Harvard president Larry Summers, who wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was “sickened” by it.
“The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” the former US treasury secretary said.
Harvard University issued its own letter on Monday that did not however, directly address the controversy, but instead said university leaders were “heartbroken” by “the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend, and by the war in Israel and Gaza now under way”.
In another statement issued later on Tuesday, the university’s president, Claudine Gay, clarified that the school “condemn[ed] the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas”.
Yet she too wrapped the sentiment in ambiguous words: “Such inhumanity is abhorrent, whatever one’s individual views of the origins of longstanding conflicts in the region,” she said.
She added that while students had the right to “speak for themselves”, none had the right to speak on behalf of Harvard.
The groups that signed onto the letter – which called on Harvard to “stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians” – included the Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine, the Harvard Jews for Liberation and the Harvard South Asian Law Students Association.
In a post on Instagram, the author of the statement, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, said its account had been temporarily suspended after posting the letter and called the move “a recurring pattern of Meta’s censorship of pro-Palestine messaging”.
This did not stop users on comment boards from weighing in to support one side or the other.
A sampling drawn from Yahoo, which generates thousands of Comments, shows a range of sentiment, yet there is an unexpectedly large proportion of comments sympathizing with the Palestinians’ plight and what they have endured under Israeli occupation; though the comments also received a fair number of downvotes.
A small number try to look at a more nuanced picture, noting that Israel has repeatedly made overtures that the Palestinians have spurned.
And still others, though a remarkably small number, place the entire blame on Hamas, call for its complete destruction, and decry the liberals who support Palestinians.
Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, has expressed deep concern for the people in Gaza who will bear the brunt of the Israeli retaliation.
“I am deeply distressed by today’s announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, nothing allowed in — no electricity, food, or fuel,” he said. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza was extremely dire before these hostilities. Now, it will only deteriorate exponentially,” Guterres said.
Separately, the World Health Organization said that a 16-year-blockade of Gaza had already left its medical system under-resourced, and the increased hostilities are “compounding an already dire situation.” It also noted that Israel controls most water resources in the Palestinian territories, in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions. Additionally, that the humanitarian situation “continues to deteriorate” in Gaza and Israel’s announcement of a complete “siege” of the area “represents a grave violation of international law.”
And after Israeli retaliatory air strikes against the Hamas militant group struck residential buildings and schools across the Gaza Strip, U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Turk said that “sieges” were illegal under international law.
However, Turk also condemned “horrifying mass killings by members of Palestinian armed groups” and said the militants’ abduction of hostages was also forbidden under international law.
The one thing that all respondents, whether expressing themselves on Comment boards or in official settings can agree on, is that there is sadly, enough blame to go around on all sides.
