article 2 cna to Ls with youtube video
How Israel-Hamas war tests campus tolerance of speech in the US
A conflict has been waged for years on US college campuses over how to balance the right to free speech with the need to provide a space where students feel safe. The latest tension is over the Israel-Hamas war.
Pro-Palestinian sit-ins and encampments have sprung up on at least 100 campuses around the country, protesting Israel’s overwhelming military response to the surprise Hamas attack on Oct 7 that left 1,200 people dead in Israel. Some of the protests have featured antisemitic and intimidating chants and posters, and students have reported a burst of antisemitic acts on campus.
social media
Social justice activists, many of whom say they view Palestinians as an oppressed people and Israelis as the oppressors, have demonstrated in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, which was governed by Hamas before the war. Condemning the Israeli military campaign that the Hamas-run health ministry says has left more than 34,000 people dead in the Gaza Strip, they’ve called for colleges to divest from Israel.
embedded
Some rallies have featured the slogan “from the river to the sea”. The phrase refers to aspirations for a Palestinian homeland that covers the entirety of the Holy Land - which encompasses what today is Israel, the West Bank and Gaza - stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. That, officially, is the goal of Hamas, which seeks the destruction of the state of Israel and is regarded as a terrorist group by the US and European Union.
video component
This video is playing in picture-in-picture
The threatening and antisemitic features of some of the protests are fuelling a sense of dread and isolation among Jewish students. One of the leaders of the Columbia protests, Khymani James, filmed himself making inflammatory comments - including “Zionists don’t deserve to live” - during a university disciplinary hearing. He was suspended after his incendiary views went viral on social media.
