The Tartan

Dear Fellow Tartans,

I am writing this letter to comment on the campus climate as it relates to the Israel-Palestine conflict and broader remarks on a student’s responsibility through it all. I’d like to start with a solemn recognition of more than 15,000 lives lost in the Gaza strip and the hundreds of thousands more who are struggling to piece their lives back together according to the Gazan Health Ministry and other recognized international humanitarian organizations. There have been many events on campus as students seek to express their solidarity with either side and this has resulted in some controversy.

I’ll begin with the rally that occurred at the Walking to the Sky sculpture on Nov. 9. I was not an organizer for this rally, but I was there to make sure CMU PD and admin had a known point of contact. Despite CMU’s response to the rally on their Instagram, this rally was previously discussed with CMU PD and admin to ensure that everything was in order. However, the rally schedulers did not realize it was the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Although people were quick to attack the rally as a result, I’d like to take a moment to pause and reflect on this. On the night of Kristallnacht, Hitler’s tyrannical regime in 1938 unfairly and indiscriminately destroyed Jewish lives. Currently in Gaza, IDF soldiers are unfairly and indiscriminately destroying Palestinian lives. Both events were born of pure hate and should be undoubtedly condemned despite the decades of separation. The scene is the exact same with different actors and more advanced warfare. Surely, we all should’ve paused to consider how many times we’ve said “never again.”

Regarding this same rally, President Farnam Jahanian condemned the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The slogan is a promise of a free Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — without checkpoints, without constant surveillance, and with peaceful coexistence for all. At its inception the slogan was never a call for genocide and neither was the usage of it at the rally on Nov. 9. President Jahanian’s email categorized the slogan as genocidal rhetoric and committed to a blanket condemnation on the basis that Hamas also uses the phrase. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been used to represent the movement for years and the effort to preserve its true meaning is still a current effort. I only ask and hope that the same readiness in condemning the slogan for “genocidal rhetoric” is prevalent when condemning Israel for genocide. To me, the university’s response was disappointing and perpetuated incorrect depictions of the pro-Palestinian movement. It seems as though activism at Carnegie Mellon comes with a cost.

My questions from the previous article discussing campus climate still stand. Why does it feel like there is an exchange rate between Palestinian and Israeli lives? How many more civilians have to die before we are allowed to condemn Israel for genocide?

On the line of gatherings on campus, I’d like to address the Stronger than Hate gathering that was held on the Cut on November 16. Having a gathering to condemn anti-semitism in these times is commendable and relevant given the rise in hate across the country. However, flaunting Israeli flags and singing the Israeli national anthem while slaughter is ongoing in Palestine by the hands of Israel? There are students on this campus from Palestine who have lost dozens of family members. There are students from Lebanon, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries who know the fear of an Israeli airstrike and hold the trauma of war in their families. I continually see videos of the physical and psychological destruction happening in Gaza and it has torn open my own wounds. The organizers of the rally made a major misstep when allowing Israeli nationalism to be at the forefront. Rather than a condemnation of anti-semitism, the rally felt like an affirmation of the Palestinian genocide and I was incredibly disappointed to see it play out on our campus.

Continuing down the road of the Israel-Palestine conflict response on our campus would be negligent without taking a moment to address the posters. Evidently, everyone is having a poster problem. Our posters have been similarly torn down and defaced. According to the vandals, calling for a ceasefire is perpetuating Hamas propaganda. Aside from this, I, and many others, have received worse forms of targeted hate and slurs on this campus. I can confidently say that being called a terrorist/rapist/baby-murderer to my face leaves no room for me to doubt intentions. The raw malice my community and I have been subjected to on this campus has not been met with support events, speaker events, rallies or open administration support. We’ve just been forced to bear it without proper channels of backing. When we try to share our experiences we are either shut down, villainized or simply scared of being doxxed and harassed.

To get a better sense of this fear, we conducted a survey amongst pro-Palestinian students, who were not necessarily Arab/Muslim/MENA (Middle Eastern and North African), from which we received about 50 responses. After evaluating some survey data on how pro-Palestinian students feel on campus, we found that 80.5% of students said they felt uncomfortable talking about the conflict on campus. Further, 50% of students said they received some form of targeted hate for their beliefs. Most of the targeted hate has come in the forms of slurs and direct derogatory speech. Finally, 30.4% said they feel physically unsafe on campus. This is a huge concern because the safety of students is one of the basic guarantees of any university. The limited responses were a result of fear of doxxing/harassment/stalking.

The country has seen several lash-outs against pro-Palestinian people, beginning with doxxing and harassment to venomous rants and stabbings/shootings. The victims of the misinformation and propaganda are students and children who are targeted for simply existing or for standing up against injustice. Last month, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6 year old Palestinian boy, was stabbed after his landlord in Illinois consumed the dehumanizing rhetoric and propaganda spewed by President Biden. Last week, Stuart Seldowitz, a top Obama administrative official, was filmed harassing a halal food cart vendor in New York saying “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough.” This week, 3 students aged 20 years were shot in Vermont for speaking in Arabic and wearing the keffiyeh. Yesterday, a Muslim woman’s report of physical abuse in the NYC subway was only taken seriously after the incident went viral. The woman was called slurs and hit in the chest. In sum, Stuart Seldowitz is the perfect picture of the US’s domestic and foreign policy. His vitriolic approach to the issue perfectly frames America’s deteriorating morals in the Middle East and elsewhere. Consider this, even with billions of dollars of US aid, cutting edge warfare, top tier intelligence, why is Israel bombing hospitals, schools, graveyards, etc?

I am struggling to find other ways of impressing the magnitude of the genocide and trauma happening in Gaza right now. There is a whole generation growing up without access to fundamental human rights. Declaring this as a token issue adopted to attack colonialism is callous and inhumane. I always have and I always will stand with any community facing ethnic cleansing and mass murder. Right now, the Palestinian movement is in need of my support in the absence of it elsewhere and so I write.

Compassionately,
A (Still) Concerned Student