New York University School of Law was among colleges at the center of a debate Tuesday over how to respond to the attacks in Israel.
Ben Margot/AP
Stanford University is also under fire for refusing to denounce the banners celebrating the bombardments.
Members of Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine’s leadership wrote an op-ed Tuesday arguing that Palestinians have a legal right to resist occupation. Several California chapters of the pro-Palestinian group signed onto a statement saying Hamas’ attack “now stands as a revolutionary moment in contemporary Palestinian resistance.”
Multiple banners hung around campus over the weekend, according to the paper, reading “The Illusion of Israel is Burning,” and “The Land Remembers Her People.” They’ve since been taken down.
Pro-Palestinian students at CSU Long Beach planned a rally Tuesday afternoon, writing in an Instagram post announcing the plans, titled “From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S. War Machine.”
California offices of the Anti-Defamation League were tracking and condemned the student rallies and statements at Stanford, UC Berkeley and CSU Long Beach.
“It is painful to see the glorification of violence by these misguided student groups,” Central Pacific Office regional director Marc Levine, a former Democratic Assemblymember, said.
At Georgetown University, Law Students for Justice in Palestine also reaffirmed their “support and full solidarity” with Palestinians after the university’s president, John DeGioia, referred to the offensive as “an unprecedented terrorist act.”
Other groups had a more measured response. The student bar association at Fordham University’s law school criticized all acts of violence against innocent civilians and acknowledged Israeli, Palestinian and American casualties.
“Acknowledging that Israeli-Palestinian conflict often ignites both antisemitism and Islamophobia, we ask that you keep the severity and immediacy of these events in mind over the coming days and weeks, and treat one another with care, respect and kindness as we navigate difficult and sensitive conversations,” Fordham’s student board wrote.
Blake Jones contributed to this report.