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Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The Israel-Hamas war has provoked large-scale divisions on U.S. college campuses, where students lining up behind Israel and Palestine call on their universities for support of their views -- and in some cases to condemn the other side. Dueling demonstrations have veered into accusations of hate speech, with students on both sides saying they feel unsupported, or even unsafe walking around campus.
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The situation has left administrators walking a fine line between maintaining the academic freedom of giving space to diverse viewpoints and keeping students from harm, while facing public pressure to stake a position.
Scholars say universities risk their moral authority when they take sides, as some have learned since the war started with Hamas' invasion of Israel on Oct. 7.
"Universities should just stay quiet and as neutral as possible," Steve Sanders, associate dean of academic affairs at Indiana University, told UPI. "Faculty and scholars -- those are the people who can stay engaged."
Indiana faculty have worked to emphasize the humanity of the situation.
"We are conditioned to think in tribal terms. A much more healthy way to look at this is from a humanistic perspective," said Abdulkader Sinno, an associate professor of political science who is of Muslim heritage. "Those who see the humanity in each other come from all groups. They are natural allies of each other."
Turmoil at Cornell
On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Cornell student Amanda Silberstein, a board member of Chabad Cornell, testified to the House Judiciary Committee about anti-Semitic incidents on campus in the wake of the war. She described feeling intimidated and unsafe as posters of Hamas captives have been defaced and threats have been made against the campus' Jewish community.
On Oct. 31, Cornell student Patrick Dai, 21, was arrested, accused of threatening to shoot up the campus' kosher dining hall and kill Jewish students.
"I have seen and heard things on and around Cornell's campus that just over a month ago I could not have imagined," Silberstein said.
Silberstein alleged that professors have pressured students who have expressed sympathy for Israel to change their points of view. In one instance, a professor made students feel "probed" and concerned about their grades for their views on the conflict.
Another incident caused backlash against a professor. On Oct. 15, speaking at a pro-Palestine rally, history Professor Russell Rickford described the attack by Hamas as "exhilarating" and "energizing." He added that it was a "challenge to the monopoly of violence" and a shift in the balance of power.
Silberstein said Rickford's comments have fueled animosity and incited violence on campus. Rickford apologized for the comments, adding that he does not support violence or the targeting of civilians. He has been put on leave by the university as it reviews the incident.
Cornell President Martha Pollack said during a faculty senate meeting Wednesday that the university should not ban speech like Rickford's, even if it is "deeply offensive or hateful." Instead, the university and individuals should respond to such statements by supporting those affected and delivering counter statements.
However, Pollack warned that the university should deliver counter statements "only rarely, in cases where the speech is truly egregious."
"I've been very concerned with a growing chorus of voices calling for universities to step back from their fundamental commitment to free speech in light of recent events," Pollack said. "This manifests itself in calls to ban hate speech. There is, of course, no such legal category."
Free speech 'chilled'
State universities like Indiana are not allowed to engage in viewpoint discrimination. This means that groups must be allowed to reserve space to hold demonstrations, whether they are supportive of Israel or Palestine.
However, outside pressure has pushed many universities to release statements showing support for Israel, condemnation of Hamas or equal sympathy for all affected.
After the Hamas attack, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten released a statement expressing "empathy and compassion" for those affected. She said the university had counseling and support services available for students, faculty and staff who need them. She did not mention Israel or Palestine directly.
She was lambasted for not issuing direct support for Israel or condemnation of the Hamas attack. She then released a second statement, expressing sympathy for the campus Jewish community. That statement was criticized for not showing sympathy to Palestinian victims or the university's Muslim community.
"The different sides in these cultural and political issues want the moral authority of the university on their side," Sanders told UPI. "The irony is the more universities do that, the more they lose their moral authority. They appear as one more partisan actor in political theater."
A statement like Whitten's can have a chilling effect on opposing viewpoints, he said. By showing support for the Jewish community, and by extension Israel, students that are more supportive of Palestine have been left feeling ostracized.
Universities have long been asked to weigh in on social and political issues, domestically and abroad, dating back to the Vietnam War.
"It does feel like a product of when these kinds of movements for corporate social responsibility gained traction," Sanders said.
In 1967, the University of Chicago appointed the Kalven Committee, which delivered widely accepted guidance on how institutions of higher learning can protect academic freedom, urging them to stay neutral.
"The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic," the report reads.
Educators step in
Sinno said Whitten's statement has affected Muslim and Arab American students.
"There's so much trauma in the community now," Sinno said. "I've spent hundreds of hours taking care of students from that community because they are close to me. That should be the work of the university."
Sinno said the initial reaction on campus after the Oct. 7 attack was largely non-partisan. A vigil was held for all of the victims. Had Whitten's statement been empathetic to all victims in a similar way, he believes Muslim and Arab American students would feel safer and more supported.
Instead, some students have lost trust in the university, he said. The institution has come up short or not made an effort at all to support those students.
Sinno and fellow Indiana Professors Irit Dekel and Aziza Khazzoom organized a public presentation last week to discuss the war and the anti-Semitism and Islamophobia that has been inflamed by it.
It was one of the few events in which a "respectful and diverse discussion developed," Dekel said in an email to UPI.
"We work together because we share a humanistic approach to this," Sinno said.
University administrators should be more active in organizing such events and generating resources to counsel students, he said.
It is not the place of the university to take a position on international conflicts, but it should offer inclusive support for its campus community. By excluding one group, he says the university is "making a mockery out of its own DEI policies," referring to diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines.
The Jewish community in Bloomington, Ind., is "very progressive," Sinno said, working closely with the Muslim and Arab American communities. He also finds that the current generation of students are more likely to be sympathetic to Palestinians and critical of the actions of the Israeli government.
There is also some intersection between student activists mobilized around this conflict and those whoi spoke out during other recent social and political movements, such as the protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
"Historically, Indiana University members of the Muslim American community are also supportive of Black Lives Matter and other causes," he said. "Those who are active now tend to be progressives. Generally speaking, it's the same community."
