Are Havard students responsible for regurgitating rhetoric they are taught ?
Groups of students at Harvard signed a letter in support of Hamas in the days after Hamas brutally attacked Israeli civilians in the worse attack on Jews since the holocaust . They are facing backlash by Harvard donors and in some cases are being doxed (publishing names or private information about an individual on the internet, ) .
Although Ivy League students are supposed to be the best and brightest .....like most students in the country they are subject to mind numbing indoctrination by the elite egg head professors of the institution. Schools are not creating critical thinkers ;so I tend to mock them but otherwise give them a pass. As they mature it is hoped that reality hits them between the eyes and they deprogram.
In the meantime some of words they use ;they do without understanding what the words mean . These words are also often used in the many pro-Hamas terrorist protests
So here are some useful definitions
Occupation the act of taking possession of property by force..
Israel completely handed over the Gaza Strip to Palestinian control in 2005 Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in 2007 through "elections" and the forceful expulsion of the Palestinian authority. All Israel citizens and soldiers had been removed from Gaza. Hamas with the help of Iran turned Gaza into an armed camp to attack Israel from
The West bank has some Jewish settlements, but it has been direct control of the Palestinian authority since the 1993 Oslo accords.
Because Israel does maintain military control of the West Bank the issue is ambiguous . But it is clear cut NOT an occupation of Gaza.
But but but Israel built a fence around Gaza and there is a naval blockade . That makes it an occupation right ?
Wrong. Hamas is not fighting Israel because of security barriers or blockades . Those are there BECAUSE Israel is defending themselves against Hamas attacks . Hamas has stated goals in it's manifesto for the extermination of Israel. Hamas diverts "humanitarian " aid from civilians to their armed terrorists . If as some critics say that Gaza is an "open air prision" ;it is Hamas that makes it so.
Colonialism is one nation seizing another and annexing it by direct control . It involves a stronger power imposing it's institutions onto weaker peoples
There once was colonialism in the region . It was called the British empire. Before that it was the Turkish Ottoman Empire . And throughout history there have been many other empires that ran the region from afar.
The Brits gave up control of the region in 1947 .
In modern times the Jews were in diaspora and have migrated back to their homeland. Some came before WWII .Many came after WWII and the migration continues. They were not representative of a great power. They were escaping persecution by nations.
They were not going to another nation. Palestine as it was ,was a region . The last state of that region ironically had been the state of Israel. There was land and the Jews that migrated purchased the land. They cultivated the land and made it productive. That attracted the migration of Arabs into the region.
But but but the popular redefining of colonialism is not state colonialism but "settler colonialism" . That is a system where settlers displace the indigenous .Note it is not an event. It is a "system" .... one that began by the Jews around 1880. The remedy is presumably the extermination or removal of the non-indigenous peoples . The western hemisphere began to be settled by non-indigenous peoples around 1600. By that logic any non-indigenous people should be expelled . The history of humans is the history of migration and resettlement.
In the Hamas charter they are unambiguous that the only true indigenous people of the land are Arab Muslims .
Hmmm who else thought that their lands should only be for the indigenous . Oh yeah that would be the German Nazis
Ironically by their definition the Jews are the indigenous people preceding the Arab Muslims by about 3,000 years. It is the Arab Muslims that are the colonial occupiers by their own definition.
Apartheid is a system of segregation based on race .
Israel has for many years been accused of running an apartheid state. Forget for a moment Gaza and the West Bank ;both are controlled and run by Palestinians and in the case of Gaza ; a terrorist organization. They have never been Israelis so the term cannot apply.
Israel itself has a minority population that is approx.. 20 percent Arab. They have the same full civil and political rights that any other Israeli shares. They are represented in the government.
One final note.
Protesters around the world were quick to call for the end of violence once Israel militarily responded to the pogrom by Hamas.
The lives of the people of Gaza matter. The lives of the Israelis dont
Right across the border in Syria a raging civil war has continued for a decade
In the history of the modern state of Israel about 100,000 Arabs have perished in conflict. We are constantly reminded about somewhere around 650,000 displaced Palestinians. (forgetting that about 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab lands.) .
Over in Syria the death toll is around 600,000 to date and created almost 7 million refugees. Where are the voices calling out for an end to that conflict ?
