Since 1947, the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the surrounding areas has only intensified, spreading division of people and beliefs worldwide. Recent events have reignited concern for the issue, leading many campus groups to grow more entrenched in their belief that the opposing side is to blame. This includes the pagers that Israel allegedly rigged with explosives in Lebanon and parts of Syria that wounded thousands, mostly civilians but also killed Hamas officials on Sept. 17 and 18 of this year.
The violence escalated significantly in 2023, with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, launching a large-scale attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in over 1,100 civilians dead and hundreds of hostages taken.
Israel retaliated with extensive airstrikes on Hamas infrastructure, which ultimately led to the deaths of over 43,000 Palestinian civilians. Hamas continued to fire rockets at Israel, while Israeli forces maintained their military offensive. Israel has recently struck Hezbollah targets in Southern Lebanon.
Students from the University of Idaho chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) said they were horrified by Israel’s “escalation of violence and tensions… including the use of unconventional weapons (such as the horrific use of white phosphorus), which clearly shows that we have reached the explosion point of Israeli contradictions.”
Many of the controversial war tactics Israel is accused of using are difficult to confirm. The Human Rights Watch, a human rights organization, verified video proof of Israel using white phosphorous powder in military operations on Gaza and Lebanon on Oct. 10 and 11, 2023. According to NBC News on Oct. 13, 2023, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded to the claims by saying, “The current accusation made against the IDF regarding the use of white phosphorous in Gaza is unequivocally false. The IDF has not deployed the use of such munitions.”
The YSDA said that they believed the violence would end only with the end of the State of Israel.
The YDSA explained the grievances of the Palestinians, which include “the forced and continued displacement of indigenous Palestinians from their homes, beginning in 1948 and lack of reliable access to basic necessities, including food, water, shelter, medicine and clothing, as a result of Israeli occupation and besiegement of the Gaza Strip,” as described by members of the group.
YDSA said, “[There is] continual violence carried out by Israel in a way that shows complete and utter disregard for any distinction between military and civilian people and infrastructure. Israel operates on the level of ‘total war’ against the Palestinian population.”
The group continued to share their opinion on the treatment of Palestinian people by the Israeli population.
“Dehumanization, discrimination and the denial of basic social, civil and cultural life within the West Bank [exist],” said YDSA. “Palestinians are subject to a draconian and tyrannical network of checkpoints, no-go-zones and harassment. [There is] arbitrary detainment of Palestinian men, women and children held indefinitely without charge or trial in Israeli jails where they are subjected to abuse and torture.”
Members of Moscow to Palestine, a local movement to raise awareness on the case of Palestine, said, “Weapons are Israel’s biggest industry. Once tested on Palestinians, they are shipped to be used on peoples the world over. From reports of robots imitating crying children to attract people and then exploding, to the well documented use of white phosphorus that melts tissue to the bone, the situation in Gaza, and increasingly so, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, is harrowing.”
Members of the movement continued to describe how the core issue of this conflict is settler colonialism and imperialism.
“The Palestinian grievance is what was the grievance of the First Nations of North America, the colonized peoples of Africa and Subcontinental India, of black people under Jim Crow and in 1980s South Africa, of the Vietnamese and the Iraqis. Palestine is the latest iteration of the same injustices,” they said. “It is also why the majority of the world supports Palestine so – they see themselves in it.”
Others on campus have shared differing perspectives, including a man from the Never Again Foundation, who asked to be identified as William. William has shared photos of Israeli victims of the war’s brutality, while describing antisemitic crimes committed by the Palestinians.
At the most recent ASUI Senate meeting, he disputed claims that Israel has committed ethnic cleaning of Palestinian Arabs, claiming that their population has conversely risen over the years. He also discussed how the persecution of Israel is happening once again, alluding to the Holocaust, and how antisemitism has been on the rise due to Israel’s actions of “self-defense.”
William has publicly spoken out against YDSA at ASUI Senate meetings, claiming that YDSA would try to bring antisemitic proposals to ASUI.
While both sides of the conflict agree that there must be a solution to the division, each has a differing approach.
“We believe that an end to Palestinian national oppression may only result from the end of the State of Israel, and the establishment of one secular, democratic, bination, multi-ethnic state with equal rights for all, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, where Jews, Muslims, Christians and all other religious and ethnic groups can live side-by-side,” YDSA said.
“However, there is absolutely no cooperation or dialogue to be had between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups on campus. One side supports an end to ethno-nationalism and the creation of a state with equal right for everyone; the other side supports ethno-religious supremacy and the maintenance of a nation-state which subjugates an entire population of people.”
William’s proposed solution includes adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) policies, including their working definition of antisemitism, which includes contemporary examples of discrimination.
In response to this, Alisa Bennett, a College of Natural Resources student at UI, said “ASUI should absolutely not allow one man bully them into adopting a discriminatory and anti-free speech policy that equates things like criticizing the criminal actions of the Israeli state to something like antisemitism, which is a serious issue that should not be undermined. Zionists like William are afraid that their harmful and discriminative ideology will become ostracized, and they therefore hide behind a veneer of antisemitism in order to try and legitimize themselves and dismiss those who question their hateful views.”
The increased media coverage on the conflict has only driven the wedge deeper between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups, with each side becoming more vocal in criticizing the other and allowing for individuals to broadcast their stance on the topic, often without factual backing.
“American media creates an artificial pro-Israel ideological hegemony,” YDSA said. “Examples include spreading false stories that Hamas ‘beheaded babies’ or used sexual violence as a weapon of war, and it is only through the widespread use of social media and exposure to alternative media that young Americans have seen through Israeli propaganda and become sympathetic to Palestinians.”
Rebekah Weaver can be reached at [email protected].