Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor
Editor’s note: A source mentioned has requested to remain anonymous. Out of respect for the source’s safety, this request has been granted.
The recent escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict has had detrimental effects on the livelihood of Israeli and Palestinian people abroad, and also on Jewish and Muslim communities. According to the United Nations website, over 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the last several weeks with almost half of them being children, and Israel has experienced a death count of at least 1,400. Numbers have been reported by either side and differ according to various networks.
The conflict surrounding the ownership of the Gaza Strip and West Bank has been ongoing since 1947 when territory was divided, creating distinct Jewish and Arab territories, but more recently since 2006 when a blockade was put in place around the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt to control flow of Gaza citizens in and out of the territory. After the election of Hamas in 2006, the group currently in control of the Gaza Strip, the purpose of the blockade changed to prevent the flow of resources and weapons into Gaza.
“The blockade has caused a lot of human rights violations,” Professor of Religion Jeffrey Lidke said. “They lack resources in there: food, money. They’re essentially in an open air prison, and have been for years.”
Last Tuesday, a vigil was held for students to pray for the conflict. Thursday, Berry held a discussion panel where four professors discussed the ongoing conflict as well as government response and implications in the United States. They also discussed the importance of knowing citizens in Palestine and Israel are not representatives of their governments. The current fighting between Hamas and Israel was sparked by an attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Militants from Gaza fired rockets towards Israel before breaking through the fence and sending militants into Israeli territory. Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people, including civilians and soldiers, and took up to 150 hostages, according to Israeli authorities and the Associated Press.
“My heart hurts for my people,” Daniel Acker, a Rome man of Jewish faith who attends the Rodeph Sholom Temple in Rome. “Seeing the deaths and the brutality broke my heart. The hostages too.”
While the conflict may be happening in the Middle East, effects are still felt across the globe, including in the United States. Professor of Religion and Philosophy Michael Papazian’s family is from Lebanon and his grandparents lived in orphanages there as children. He is also Armenian and historically, Armenians have resided in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.
“There is always that connection to Israel and Palestine even though I am not Arabic or Jewish,” Papazian said. “There is always still that historical connection that’s very important. Also, I have very close connections to religions in the Middle East and would love to see peace between them again, as I have seen in the past.”
With the conflict comes misinformation, as is the case with any conflict. According to Assistant Professor of History Kelsey Rice, some has to do with the representation of Palestine.
“There are many misconceptions around these events,” Rice said. “I see people, including this area’s congressional representative, conflating all Palestinians with Hamas. As I noted during Thursday’s event, 75% of the residents of Gaza were not old enough to vote for Hamas in 2006, which is the last time there was an election – and Hamas did not even receive half the vote in 2006. Palestinians in the West Bank are governed by the Palestinian Authority, which is a completely different organization.”
There has been a rise in anti-Islam and antisemitic hate crimes in response to the ongoing conflict. In Chicago, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was stabbed to death by his mother’s 71 year-old landlord when his mother proposed they pray for peace between Palestine and Israel. The man has been arrested and charged. There have also been instances of synagogues being burned down in Tunisia, as well as 153 incidents of antisemitic crime in the US between Oct. 7-18.
“The hate crimes should not be happening, because not all Muslims are responsible for the conflict,” a Berry student of Muslim faith said. “People in the United States aren’t even involved, Muslims here are not the Muslims killing Israelis. [Islam] is about peace. All of Islam surrounds peace, so the acts of war and hatred are not those of people who want peace.”
The student said that the overall bias toward Israel is also forcing the idea that Muslims are responsible for the death and the conflict.
“Most countries are supporting Israel and that makes it difficult to be Muslim, even if we are in the US,” the student said. “I have family in the Middle East and I am from a country of war, so I know what it is like to be the people in Gaza who cannot fight and want to leave. I do not feel Israeli citizens are causing violence or the Palestinian citizens, and the media is saying that Israel as a whole is the victim, when that just isn’t true when you look at Palestine’s history.”
President Joe Biden gave a statement after meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister, and the president of the Palestinian Authority.
“As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace,” he said in his statement. “Israel and Palestinians deserve to live in safety, dignity and peace.”