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No matter where a war is waged on Earth, conflict always finds a battlefield on college campuses. In the 1970s, it was Vietnam and the famous campus protests filled with rock music and burning draft cards. One thousand students marched on Harvard Yard 30 years later to denounce the controversial strife in Iraq.

Roughly 20 years since that march, Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in 2023 — which took hostages and killed roughly 1,200 Jewish residents — brought anti-war demonstrations back to college campuses. Even though the conflict has reached ceasefire agreements and protests have died down, emotions still run high. Students and people on both sides of the issue are far from being done battling.

The discourse around Israel and Palestine has been tense for decades, but it feels like it’s reached a fever pitch in the United States over the last year.

After the protests we’ve witnessed over this conflict, it’s vital to take a step back and examine how Syracuse University students can better engage with this humanitarian crisis that started with the goal of ending terror.

On SU’s campus, people with diverse opinions are inevitably drawn together. Like many other college campuses last spring, SU had its own Gaza Solidarity Encampment that aimed to pressure the school into divesting from Israel entirely.

On the other hand, SU’s student population is 17% Jewish and includes multiple student organizations that support Israel. Many SU students participated in a demonstration to show solidarity with Israel after the GSE started.

It can be easy to see these two populations as foes or think they stand in polar opposition to one another. While there are likely people that do consider support for either faction as mutually exclusive, the last thing the Israel-Hamas war should become is a partisan debate.

Palestinian or Jewish heritage understandably makes certain students feel especially close to the pain. I am Jewish, but I feel strongly that if we, as Americans and SU students, want to make a positive influence on the conflict in the Middle East, we have to stop being as dogmatic to our sides and start investing our energy in a shared desire for peace in the region, along with a diligent allegiance to the truth.

Before we open any sort of dialogue about playing our part in this conflict, we first must acknowledge the facts about this war. Gaza is amid a devastating humanitarian crisis. Forty-eight thousand Palestinians have died in Gaza, and 13,000 of them were children, according to the United Nations. Ninety-one percent of the population in Gaza also faces catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

We also must realize those figures are a direct result of Israel’s military reaction in Gaza, which a United Nations Special Committee Report described as being “consistent with genocide.”

At the same time, it’s irresponsible and illogical to equate all actions of the Israeli government with sentiments held by Jewish people as a whole.

It’s also inconsiderate to downplay the emotions of anyone who feels affected by the hostages Hamas took on Oct. 7 and the Jews that died before their exchange could be negotiated. Your empathy shouldn’t pick sides. The world can’t afford our selectivity when so many people are dying.

By now, it should also be clear that there shall be no winner in this conflict. Neither side will stand unscathed over the other. After decades of competing interests and violence, it’s naive to think one side would wilfully cede their interests to the other.

There can only be stability through peaceful resolutions and considerate concessions to both sides. In this situation, it isn’t morally or practically acceptable for one nation to entirely win over another.

Even after you’ve reckoned with the dark truths of this war, there’s still work to be done. As students living in America and attending a prestigious private university, much of the SU student body maintains the privilege of not just escaping the physical violence of war, but donating and advocating for the misrepresented.

If finances allow, consider donating to Palestinian relief organizations and humanitarian aid groups like The United Nations Crisis Relief Fund or The Palestinian’s Children’s Relief Fund.

Pressure lawmakers with your voting power and voice into pursuing justice for the tens of thousands of dead Palestinians and the innocent Israeli hostages that remain caught in the crossfire. It’s time to stop pushing for your side to win. The goal for all of us — whether we have a personal stake in the conflict or not — should be for lasting peace and a solution that doesn’t prioritize certain lives at the expense of others.

Shared humanity is our greatest weapon against war. Right now, we shouldn’t neglect facing this human devastation head-on, even if the facts directly conflict with personal beliefs.

Understanding and emphasizing that one side is no more human than the other is one of the only things that can truly refute and destroy the deadly rhetoric threatening a true ceasefire.

Ben Newman is a freshman at Syracuse University. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at ibnewman@syr.edu.

Published on February 25, 2025 at 11:23 pm