Response to Collegian Article

On November 9th, the Kansas State University newspaper The Collegian published a piece showcasing the opinions of one of our members, two students, and that of a respected political science professor at Kansas State University, Dr. Flynn, regarding the situation in Gaza and its relation to our national politics. This article comes after a protest was held by the Organizing Committee for the Manhattan, Kansas Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America at Triangle Park on October 30th.

Firstly, we would like to mention that we appreciate The Collegian and its student writers who covered the protest and spread awareness about the subject matter; it is important for our community to read the opinions of our locals and experts. Our intention with this analysis is not to irresponsibly berate or respond to student journalists, students, the respected professor or The Collegian in general, but to provide further context for the important conversations that must be had when addressing the subject matter. Many of us are long-time members of the Manhattan community and have previously attended Kansas State University or are currently attending Kansas State, and thus we feel an obligation to continue the conversation about the subject matter with our community.

We want to state publicly that our position against apartheid, as well as against the bombing, siege, and repeated violations of international law conducted by the current Israeli government against Palestine, is not a fringe one. Every notable human rights organization from Human Rights Watch to Amnesty International to B’Tselem (an Israeli human rights organization) has condemned the irresponsible and horrific aggressions by the Israeli state in 2023. In fact, these condemnations by international human rights organizations didn’t begin after the ongoing bombing campaign killed over 4,000 Palestinian children, they began long before. In 2022, Amnesty International stated “Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians”. In 2021, Human Rights Watch called out the Israeli state for “committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians. In 2020, B’Tselem published a report where the title of a section read “Israel violates Palestinians rights in the West Bank everyday”.

In 2019, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted on a resolution titled “The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”; 167 states voted in favor while only 5, including Israel and the United States, voted against. In 2018, a press release by the United Nations Human Rights Office stated that “Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, condemned Israel’s excessive use of force towards largely unarmed demonstrators at the Gaza fence on Monday, which has left 58 Palestinians dead, and almost 2,800 wounded.” It would be worthwhile to continue with the examples, recounting year after year the repeated condemnations and opposition to the official Israeli government position by notable human rights organizations as well as the global consensus represented at the UN, however, these examples are enough to present a point often missed, or purposely avoided, when speaking on the subject matter. The circumstances surrounding what is happening in Gaza did not begin with the horrible attacks by Hamas on October 7th, 2023; they began years and decades before through the systematic violations of human rights by the Israeli state on the Palestinian population. This has been an unsustainable situation for decades and a crime against humanity that has a name: apartheid.

According to political scientist Leila Farsahk, professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Boston, apartheid has been at the center of Israeli-Palestinian relations since 1977 in Gaza and the West Bank. Furthermore she wrote for the French newspaper Le Monde in 2010, contextualizing the origins of the issue of ethnics cleansing in Palestine, that “as in South Africa, the [Israeli] settlers in Palestine expelled the indigenous population, some two-thirds of the Palestinians in the land that became Israel in 1948, took possession of their properties and legally segregated those who remained.” The historical context of the subject matter is perhaps the most important issue to mention when trying to properly contextualize and analyze current events (we urge everyone to read into the subject matter further) yet we are disappointed that it was not mentioned in the article at all, not even by Dr. Flynn. There must be some responsibility, when speaking about Israeli-Palestinian relations, to properly contextualize the situation.

We believe it is important to hear from a variety of experts. We would have liked to read opinions from other academics such as Dr. Ciftci, another respected political science professor at Kansas State, who is an expert on Middle Eastern politics. We
would have liked to read the opinions of Dr. Oweidat, a professor of Middle Eastern history at our beloved university. We would have liked to read the opinions of students within the Muslim Student Association at the university. Presenting a variety of opinions is crucial, and interviewing experts must be a priority when addressing the community of students.

We firmly believe that a tremendous injustice has been committed against the Palestinian population for many decades and we firmly stand now against the mass killings of innocent civilians. We advocate for a ceasefire and for an end to apartheid. Finally, we do not believe that our government should continue to support the current Israeli government’s position that involves mass killings of civilians or apartheid. This is not a game of checkers but an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land; lets be clear, this is a genocide. We are not alone in these assertions: Over 800 scholars of international law, conflict studies, and genocide studies from all over the world have already signed an open letter warning the world of the possibility of genocide if Israel continues with their mass killing; Israeli historian and genocide studies scholar Raz Seagal has stated the situation in Gaza is indeed a genocide and other scholars have stated the same thing. Our alliances are not sacrosanct, if one of our allies is involved in systematic violations of human rights we firmly believe that those alliances should be broken. We believe in the rights of all peoples to live with dignity and for the lives of civilians to be respected and protected from harm. Our education, for which we thank our beloved professors from Kansas State University, has taught many of us that.