While the Israel-Hamas war is splashed across news headlines daily, to some of us it may seem that it has no effects on our lives. However, others have a very different view, including university students.
A Cornell student was arrested last Tuesday, October 31st, after he posted several antisemitic comments. Patrick Dai, the 21 year old who threatened to “shoot up” the university’s mainly kosher dining hall; furthermore, he wrote that he would “bring an assault rifle to campus.” While he wrote these under usernames referencing Hamas, police were able to narrow in on him after checking the IP address. The FBI had spoken to Dai at the Cornell Police Department where he admitted to being the one to write those posts. Dai’s parents have stated that their son has had severe depression since 2021 but no history of violence.
Several student groups at Harvard University signed a letter on the day of the first attack that said that only Israel was responsible for the attack by Hamas. Furthermore, it also asked Harvard to “take action to stop the ongoing annihilation of Palestinians.” Harvard did not make any comment for several days, an action which led to several newspapers and other groups to severely criticize their actions. Many top law firms also said that they will not recruit students from any college which accepts anti-semitic comments. However, Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, released the following statement:
“Harvard rejects terrorism. Harvard rejects hate—antisemitism, Islamophobia, hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspects of their identity.”
Pennsylvania University had Israel-Palestine tensions even before the war started, but now the college is saying that it will “review its public safety practices [and] create both an antisemitism task force and a student advisory group.” At Tulane University, a fight broke out after a student attempted to burn an Israeli flag. Another student, Dylan Mann, attempted to stop him and was repeatedly hit in the face and ended up with a broken nose. Furthermore, a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, called pro-Palestinian rallies “target practice.”
For many, these are dangerous times where people’s reactions are unpredictable and sometimes life changing. However, only in the darkest times do we truly see the light, and hopefully we will have a greater appreciation of those around us who help us when we need it most.