Editor’s Note: This article contains quotes with language that may be offensive or disturbing. Errors in quotes were reproduced verbatim from emails. All emails cited are available online. Some redactions to student information and those unaffiliated with UConn were added by The Daily Campus.
The Daily Campus received emails sent to and from University of Connecticut President Radenka Maric, highlighting concerns of the university’s handling of the Israel and Palestine conflict following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel.
The emails contain communication between UConn administration documenting questions regarding free speech on campus, plans to raise funds for academic partners in Israel and confirmation that the university was in contact with the FBI regarding surveillance of on-campus activism.
The 670 pages of emails were first obtained by UConn UNCHAIN through the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs via Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 50,810 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and 155,688 have been injured since Oct. 7, 2023. Over 1,607 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed since then, according to official Israeli sources and those cited in the media. As of April 8, 2025, 412 aid workers have been killed.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization and the Palestinian government, Israeli attacks have damaged 92% of housing units, 88% of school buildings, 68% of road networks and 68% of cropland, with 51% of hospitals in Gaza determined to be partially functional from Oct. 7, 2023 through Jan. 15, 2025. According to the World Bank, 80% of commercial facilities were damaged.
Donors
Maric asked UConn donors to financially support Israel, and she received emails asking her to take a stronger stance in support of Israel following the Oct. 7 attack.
Jerry Lieberman is one of the donors responsible for the Eileen and Jerry Lieberman UConn/Israel Global Partnership Fund; he also donated $250,000 to the Clean Energy Initiative in December 2016. Lieberman sent an email to Maric on Oct. 9, 2023 suggesting total destruction of Gaza.
“I am neither a military expert nor an Israeli politician with authority to make decisions, but if I was, I would give unarmed woman, girls, boys below 17 and men over 45 years old 48 hours to leave Gaza and then level the whole City assuming that whatever can be done, if anything, to save the hostages was attempted,” Lieberman wrote.
Lieberman continued, expressing his understanding how Maric should not write about these matters in her UConn email.
“I understand that you should not write about this in your position, especially in your UConn email account, but we must stand together to support Israel because others just won’t– they haven’t in the past and cannot be counted on doing so today,” he said.
Maric responded to this email later the same day.
“Thank you so much for your gift. The people of Isreal [Israel] suffered unspeakable losses. Armed terrorists should be white [wiped] off of this planet,” she said.
In an email from Evan Roklen, one of the donors responsible for the Sandra and Evan Roklen Fund, to Maric on Oct. 23, 2023, Roklen condemned Maric’s initial statements following the Oct. 7 attacks, saying that he was maddened after reading her statements.
“I am simply filled with anger and disgust about your lack of clarity about the unprovoked, horrible atrocities, crimes against mankind, committed by Hamas against civilians. It sends a clear message that both sides are equally at fault,” Roklen said. “My wife Sandra (NEAG MA 1985) and I (CLAS BA 1983) gave $10,000 over a few years to fund an economics department program to help graduate students finish their research. We will certainly reconsider any further gifts.”
Maric responded the next morning emphasizing her support of Israel and stated that she spoke at a pro-Israel rally at the Beth El Temple in West Hartford. Maric said she supported Israel through “our federation,” likely referring to the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford
David Waren, the president and CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, and Russ Benblatt, vice president of marketing and communications, are also seen communicating with Maric in separate emails included in the document.
Emails sent on Oct. 31, 2023 from Maric to multiple donors with the subject line “Please Support Israel” show her asking Daniel Weiner, vice president of UConn Global Affairs, to lead an effort “to develop a plan to support our Israeli higher education partners in creative ways.”
She concludes the email asking if the donors “would consider donating to a new fund being set up for this purpose.”
Other donors include Robert Sherman, a member of the board of directors at the UConn Foundation; Michael Cantor, co-managing partner of UConn College of Engineering; Gary Gladstein, whom the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute is named after and Jerry and Eileen Lieberman. Maric contacted six donors in total. All six agreed to donate funds to the initiative.
The Daily Campus reached out to Sherman, Gladstein and Leiberman for comment via LinkedIn, neither of which responded. The Daily Campus also contacted Cantor and did not get a response. Roklen could not be reached for comment due to no publicly available contact information and no response from the university when asked for a way to contact Roklen.
Comment from University
University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz commented to The Daily Campus on the emails:
“Nearly all of these e-mails date from the fall of 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack on Israel. They reflect the deep distress that many felt in the face of the violence, death, and grief resulting from that attack and the ongoing conflict that followed.
“In her messages, the president rejects terrorism and laments violence and the loss of innocent life, not only in the conflict in the Middle East, but in violent conflict wherever it exists in the world.
“With respect to Israel, Gaza, and the Palestinian people, she notes that suffering is not confined to one side or the other, writing: ‘People on both sides are hurt,’ and she speaks to the terrible consequences that war inflicts on all of humanity. These are messages she shares often both publicly and privately.
“The messages also reflect the discussions and debates taking place on college and university campuses all over the nation, including here, particularly at that time, about what constitutes protected speech and what doesn’t, and where the line that separates them may be.
“These questions were being asked both internally and externally by multiple stakeholders, often being posed to the president directly. These and related issues are questions on which the president and many others at the university regularly seek guidance and expert opinion from the general counsel, attorney general, and state’s attorney, including through discussions of hypothetical scenarios.
“The messages reflect her acknowledgement that it is possible for something to be protected speech, but nonetheless offensive to members of the university community. Importantly, the president notes that hate of any kind has no place at UConn, writing: ‘We are making a lot of effort at the University to address both Islamophobia and antisemitism on campus.’”
Spirit rock
Common places for activism, the spirit rocks were discussed among UConn administrators at this time. According to reporting by The Daily Campus, administrators discussed plans to remove the rock shortly after Oct. 7, 2023 and later rejected the plan. One of the rocks was moved to a pedestrian quad near the South Campus residence hall and Recreation Center in May 2024, according to the Hartford Courant.
Noam Watt, UConn Athletics’ assistant director of broadcast and video services, emailed Maric on Oct. 10, 2023 stating that he hoped and prayed UConn would take a stand in support of Israel and condemn people who painted the rock.
“Palestine is not the victim in this war. Their government, Hamas, a terrorist organization, launched a horrific attack on Israeli civilians,” Watt said. “This war does not have to do with freeing Palestine, and the act to cover the Israel message on the rock is vile, anti-semitic, and against the core values of UConn. Driving into campus this morning and seeing the Spirit Rock painted ‘No Justice No Peace Free Palestine’ was sickening to me. Just yesterday it was painted in support of Israel, the victim of terrorism.”
Maric also received an email from Denis Nayden, a UConn Strong board member, who found issue with the administration’s response to the painting of the spirit rock with art supporting Palestinian liberation.
“The complete ignorance of whoever defaced the Spirit Rock is astounding (as is the idiocy from Harvard students),” he wrote. “Condemning barbarity has absolutely nothing to do with supporting an environment that embraces differences of opinions and views. Please do not confuse the two.” No response from UConn officials is included in the document obtained from the FOIA request.
In a conversation with a parent, Maric said, “The rock was repainted this morning, GO UCONN!” after the rock was repainted, covering the pro-Palestine message.
The Daily Campus reached out to Nayden for comment via email and did not get a response. The Daily Campus also contacted Watt, who did not give further comment.
Administrative action
An email from Maric to university administrators on Dec. 12, 2023 revealed Hans Rhynhart, the chief of police at UConn, who was cc’d in the email, was working with the FBI to address campus activism.
“We are making a lot of effort at the University to address both Islamophobia and antisemitism on campus, and I am aware that Hans and his team are working with the FBI, and I want to acknowledge that I am aware that not everything happening on campus warrants law enforcement intervention,” Maric said. “I think our students are doing well, but we can do better.”
In the same email, Maric brought up posters placed by UConn Students for Justice in Palestine.
“I’m afraid I have to disagree with the speaker from yesterday that the flyers with Hamas soldiers with automatic weapons on our campus are freedom of speech and with the message ‘By all means and resistance isn’t Terrorism’. We arrest students for yelling N world, and when students tell us how these posters affect and disturb them, we cannot say that is OK,” Maric said.
UConn’s legal counsel Nicole Gelston was one of the recipients of this email.
“I am learning that law is more an art than science, with different perspectives and views on the same issue,” Maric said. “I heard from many students and faculty who got flyers under the door how much that disturbed them.”
The document also contains emails from Maric explaining her handling of on-campus protests, in an email to Edmund A. Grossman. The Grossmans have donated $700,000 to support stem cell research at the UConn Health center in Farmington, according to a UConn Today article.
“[D]emonstrations have been held to a minimum on the UConn campuses. I reported to all students and faculty Senat [Senate] that any demonstration of hate would not be tolerated. I ordered posters to be talked [taken] down, and I reported to the attorney general. There is a fine line between freedom of speech and hate. They cannot cross that line,” Maric said in an email sent Nov. 4, 2023.
The Daily Campus could not reach out to Grossman for comment due to no publicly available contact information and no response from the university when asked for a way to contact Grossman.
Pressure from UConn Health
Multiple UConn Health faculty repeatedly emailed Maric and other administrative officials with complaints and criticism regarding the university statement, in the weeks following its release.
Yifrah Kaminer, who is a professor emeritus of psychiatry according to the UConn Health website, demanded that the UConn administration fire Hamas supporters, Black Lives Matter supporters and pro-Palestinian “fascists.”
“Any HAMAS supporter should be fired, kicked out of college n go to trial for supporting hate crimes against humanities similar to ISIS n SS Nazi Germany. […] FIRE any UConn official that turn the Other Cheak of American Jewish students ,faculty n citizens. Including BLM propalestinlan fascists who know nothing about the conflict history by have atoxic opinion,” Kaminer wrote on Oct. 23, 2023.
Kaminer defended his statements in a request for comment, adding his role as an adolescent psychiatrist for context.
“I am a child & adolescent psychiatrist who traveled to Israel few days post October 7 volunteering to work with PTSD families of survivors from Israeli kibbutzim n towns close to GAZA border. The hateful, barbaric atrocities that these children witnessed as survivors made me a 40 yrs experienced psychiatrist n military MD uncomfortably numb n enraged simultaneously,” he said. “Anyone including UConn leadership b other universities that was trying to find ‘Symmetry’ between evil, hellish, joyous sadistic atrocities of Jews n the Palestinian suffering n wish for independence, a-la, ‘ from the river to the sea’, that is, free of living Jews, has lost his/her moral compass surrendering to Oro HAMAS is on campus!”
Another UConn Health faculty member Leslie Bernstein, professor of neuroscience and surgery, called out Maric for failing to openly support Israel and fully condemn “evil acts perpetrated by Hamas” in an email on Oct. 13, 2023.
“Still, your statement stopped short of full-throated support for Israel, full-throated condemnation of the specific and evil acts perpetrated by Hamas, and went on to speak of the larger UConn community. I really do understand the sensitivities. Still, I believ that, if one is to comment at all, then one must clearly call out the inhumane acts we have all witnessed and separate them from political differences and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in general,” Bernstein wrote.
In a different email to Bernstein, Maric claimed that she has been receiving threats since the beginning of her presidency in 2022, also mentioning that she and Bernstein could discuss more on the topic elsewhere.
In an email sent a few days later, Bernstein addressed an email to Tysen Kendig, then-vice president for university communications and marketing, expressing disappointment with the various university statements.
“What occurred in Israel was no merely part of the ‘the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.’ Rather, it was a demonstration of pure evil and inhumanity, the likes of which has not been perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust,” Bernstein wrote on Oct. 17, 2023.
Kendig responded to Bernstein, claiming that Maric issued additional comments on the subject. Kendig also explained that the university’s role is to “provide a safe and conductive place for the free and open exchange of ideas.”
Bernstein sent another email to Kendig on Oct. 23, 2023 calling out the leadership for its “inconsistency.”
Bernstein told The Daily Campus he had no further comment.
Legal advice
Maric sent Weiner an article by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression which accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of violating the First Amendment and court orders to pressure social media companies to censor content relating to Israel and Palestine.
“Very interesting and identifies a critical question for us to resolve quickly. For example, can students chant or post ‘global intifada’ on campus if not a direct threat to an individual? Clearly many Jewish members of our community feel personally threatened by this chant as it’s a call for violence against Jews,” Weiner said in response. “Is this protected speech at UConn? I say no, but obviously not a lawyer.”
Maric emailed Stacey Sobel, Connecticut regional director, and Robert Trestan, vice president of the west division, from the Anti-Defamation League on Nov. 21, 2023. Maric stated that she has foundational commitments to student safety and free speech.
“However, I need constitutional layers to tell me when the freedom of speech crosses to hate and invites violence. The posters of the terrorists on the campus, in my understanding, invite violence,” Maric said.
Public statements
On Oct. 10, 2023, Maric sent out a statement condemning the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Oct. 10, 2023.
“In these hard times, it is of utmost importance to unequivocally condemn terrorism in all its forms,” Maric said in the statement. “Equally, UConn must stand as a beacon of unity, celebrating multiculturalism and diversity of thought, upholding human rights, safeguarding innocent civilian lives in all contexts, and advocating tirelessly for global peace.”
UConn has industry partnerships with the Department of Defense and companies with military ties, according to the UConn Techpark website. Research centers at UConn include the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology, which has a $101.1 million investment; the Pratt and Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering, which has a $75.8 million investment; the Project Daedalus Air Force Advanced Manufacturing Initiative with a $28.6 million investment; the Pratt and Whitney Additive Manufacturing Center with a $15.5 million investment; and the Collins Aerospace Center for Advanced Materials with a $6 million investment.
“As a public university, our resolute commitment is centered on nurturing an environment where the free and open exchange of ideas and beliefs flourishes within a secure and supportive framework,” Maric said in the statement.
This statement came before the UConn Police Department arrested 25 students and one non-student at the pro-Palestine encampment held in April 2024.
Maric said UConn “must re-evaluate the university’s policies on free speech,” and was seeking advice from the attorney general office and constitutional lawyers, according to her email.
“We are ‘very confused’ about constitutional law and freedom of speech, and lawyers explain why we cannot do something at colleges and what it means to be a federally funded college!” Maric said.
Maric added that proactive steps must be taken to prevent “future genocides.”
“If we are to prevent future genocides, we can no longer afford to be silent and indifferent to a potential genocide,” Maric said, referring to the Oct. 7 attack.
Student complaints
A pro-Palestinian email sent to Maric on Oct. 12, 2023 questions what the university will do to support its Palestinian students.
In response, Maric emphasized that the situation affects people on “both sides.” She also seemed to suggest they speak with the provost or vice president.
“This is very tragic for humanity! As the days, weeks, and months unfold, the conflict will escalate, leading to civilian casualties, mass displacements, and various consequences that war inflicts upon innocent people. People on both sides are hurt. I copied the Provost and Vice President for students’ life and enrolment to talk about our support for our students!” Maric wrote on Oct. 13.
They wrote another email to Maric, labeling the situation as “settler colonialism” and “apartheid” in place of Maric’s mention of “conflict.”
In another reply that same day, Maric mentioned that she supported a state bill to have July 11 be named “genocide day for Bosnian Muslims.”
“I support you as our student, and I understand this is a very emotional and difficult time for you! Some of my graduate students are from Iran, and I support them. This year, I supported the bill in CT to have July 11 to be proclaimed as a genocide day for Bosnian Muslims.[…]I support Humanity, and I do not support wars!” Maric wrote on Oct. 13.
Responses to critics
One email sent to Maric on Nov. 10 called for her to revoke the UConn charter of SJP. The name of the person who sent the email was redacted.
“Anything less than condemning SJP and revoking their charter is condoning rape, torture, the killing of innocents and antisemitism,” it read.
Maric responded, writing the administration is “reviewing activities” and she agrees that UConn must firmly side with humanity and “civilized values.” SJP’s charter was never revoked at UConn.
Earlier emails document pressure put upon Maric to take action against UConn SJP. One email from Lieberman sent on Oct. 26, insinuates Maric should take similar action to that of the state of Florida.
“It is obvious that the University Presidents have their Governor’s and their respective Boards’ Support,” he wrote on Oct. 26, attaching a link to an article from United with Israel.
An email from David Waren, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, sent on Nov. 19, includes his outrage over a video posted to the UConn SJP Instagram account.
“This is outrageous. Certainly suggest checking with Mark Rotenberg at national Hillel for advice on how to respond, if at all,” he wrote.
In an email to a UConn Health faculty member sent on Oct. 13, Maric forwarded an email chain between herself and a surgeon with Hartford HealthCare.
The message from the doctor condemns Maric for her statements following the Oct 7. attacks for failing to acknowledge decades of Palestinian suffering, concluding that failure is a result of prejudice.
“Your statement blatantly ignores that and implies that only Israel has been attacked. Are you able to unequivocally condemn racist apartheid regimes that subjugate entire populations, as much as you are able to ‘unequivocally condemn terrorism’? Does the indiscriminate collective punishment of Gazans not also count as terrorism? By waiting specifically until this week to address this topic and having these glaring omissions, you make it obvious that you do NOT care for the Arabs and their suffering. Disappointingly, I conclude that this is blatant racism,” the doctor said.
Maric responded by calling the event “a terrorist attack on Israel” and saying UConn had to “maintain an academic, humanitarian, and balanced tone” in messages to the community.
“As the days, weeks, and months unfold, we will likely witness an escalation of the conflict, leading to civilian casualties, mass displacements, and various consequences that war inflicts upon innocent people,” she wrote.
One email from a UConn alum criticizes Maric’s lack of support for Muslim students on campus. The student said they were “appalled and shocked that you decided to not speak about these civilians” and “extremely ashamed that you are not providing reassurance for your Palestinian AND other Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim students.”
The student said they hoped Maric would “speak on behalf of a group of people who are being terrorized to leave the land they belong to” and “that the University of Connecticut is not blind to these atrocious war crimes by Israel.”
They implored Maric to stand by her values of “leading with joy and love for all.”
“As a person with morals, it is your obligation and duty to keep UConn’s Muslim and
Middle Eastern students safe. It is your obligation to offer protection. It is absolutely
your obligation to demand and insist on solidarity. We are sick, tired, and DISGUSTED
with your one-sided emails since you have become the president of UConn,” the student said. “Enough is enough.”
No response from university officials was included in the document.
The DC is vying for first place in NENPA’s “nothing burger” award category
white people love the term “nothing burger”
It is good to see these. Following the October 7 terror attacks, I thought the public statements from UConn admins were kinda mealy mouthed. At least in private they took a clear moral stance against the Hamas attacks and the student groups that supported them, such as SJP. I saw anti Jewish flyers on campus in 2023/2024. They should be enforcing the code of conduct on these same students and expel some of them based on their support of Hamas, the Oct 7 attacks, or antisemitism. No uconn degrees for terror supporters!
For sure. Where has this energy been?
They’re going to hate us anyway, so is a more public show of support and care really so dangerous?
Amazing and informative article. The fight against the ethnic cleansing and Palestinians and genocide occuring in Gaza is one we all must fight together. Sickening to see so many twist Jewish values to support hate, death, and destruction.
I appreciate that you consider yourself a Proud Jewish Student but you clearly aren’t an educated one. What’s happening in Gaza IS heartbreaking but it’s not genocide. If Israel were truly engaging in genocide, Gaza would’ve already been wiped off the map. Genocide of the Jewish people is what Hamas sickly and proudly proclaims is their goal, what they attempted on October 7 and have boldly claimed they want to do again and again. Please get your facts straight.
“Israel” created the conditions that lead to armed resistance being waged against invading europeans trying to steal and demolish their homes since the Nakba. These invaders laughed about the people they kill. If these invaders subjugate the natives, rape prisoners, kill children en mass and just happen to also be of a specific group within an ethnostate, then those subjected will end up hating those people! Is it false that the people who have leveled gaza happen to also be jewish? Of course, the hypothetical “genocide” zionists claim they are protecting themselves from by committing actual genocide is clearly what’s more relevant here. Jewish folks are allowed to resist the tainting of their values to support genocide and ethnic cleansing. The more you legitimize said things, the worse that hate will get!
When does something become a genocide? Was the holocaust a genocide, despite not all Jewish people being “wiped off the map”? By your logic for it to have been one then the complete destruction of all Jews would have been needed.
While I think ethnic cleansing has been the result, calling it premeditated genocide is frankly ridiculous. If Hamas hadn’t attacked on Oct 7, plainly we wouldn’t have 50-60k dead and a leveled Gaza. Sorry, it just wouldn’t happen. That said Netenyahu’s war needs to end and his right-wing regime must end.
The trouble is that we have two indigenous groups here who have a valid claim to the land, Palestinians and Jews. Both have ancient and well verified histories and ties to the land. While “europeans” were definitely part of the founding of Israeli, the majority of Israelis descend from middle eastern Jews – the Jews of Palestine, as well as of
Syria/raq/ran/Yemen/Lebanon/Egypt/others who were evicted from their homes. The dispossessions of the Nakbha and encroachment on the West Bank are terrible yes, but it’s really not so black and white as young antizionist zealots imagine.
To insist the Jewish claim to being indigenous is false is patently ridiculous.
There’s no arbitrary cutoff where you somehow aren’t indigenous anymore because the diaspora has been spread too long – with Jewish history in Palestine/Israel stretching back at least 3000 years and further. It also ignores that Jews have continuously lived in Palestine and the Levant since the destruction of the temple to the present, many did disperse across Europe, but middle eastern Jewish communities persisted. Palestinian arabs likewise have a long and legitimate history – to say one of these groups has the exclusive right to all the land is patently ridiculous.
Lets have some nuance please.
The Nakba is a myth. Name a single Arab village destroyed by Israeli’s during that time. Go ahead, name one! You can’t. Invading Europeans? How ignorant. That’s another myth.
They don’t know what the Old Yishuv is, and they’re not interested in learning. They’re here to support current thing, to screech about the omnicause, and, if we’re lucky, move on to another trend when the weather warms up.
Learn the actual history? Oh, but it’s so much easier to join the bandwagon and convince yourself that you’re righteous regarding a cause you learned about five minutes ago. Where are they on the Sudan conflict? Oh wait, that’s not fashionable.
Facts matter. It doesn’t matter whether you like them. In the history of urban warfare, the civilian-to-combatant death ratio in the Israeli/Hamas conflict has been among the lowest, if not THE lowest, in modern history. Don’t believe it? Do your homework! The carefully researched statistics are from FAIR estimates of reported deaths from BOTH sides of the conflict- not solely “via Gaza’s Ministry of Health.” This, even though no country has ever faced an enemy in urban conflict who uses human shields, celebrates the slaughter of its enemy, and considers the martyring of their own population to be virtuous. Lest you think that the perpetrators on Oct. 7th were only Hamas combatants, consider that thousands of civilians followed on Oct. 7th and participated in the slaughter. Before Oct. 7th, there was a cease-fire- notwithstanding occasional rocket attacks launched into Israel. Suppose the town of Manchester started lobbing rockets into Storrs. Can you imagine the folks in Storrs deciding that the best thing to do would be to build a strong system of defense, e.g., the Husky Dome? Can you imagine people calling for the protection of the unfortunate population of Manchester if Storrs decided to defend itself?
I actually can imagine people calling for the protection of civilians…..
It seems your solution would be to indiscriminately bomb and kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Manchester, to blockade them, and to prevent them from getting needed water, food, and medical supplies. How very moral of you! Such a proportionate response of self defense!
Let’s not forget you would also support the killing of aid workers from nearby towns who went to help the civilians in Manchester.
If what Israel has done and intends to do is genocide, then they’re pretty poor at it! Check the population statistics for Palestinians. Colonialism? Now, only the rampantly ignorant would make that claim. The indigenous people of a region cannot be said to be colonialists! The myth that Israel was somehow founded with a population of white Europeans is just that– a myth! Remember, Israel left Gaza in 2005! We all know what became of it and why.
No, there is no moral symmetry here in terms of “sides.” Hamas, WITH THE SUPPORT OF A GOOD PORTION OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS, seeks the complete elimination of all Jews. Period. Israel does not seek the death of all Palestinians.
This is not to say that I agree with all of Israel’s tactics and strategies. In fact, I do not! This is not to say that there is some “acceptable” amount of civlian casualties. There is not! Such is the awful nature of war.
Article II of the Genocide Convention, quoted below… “in whole or in part.” Your argument that genocide = complete annihilation is a dangerous one that prevents responsibility and intervention. I do not understand why you would vehemently defends such violence. History will remember the joy you take in mass atrocity and suffering, and your apathy for humanity.
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
I take no joy in suffering and I am hardly apathetic re humanity. If you actually read my words you’d know that. Your analytical skills are lacking. What Israel has done and is doing does NOT fit the definition of genocide you gave. This is all noise! Radical Islam is devoted to wiping every Jew off the earth! It is a religious imperative. They celebrate such slaughter. They celebrate the murder of their own people in service to that cause. Spare me your misguided moral indignation. Get educated.
Your error is in thinking that Israel’s goal, per se, is to destroy in whole or in part an ethnic group.
Did the US not try to destroy the Japanese in whole or in part during WWII? Well, yes, but it wasn’t genocide. WThe US did what it it did, not BECAUSE they were Japanese, but because they were trying to kill us! Yes, it sounds familiar.
It is clear you are not interested in education as you claim. Get out of the comments section. Defending apartheid and genocide is never a good look. Neither is reactionary spamming and baseless personal attacks when offered valuable and informative critiques. There is no room for denial here. Defending the internment camps is disgraceful. Yes America has shameful aspects of its history. So does Israel. If you cared about education and were not apathetic to others, you would be handling this differently. Libermann literally called to “level gaza, including all civilians over 14. Is this not enough for you?
This comment section is filled with people who are legitimately just N*zis saying demeaning things about anyone who goes against their belief. How do you not get that that is insane? You want police to monitor anyone but yourself??
Nazis? There goes your credibility.
Palestinians cannot leave Gaza. They are walled in. They consistently have their home bombed and destroyed. Nearly 50% of them are kids and we continue to bomb and bomb and bomb them instead of thinking of a solution. It’s last the point where any bombing is justified. There are over 50k people dead.
Yes I used the term Nazi. This is because historically, you will see that the two ideologies are NOT that different. I’m not saying it’s one to one, just that some genuinely need to reevaluate and look at the past, to build a brighter and better future.
@Manny, thank you for your educated and thoughtful responses. If only the “useful idiots” that have jumped on the “pro Palestinian social justice warrior” bandwagon cared about facts. They’re too lazy for that. Their selective outrage is outrageous.
What resource did Manny provide. Genuinely. I do not see any substance, other than insulting the perceived intelligence of anyone who shares a different perspective. Their comments are reactionary and clearly impulsive responses where they deny the Nakba and justify Japanese internment. For someone who talks so much they are saying a whole lot of nothing.
All I’ve seen from the Zionists in these comments are “silence them” “we must finish our righteous conquest” and “pro-Palestinian advocates have no credibility”….. after sharing blatantly misinformed details. Yall look silly.
History will not look fondly on these folks, I wish they could just keep their insults and bad takes to themselves
Are you dummies really not seeing that “Strong Zionism” is not literally a zionist but a strawman written by an anti-zionist?? Literally learn how to read? Don’t the undergrads need to take English classes…?
ps dcbias.wordpress.com
pps hamas-massacre.net
It’s absolutely astounding to me that the president of a university cannot write a coherent email with proper spelling and grammar.