For the previous two months, faculties and public squares throughout the nation have been stuffed with demonstrations in assist of Palestinian statehood and opposing Israel’s army response to the October 7 terrorist assaults and its insurance policies towards the West Financial institution. “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” is a standard chant at these protests, prompting debate over whether or not the phrase is or ought to be thought of inherently threatening to Jewish college students and others. College of Pennsylvania professor Claire Finkelstein, for one, argues this phrase “in the present context . . . creates a hostile environment that can impair the equal educational opportunities of Jewish students.”
Pplitical Science Professor Ron Hassner of the College of California at Berkeley was curious whether or not school college students and others calling for Palestine to be “free” “from the river to the sea” understood what that slogan entails, so he carried out a survey to search out out, and wrote up his ends in the Wall Avenue Journal. His op-ed begins:
When school college students who sympathize with Palestinians chant “From the river to the sea,” do they know what they’re speaking about? I employed a survey agency to ballot 250 college students from quite a lot of backgrounds throughout the U.S. Most mentioned they supported the mantra, some enthusiastically so (32.8%) and others to a lesser extent (53.2%).
However solely 47% of the scholars who embrace the slogan had been capable of identify the river and the ocean. A number of the different solutions had been the Nile and the Euphrates, the Caribbean, the Useless Sea (which is a lake) and the Atlantic. . . .
Would studying fundamental political details in regards to the battle average college students’ opinions? A Latino engineering scholar from a southern college reported “definitely” supporting “from the river to the sea” as a result of “Palestinians and Israelis should live in two separate countries, side by side.” Proven on a map of the area {that a} Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, leaving no room for Israel, he downgraded his enthusiasm for the mantra to “probably not.” Of the 80 college students who noticed the map, 75% equally modified their view.
Hassner additionally studies {that a} majority of these surveyed who initially voiced assist for a single Palestinian state moderated their views “when they learned it would entail the subjugation, expulsion or annihilation of seven million Jewish and two million Arab Israelis.”
Hassner’s survey targeted on the implications of “from the river to the sea.” I might not be in any respect shocked had been surveys claims Israelis are European colonizers or evaluating civil and non secular freedom throughout the Center East to search out related ranges of ignorance, and an equal moderation of views when respondents had been introduced with related historical past and context.
Whereas some argue that universities (and others) ought to tamp down on free expression with a purpose to quell discord on school campuses, Hassner’s findings recommend universities would possibly do higher to double-down on their core mission: Educating their college students and offering a discussion board for the presentation and examination of concepts. As Hassner discovered, one thing so simple as exhibiting college students maps of the Center East considerably informs and impacts their understanding of the present Israel-Hamas battle. Now think about what would possibly occur if universities made a critical effort to sponsor substantive boards on the historical past of the battle, presenting considerate proponents of the competing positions and laying bear the total complexity (and maybe intractability) of the present state of affairs, all of the whereas modeling civil discourse for assembled college students. This might do greater than policing memes and chants. Universities, of all establishments, ought to consider within the energy of schooling.