Renowned journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke on holding society accountable for continuing the fight against oppressive systems worldwide. The sold-out event was hosted by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Graham Chapel.

As Israel ramped up its attacks on Gaza, killed more and more civilians, and committed several war crimes, many of us Jews adopted the strategies that Piper describes. We insisted that people who came out in support of Palestine were ignorantly hopping on the most recent and trendy left-wing train. We insisted that pro-Palestine rhetoric was the latest form of subtle (or not-so-subtle) antisemitism. We insisted that Hamas held 100% of the blame for the catastrophic death toll in Gaza. We insisted that those dying were indoctrinated from birth and already terrorists in the making. We even insisted that the death toll and the famine were calculated works of antisemitic fiction.

Student Life reached out to a few students personally impacted by the conflict for their thoughts and reactions to the deal.

A WashU student engaged in a performance art piece was asked to leave the East End of campus, with administration citing the Facilities Access Policy as the reason for requesting him to do so, on April 7.

Palestinian-Lebenese author Saree Makdisi was invited by the Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (JIMES) department on Nov. 4 to give his presentation “Tolerance is Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial” on his work about Western denial of Palestinian oppression and genocide.

If we keep spreading the narrative that WashU is a place of suppression of expression, then yes, it will be a space of uncomfortable silence. We, the student body, have both passively and actively created that perceived reality for ourselves.

I deeply value the intellectual community I have found at WashU, and am regularly struck with admiration for the students, faculty, and staff who constitute it. That is why it pains me to see our community represented in a national news outlet by such a morally unserious statement. WashU deserves better.

For many WashU community members, the defining political issue on campus in the past year has been the Israel-Hamas war that began on Oct. 7. 

Professor Sahar Aziz delivered a lecture and answered audience questions about the racialization of the Israel-Hamas war, particularly by political parties in the United States. The event, titled “The Palestine Taboo: Race, Islamophobia, and Free Speech,” was the first John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics event of the year. Sept. 23. 

I can only imagine the fear young Jewish college students felt when they were abruptly shaken from their studies to such violent chanting by unknown strangers who had descended upon their campus.