Dov Waxman, a professor of Israel studies at UCLA, was sickened by what he saw on campus last night. When violent pro-Israel groups attacked pro-Palestinian protest camps without police intervention.
“I couldn't have imagined that things would deteriorate to the anarchy that we saw, but I wasn't completely shocked,” he says.
Like others, Waxman does not believe the perpetrator was from the UCLA community. Outside agitators make it more difficult for university administrators to respond to what's happening on campus, he says.
But as a longtime researcher of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he now worries that he is further alienating people like him who seek to promote dialogue and understanding between the two sides.
The organizations involved in planning these protests glorify Hamas' violence against Israel, and their demands often go far beyond anti-war protests, effectively calling for “a mass response to Palestinian suffering.'' “It takes advantage of the sympathy that students rightly feel,” he warned.
“We need to promote dialogue and civil conversation and educate students in ways that actually help them understand the history of the conflict and understand Israel,” he said.
“Many students on both sides of this issue are suffering and confused right now. We need to do it now on our campuses because this conflict is now reverberating around the world.”
