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College Students In US Protest Violence Abroad, While Worrying About Their Safety, Too
Yoanna Kollin, 22, a Studio Art major at California State University, Long Beach, center, embraces other students during a meeting to reflect on the violence amidst the war between Israel and Hamas, at CSULB.
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On Tuesday afternoon, a half dozen members of Beach Hillel, the Jewish student group at California State University, Long Beach gathered near the entrance to the university library. Two men put on tefillin, the traditional Jewish leather prayer bands.
The visibility, days after hundreds of people were killed in Israel, is intentional.
It's "... to remind ourselves that we're proud to be Jewish and that we're not going anywhere and that we're going to continue with all our programming — and not only that, we're going to increase our programming,” said ChayaLeah Sufrin, the group’s executive director.
Understanding how we got here
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The history of this region is both complicated and fraught. Here is some context about what led up to the most recent attacks and counterattacks.
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NPR's Aya Batrawy and Daniel Estrin called the initial attack "one of the most dramatic escalations in violence in recent memory" adding there are "concerns the chaos could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries in the Middle East."
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- This round of bloodshed began with a surprise attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza into Israel during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. On Oct. 7, militants infiltrated Israel's border using paragliders, motorbikes and boats and fired thousands of rockets toward the country from Gaza.
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NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reported on the history of the Gaza Strip. Some key excerpts:
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- The Gaza Strip is a 25-mile-long by 6-mile-wide enclave, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the north and east and Egypt to the south.
- Gaza is one of two Palestinian territories. The other is the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
- The strip has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt, restricting the movement of people and goods since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel controls its airspace and shoreline, as well as what goods can cross Gaza's borders.
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NPR's Fatma Tanis examined how we got here and what might come next in this longstanding conflict.
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For anyone looking for guidance on how to talk to children about this war:
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Here's the latest on a growing movement on college campuses nationwide, as students organize against Israel's war in Gaza.
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Images of violence
Sufrin said students are reeling from the violence because of their cultural, religious, and family connections to Israel, made closer by social media.
“I'm seeing videos of girls and boys getting kidnapped and of families being killed and hiding,” said Ella Tilles, a first year student majoring in liberal studies.
“And then I get a text in my family group chat that my aunt Maggie is in a bunker, and my cousins are in the war. And I haven't seen them in years,” she said.
Levi Perelmuter, Rabbi at Shul By The Shore, left, assists Noah Ashergolden, a faculty member for California State University, Long Beach’s College of Education, in putting on a tefillin, during a gathering of students to reflect on the violence amidst the the war between Israel and Hamas, at CSULB.
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Trevor Stamp
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Tilles was one of about 20 people who gathered in the Beach Hillel meeting room in the university library.
“We want peace in Israel, we want peace for everyone,” Sufrin told the group.
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It’s a message she hopes will temper some of the new fear the students feel after this weekend.
“I came to campus today with my Israeli transgender flag,” said Yoanna Kollin, a fifth-year studio art major.
“Our campus is very liberal… there's a lot of progressive people that are very against Israel… yesterday online I was even called a Nazi by a student… and I'm Jewish, that doesn't make sense,” she said.
Hillel, the international Jewish college organization, posted photos of vigils at several U.S. campuses in response to the violence in Israel.
What we know so far
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Death toll and casualties
- Israeli officials report an attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. In addition, they say about 250 people were taken hostage, some have since been released.
- Gaza health officials have reported more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
— NPR (Jan. 24)
'Sick and tired'
About a hundred yards from the Beach Hillel gathering, on the university quad, several dozen people gathered for a rally to support Palestine.
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Signs read: “End Apartheid” and “Zionism is Fascism.”
Pro-Palestine supporters gather for a rally to speak out against Israel during the ongoing conflict with Hamas, at California State University, Long Beach.
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Trevor Stamp
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“I'm really sick and tired of every single type of resistance being classified as anti-Semitic, as racist, as if we hate the existence of Jews,” said a woman wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh who took the bullhorn to address the group. She declined to give her name.
A man wearing a fluorescent vest said no one in the rally would talk to reporters.
A flier for the rally listed CSULB Students United Against Apartheid as an organizer. The flier showed a drawing of a motorized paraglider, like the ones used by Hamas to cross over the protected border between Gaza and Israel.
Students gathered at the Interfaith Center to reflect on the violence amidst the the Israel and Hamas war, at California State University, Long Beach.
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Trevor Stamp
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On Instagram, the group also spoke to safety, telling followers who might be nervous "due to the amount of negative attention and commentary" that the group would have a safety team present to mediate conflict. "The top priority is to keep each other safe, avoid interactions with police and media, and minimize interaction with instigators," the organizers said.
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CSULB’s president supported the group’s free speech rights, but condemned glorification of war and killing.
“For many, those posts — and an event the group is planning for this afternoon — are deeply offensive in light of the loss of life and unspeakable violence during this conflict,” said university president Jane Close Conoley in an email to the university community.
The expected escalation of the war in Israel may test Conoley and other college leaders’ ability to keep campus discussions civil as campus leaders try to focus on making this a teachable moment.
Disclosure: Guzman-Lopez is an adjunct professor of journalism at CSU Long Beach.
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