The Israel-Hamas War’s Impact on SU
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In the aftermath of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, areas claimed by Palestinians. The Israel-Palestine conflict, now seven decades old, continues today. Just over a year ago, on October 7, 2023, an attack by Hamas against Israel occurred, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1,139 and nearly 250 captive Israelis.
Israel’s response was swift and extensive. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, reports estimate over 40,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli forces, including over 15,000 children, in the Israeli government’s goal to “wipe [Hamas] off the face of the Earth”. The loss of Palestinian civilian lives has led to emotional response in the hearts of college students nationwide, prompting student-led protests and counter-protests at various Texas campuses, including Southwestern University.
On May 11, at the 2024 Southwestern University commencement ceremony, a student speaker, selected by the honor society Phi Beta Kappa, took the opportunity on the commencement stage to express thoughts on the war through a framework of “critical thinking and empathy,” invoking a quote by the black feminist bell hooks, who did an artist-in-residency at Southwestern from 2001-2002 and gave her own controversial commencement speech in 2002.
The administration asserted that the 2024 commencement speaker’s comments in question had not been received before their delivery. The speech received backlash amongst individuals and the Anti-Defamation League for the speech’s use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In response to individuals “disappointed” with the remarks, Southwestern University issued an official statement on the commencement remarks. However, some graduating students and faculty praised the comments, encouraging the speaker and raising concern about the University’s response.
| Southwestern University – Official Statement on Commencement Remarks“We have heard from many individuals in attendance Saturday regarding their disappointment with the content of the student speaker’s remarks. The phrase used in her speech is highly controversial and perceived as antisemitic by both individuals and multiple organizations. Antisemitic statements and slogans violate Southwestern University’s core values and, as such, are not condoned by the leadership of the University. The University neither approved the student’s remarks nor was informed of her intentions prior to the event. The speaker selection process has been in place for years. All current Phi Beta Kappa members nominate candidates. Members vote on the names listed. The selected student provides a draft of the speech and practices it with a member of the Student Life team. Edits are suggested for delivery and vocabulary. The student provides a final copy. The speech that was given at commencement was not approved. We deeply value our academic community’s diversity of perspectives and their desire to freely express those perspectives. We also expect that student speeches at university-wide events reflect our commitment to a respectful and inclusive environment, while still upholding academic freedom that is the center of our mission. Unfortunately, certain comments did not reflect our respectful and inclusive environment. We are committed to an ongoing dialogue about maintaining this balance effectively and ensuring that our community continues as a place of learning and respect.” |
On May 15, 2024, The Megaphone reached out to President Trombley to clarify which line had been referred to as being “antisemitic”. Vice President Dinah Ritche emailed in response, confirming the “antisemitic” statement had been “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” yet declined to comment on any further questions about responding to statements made by the faculty DIBE committee and feminist studies program.
| Student Commencement Speech Transcript“Today, we as a Southwestern community have the responsibility of putting these words into action by condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In the past 6 months, Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, and earlier this week bombed Rafah where millions of displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter. In tandem, the United States government signed a bill guaranteeing $15 billion in military funding to Israel, and the University of Texas actively employs its endowment to invest in weapons manufacturers who supply the Israeli Occupation Forces. Both of these institutions are complicit in genocide–will the Southwestern community be too? Families, as you watch your students cross the stage, know that so far, Israel has killed at least 14,500 Palestinian children, children who will never have the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Administrators, alumni, and professors, if you claim to value education so highly as a tool…for positive change, remember that the Israeli government has taken the lives of at least 100 Palestinian academics and destroyed every single university in Gaza. Despite brutal, militarized efforts to silence those condemning genocide, students’ voices remain strong. Voices like Asna Tabbasum, voices like those at the University of Texas, Columbia, Emory, University of California, and many others. If any of my speech makes you feel uncomfortable, angered, scared, then good! It should! Use those feelings to demand a ceasefire, to demand an end to the occupation. To my fellow graduates, I demand that we use our diplomas, our knowledge, our power as a tool for positive change. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Thank you.” |
The Megaphone conducted a fact-check of the commencement remarks based on information available at the time:
- “Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians” – True: Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people.
- “Israeli forces…bombed Rafah where millions of displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter” – True: The Israeli bombardment was particularly intense around Rafah and before the incursion began, Rafah was housing about 1.3 million Palestinians, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere.
- “the United States government signed a bill guaranteeing $15 billion in military funding to Israel” – True: A bill from Washington gave $15 billion in military aid to Israel, additionally giving $1 billion for humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians.
- “the University of Texas actively employs its endowment to invest in weapons manufacturers who supply the Israeli Occupation Forces” – True: The University of Texas has shares in Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, the Northrop Grumman Corporation, Israeli software company Check Point, Tel Aviv-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Israeli government bonds and currency holdings.
- “Israel has killed at least 14,500 Palestinian children” – Mixed: The United Nations updated their estimate after the commencement in May from 14,500 to 7,797 children killed due to not enough information about the identities of those killed.
- “the Israeli government has taken the lives of at least 100 Palestinian academics and destroyed every single university in Gaza” – True: All 12 of Gaza’s higher education institutions have been destroyed or damaged and more than 350 teachers and academics have been killed according to Palestinian official data.
On social media, some users took to the comment section of graduation posts on the SU Instagram page, commenting “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea”. The SU Feminist Studies Program, aforementioned, which had made previous posts advocating for Palestine, released a post in support of the student speaker’s remarks alongside the faculty Diversity, Inclusivity, Belonging, and Equity (DIBE) committee’s response to the official statement made by SU.
| DIBE Committee’s Response to SU’s Official Statement on Commencement Remarks“The faculty DIBE committee is deeply troubled and outraged by the University’s statement on the student commencement address. It is evident from the statement’s vagueness that the administration is not invested in a ‘diversity of perspectives’ and is concerned instead with appeasing the loudest and most conservative voices on this matter–an ironic move, given that just five days ago, President Trombley sent a letter to the community reassuring us that academic freedom is protected from these very forces at Southwestern University. It is unconscionable that, as a university, we cannot stand by one of our most brilliant graduates for speaking up not only against genocide, but on the ongoing scholasticide happening in Gaza, where not a single university is left standing. In doing so, she embodied one of the University’s core values. ‘Encouraging activism in the pursuit of justice and the common good.’ At minimum, if the administration felt compelled to take seriously the politicized expansion of the definition of antisemitism, and its use as a blunt cudgel, it should have noted that, while some understand the statement “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be antisemitic (and some may use it with that intent), others, like the student commencement speaker, understand it as a call for the liberation of the long-oppressed Palestinian people and, by implication, of all the peoples, of all faiths, who live in the region (since the freedom of one depends on the freedom of all). That could have been a way to genuinely recognize the ‘diversity of perspectives’ to which the statement otherwise gives abstract and empty lip-service, while siding (in an equally vague and empty way) with the view that some part of the student’s speech was antisemitic. For Southwestern University to publicly impute antisemitism in this way to one of its own alumni two days after her graduation is unconscionable and despicable. We utterly reject that imputation and we repudiate this statement from the University. The administration has much to atone for on this. It could begin by standing against scholasticide and acting on the student speaker’s call for divestment from death.” |
According to Professor Solomon, a faculty member in Feminist Studies and activist in support of Palestine, many Southwestern faculty members created an email campaign to voice their disapproval of the way the University responded to the backlash received. Within the email campaign, faculty listed a set of demands, including a private and public apology to the commencement speaker and funding for programming led by faculty to educate the campus and draw upon their expertise on anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-racist work, in an attempt to connect Palestine with other struggles across the globe. None of these demands were met.
The controversy over the commencement speech is not the first campus happening related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After issuing a statement about lowering the flags to half-staff in response to Governor Abbott’s request following the Hamas attack on Israel, Vice President for Integrated Communications & Marketing David Ochsner, “made the decision to resign from his position effective immediately,” according to President Trombley.
This was followed by the formation of Southwestern’s Student Petition Against The Senior Administrative Staff (2023), spear-headed by now 2024 graduate DeVonte’ Rogers, which included a request that there be apologies to students and Ochsner. The petition listed hate incidents and crimes on campus as a pretext for actions and demands it wished to see taken, accumulating the signatures of student organizations, students, staff, and faculty alike. While there was one more final push for a mandatory town hall during finals week to have senior administration address the petition, no townhall occurred and the SGA tabled indefinitely a resolution in favor of the town hall, primarily due to debate about the sponsor’s wording of “dishonesty and manipulation carried out by the Senior Administration.”
As the Israel-Hamas War continues, its scope and ramifications have expanded to Lebanon and Iran as well, impacting students and communities globally. At the crux of its impact on SU is the ability of students to critically think and inform themselves in this rapidly globalizing world.