Faculty members, donors, and advocates for both sides in the conflict have flooded administrators’ inboxes with a flurry of letters, statements, and petitions in recent weeks, demanding that they denounce, speak up for, or stay silent in response to campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.
Campus protests over the conflict in the Middle East in recent days have resulted in screaming matches, student arrests, and, in a handful of instances, violence.
To Davis, the statements from faculty and administrators supporting Israel or condemning pro-Palestinian protests have helped to create a “volatile” and “polarizing” campus climate. Many of the statements have a “complete and utter disregard” for how Palestinian people have been treated for the past 75 years, Davis said. This can be especially problematic for colleges with large populations of Palestinian and other Arab students, he said.