College campuses around the country are dealing with an extreme rise in antisemitism since the Hamas Terrorist Attack on Oct. 7. These incident’s stem from young adults who are listing to Hamas propaganda, and speaking dangerous words without knowing the true meaning behind them.

One student wrote an erroneous opinion piece in the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), a student-led newspaper at Indiana University. You can read it here: https://www.idsnews.com/article/2023/10/opinion-israel-palestine-conflict-idf-hamas-gaza-nakba.

Below is a response from Indianapolis native and Indiana University student Tyler Burnett who calls out the inaccuracies of the opinion piece. It was submitted to IDS. Unfortunately, the piece was never published. The IDS staff tried to heavily edit it to the point where it was no longer written as intended.

It is just one example of the way community members are stepping up to communicate inaccurate narrative of the Israel-Hamas war.

It is important that Jewish and non-Jewish community members alike take action to correct inaccuracies related to this war.

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OPINION: Mr. Quigg--There will Never Be Peace Until Palestinians Accept Israel’s Right to Exist

Written by: Tyler Burnett

Jared Quigg’s op-ed on the Hamas war on Israel is a sad indictment of the educational system

on our campus, because so much of what he stated is historically and factually inaccurate and

because the editorial board allowed these inaccuracies to be published and these myths to be

perpetuated. Opinions in newspapers should be offered on facts—not falsehoods. Many

students at IU are truly interested in understanding the world around them. Understanding the

historical context of the region is the first step to achieving this goal.

 

While Mr. Quigg accurately noted that the current round of violence began on October 7, he

failed to state what actually happened that day. On October 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel,

slaughtered over 250 young people at a concert --- including Americans – and took more than

200 civilians back to Gaza where they remain held as hostages. Hamas terrorists stormed into

residential communities, where they shot community members on sight, tied families together

and burned them alive. While murdering their victims, Hamas also butchered and tortured them.

Among other things, on October 7, Hamas beheaded babies in their cribs and sexually

assaulted women and proudly recorded themselves doing so. I can’t believe I even have to say

this, but killing children and raping women is not “resistance.”

 

While there are many misconceptions in Mr. Quigg’s article, the crux of his misinformation,

comes from what he believes happened in 1948. Mr. Quigg states: “What we’re seeing in Gaza

is the continuation of the nakba, the “catastrophe” that saw hundreds of thousands of

Palestinians killed or displaced beginning in 1948, according to the United Nations.” It is vital

that any person looking to understand this point in history and its ramifications understand why

Mr. Quigg’s statement is inaccurate. I urge IU students to research the UN partition of Palestine.

It is quite clear: In 1948, the UN apportioned two separate Nation states to two indigenous

groups—Arabs and Jews. The national lines were mainly drawn along population centers. East

Jerusalem was to be under control of Jordan. The Jews accepted the decision and reached out

to their Arab neighbors in peace. The Arabs refused the proposal and declared war.

 

Within days of the two-state partition, 5 Arab nations attacked Israel-- Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt,

Syria and Iraq. With all-out war being waged on a small and brand-new country, many Arab

civilians heeded the advice of the Arab armies and fled their villages. They were told by the

Arab leaders that they could return within weeks, once the invaders killed all the Jews. They left

their homes thinking they would come back and take over all the land in conquest. The Israelis

won a miraculous victory. The Arabs who had stayed and sought peace became Israeli citizens

and are integral to Israeli society. The ones who fled found themselves on the wrong side of

history and in refugee camps. The events of 1948 were not an attempt by Israel to commit

genocide, as many falsely claim. Rather, they were an Arab attempt of genocide against the

Jews.

 

It would take an entire edition of IDS to correct all the misinformation about Israel that were

penned by Mr. Quigg regarding the current conflict. Here are some of the most egregious:

Mr. Quiqq perpetuates the misinformation that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza. Various

intelligence agencies have all independently concluded that a rocket launched by Palestinian

Islamic Jihad misfired and hit the hospital.

 

Facts matter. The facts are that Israel has offered land in exchange for peace in 1948, 1967,

1993 and in 2005. Yet Israel has never received peace. Contrary to Quigg’s statements, there

are no illegal settlements in Gaza, and Israel is not “killing and displacing the indigenous

population as part of a Zionist political agenda” in Gaza. Israel is defending its people from the

onslaught of constant terror and hate.

 

If Israel needed a pretense to attack Hamas, it has had 10 years of rocket strikes, suicide

bombings, knife attacks, kidnappings, and a generation of Israeli children with PTSD from

Hamas rockets forcing them into bomb shelters as a “pretense.” The massacre on Oct 7 was a

horrific act of war meticulously planned by Hamas. You don’t have to agree with the policies of

the Israeli government to have the moral clarity to condemn the decapitation of babies. Could

the bar get any lower?

 

A more disturbing problem with Mr. Quigg’s rhetoric is that he sees justification for Hamas

violence against Jews, stating “One people cannot subjugate another so ruthlessly and for so

long and expect to face no resistance.” From the opposite angle, one group—Hamas— cannot

subjugate the Israelis to terror, for so many years, and not expect resistance from the Israeli

side. Violence will plague the region as long as Hamas terror tactics remain unresolved.

Mr. Quigg, chose to quote “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” meaning “free of

Jews living from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” He is aware that calling for a “free

Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” is used by many in the Middle East

as a call for the destruction of Israel and eradication of the Jews. He is also aware that the

founding charter of Hamas calls for the murder of Jews. Mr. Quigg is clearly advocating for

genocide.

 

Mr. Quigg suggests he does not care about Jewish lives. He does not care about the 200

hostages kidnapped by Hamas including 30 children, the 1400 Israelis killed by Hamas on

October 7th, the thousands wounded, and the tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their

towns due to current border fighting. I do hope our fellow students care. Then maybe they’ll

seek to understand.

 

I mourn for all the innocent lives being lost. No child should have to die in war, but I blame

Hamas for every life lost in this war and know that a lasting peace will never be achieved until

Israel no longer has to live under the threat of terror.

 

Mr. Quigg is right about one thing: We cannot be silent about this.