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We already covered this ground when the NYU Law SBA president expressed support for the Hamas attacks, but apparently we have to address this again: defending Hamas is not helping anyone. It is, in fact, almost certainly hurting.
The latest instance involves Albany Law’s Professor Nina Farnia, who took to social media to post “Long live the Palestinian resistance & people of Gaza” and to describe the recent attacks as “tearing down the walls of colonialism & apartheid.”
By way of contrast, if someone wants to say, “these attacks should not be used to precipitate potential further war crimes” or to point to past human rights abuses on the part of settlers or IDF personnel — not as a justification, but as part of an intellectually consistent rejection of all violence — those statements do not condone what’s happened. Calling the attacks “necessary” or draping kidnapping and massacre in the rhetoric of some sort of noble resistance does.
And most importantly, it paints over any distinction between the innocent children — which is about half the population of Gaza — and a terror group that never won a majority election but seized control after securing a plurality nearly 18 years ago. These comments peg these attacks on the rest of the people on the ground in Gaza and that’s fundamentally dehumanizing and only likely to make everything worse.
My last article on this subject pointed out that it wouldn’t have helped Fred Korematsu to concoct justifications for Pearl Harbor. Trying to tie him into events he had nothing to do with based on his ethnicity was the problem. It’s not helping the plight of the people these activists purport to defend to build the case that Hamas speaks for Gaza.
For those folks who position themselves as supporters of the Palestinian cause, consider these remarks from Israel’s president echoing the idea that the “people of Gaza” fully own these attacks:
In comments on Friday, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog said Palestinians in Gaza were collectively responsible for the attack. “It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians [being] not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true,” he said. “They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup ‘d etat.”
Can we all just stop ascribing collective guilt to children? Is it really all that fucking hard?
Albany Law professor ripped for praise of Palestinians ‘tearing down the walls of colonialism’ [WNYT]
Earlier: NYU Law SBA President Brands Hamas Attacks As ‘Necessary’
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
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