KU Student Senate Anti-Israel Resolution Stirs Protests
A contentious University of Kansas Student Senate resolution condemning Israel’s actions against Hamas passed Wednesday night, ending with Jewish students singing in protest as they left the chamber, according to the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle Newspaper.
The eight-page measure faced fierce opposition from Jewish campus organizations, who warned it would endanger their community. After the vote, Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, KU Chabad’s co-director, led students in singing “Am Yisrael Chai” — “The People of Israel Live.”
“Prior to us attending the senate meeting, we tried to get information on the procedures… we didn’t know what we were walking into,” said Dori Jezmir, KU senior and founder of the current iteration of KU Students Supporting Israel.
The resolution, which characterizes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide, came from a coalition including Jewish Students for People’s Liberation and KU Students for Justice in Palestine. It notably omits any mention of Hamas or its October 7 attack that sparked the current conflict, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Last week, Hamas revised their death toll admitting that the vast majority of deaths in Gaza have been males of fighting age, not women and children as they’ve claimed for 18 months. The change in tone comes as Gazans have been protesting Hamas and calling for the terrorist organization to release the remaining hostages in an effort to end the war.
In a joint statement, KU Hillel and KU Chabad condemned the measure as “an act of selective, performative activism singling out the State of Israel and villainizing Jewish students who believe in the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland.”
Technical issues heightened tensions when a YouTube livestream of the proceedings cut out during Jewish students’ presentations, only resuming afterward.
“This resolution doesn’t make Palestinians, Israelis or Jews safer,” argued Rachel Kricsfeld, a KU senior, during her testimony. “It just makes Jewish students feel more alone, more targeted and more afraid to display their Judaism.” Her comments have been proven true as violent acts against Jewish students in universities across the nation have proliferated.
The debate at KU reflects growing tensions nationwide. Just this week, Stanford University charged twelve pro-Palestinian protesters with felony counts following campus demonstrations, as universities across America wrestle with similar resolutions and protests amid the ongoing Gaza war, according to Fox News.
Similar resolutions have passed at other regional universities including UMKC in Kansas City which also had pro-Hamas demonstrations and Wichita State University whose student group encouraged other colleges to follow suit. Kansas State in Manhattan remains the outlier, having not weighed in for support of Hamas and its Gaza stronghold, as covered by the Washington Times.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
