Letters to the Editor: Debating the arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses

To the editor: It feels like a heavy week. College students across the nation have been facing extreme forms of retaliation for justly demanding that the schools to which they become indebted divest from a genocide.

These institutions are trying to silence us, yet they are the ones that have taught us we have a right to peaceful assembly. That is, apparently, unless we exercise that right to call them out and hold them accountable.

A genocide should never be debated; it is inhumane to do so. Let us remember that in arresting student protesters, USC, Columbia, the University of Texas and other schools are choosing to leave a very sad legacy.

Jocelyne Flores, Fontana

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To the editor: As a USC alumnus, I am all in favor of law enforcement arresting campus agitators, protesters and non-student hoodlums committing vandalism and trespassing.

As John Adams aptly stated: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

It is a fact that Hamas is a terrorist group committed to the extermination of Israel. It is also a fact that the majority of Palestinians in Gaza agree with the decision by Hamas to attack Israel on Oct. 7.

The abject ignorance of these protesters is appalling yet not surprising. The spinelessness of most college administrators and presidents is equally appalling yet also not surprising.

Kevin S. Avery, Tarzana

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To the editor: The student protests regarding Gaza are not pro-Palestinian or antisemitic. They are anti-genocide.

There is no excuse in the world for killing 35,000 people — two-thirds of whom are women and children — all in the cause of vengeance. Israel has the absolute right to exist and protect itself. It does not have the right to slaughter innocents.

No one in our universities across this country would protest the slaying of the Hamas murderers who slaughtered innocent Israelis on Oct. 7. But Israel cannot be allowed to continue killing Palestinians. The protesters are reminding us all that genocide is a vile sin.

Glenn Shockley, Winnetka

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To the editor: I would posit that most of the protesters are unaware of the history of Palestine and the persecution of the Jewish people going as far back as the year 70 AD. Granted, Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack may have been too harsh, but what would you expect a lion to do if you poked its behind with a stick?

Our education system has failed to prepare our students to analyze events critically. It should be obvious that this mob behavior on our college campuses cannot be accepted as the norm.

John T. Chiu, Newport Beach

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To the editor: The Gaza Strip is about 7,500 miles from Los Angeles and 5,800 miles from Washington. The United States does not have combat troops on the ground in Gaza or Israel.

Currently, there is no military draft, so none of the students protesting on college campuses has to make a difficult choice about how or whether to avoid it, nor do they have to grieve their peers who came home in a box.

People in Israel and Gaza have no influence on American policy.

I know people who protest like to feel as if they have made change in the world, but the situation in Gaza will not change because American college students are protesting. I wish it would, but wars in that region have been going on for a long time.

Darcy Vernier, Culver City