This week, we asked readers for their thoughts on the current protests taking place at colleges across the country regarding the Israel–Hamas war.

 

“All American citizens have a constitutional right to peacefully protest, but these protests have veered over into violence. Calling out for American citizens to be killed because they happen to be Jewish; that’s not free speech, and I feel like any other minority group, Black, brown, gay, LGBTQ people, if somebody had protested calling for them to be physically harmed, that would be gone in an instant, but somehow when it’s about Jewish people, then it becomes free speech.”

Hope Langer M.D.,

Riverdale

 

“First and foremost, it was not an attack. It was a terrorist attack. That’s the first thing that needs to be established. The second thing that must be established is that Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization since 1988; they did not just get designated in 2020 or 2021. This is all a part of Hamas’ plan. I’m very well in tune. I read the charter, and this is what they call ‘enticement to genocide’ and the other tactic is what they call ‘urban guerilla warfare.’ I see this ending in a civil war coming to America again.”

Moshe Reyes,

Tremont 

“My thoughts on what’s going on? Look, I promote world peace, right? You know there’s a sign for duality, for every ying, there’s a yang. For every negative, there’s a positive. The ideal method would be to promote world peace. The solution would be for individuals to come together and coexist without so much bitterness and animosity and years-long conflict.”

Jeff Wynn,

Brooklyn

 

“I support Israel but what I don’t support is the genocide that’s going on. What happened in Israel deserves retaliation, but 30,000 innocent people dying, I can’t live with that. I don’t know if there’s a solution. I don’t know. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to go; he’s not right.”

Kevin Jones,

Bedford Park

 

“Honestly speaking, it has to do with different types of racism and the only way we can fix it is by either coming together as a human race, or to move forward in life and say we can’t care about things we have no control over, like war. The solution to the problem is to keep our families safe and understand the point of views from each side.”

John Andre Velasquez,

Kingsbridge