In a rising string of contentious events, Albany Law School’s Professor Nina Farnia recently took to social media to express her support for the recent Gaza attacks, characterizing them as “tearing down the walls of colonialism & apartheid.”
This followed a previous incident in which the NYU Law SBA president expressed support for similar attacks. Both instances have sparked controversy, with critics asserting that such statements are not only unhelpful but damaging to all parties involved.
Farnia’s comments make no distinction between the innocent children, who make up approximately half the population of Gaza, and a terror group that never won a majority election but took control after an electoral plurality nearly 18 years ago. Critics argue that these comments pin the blame and responsibility of the attacks on the general populous of Gaza, a stance that is fundamentally dehumanizing and likely to exacerbate the situation.
Those who identify themselves as supporters of the Palestinian cause should consider the comments by Israel’s president, who in his recent address, placed collective responsibility for the attacks on all Palestinians in Gaza, including children.
This widespread attribution of collective guilt to innocents, especially children, is drawing criticism from multiple fronts. The narrative of the attacks is complex and nuanced, and oversimplifying it to “necessary” acts of “resistance” is not conducive to finding a viable solution for peace.