A pro-Palestinian student group at Columbia University released a statement Monday that said the recent attacks on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas were a justified "counter-offensive against their settler-colonial oppressor."
The statement from Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine came after weekend attacks on Israel by Hamas, and by Monday afternoon, the war had claimed the lives of more than 1,600 on both sides. The Israeli government has vowed retaliation and has launched a series of attacks on Gaza, a Palestinian city with a heavy Hamas presence.
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The Columbia student group said the attacks on Israel were a "historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza" and that the people of Palestine "tore through the wall that has been suffocating them."
"Despite the odds against them, Palestinians launched a counter-offensive against their settler-colonial oppressor — which receives billions of US dollars annually in military aid and possesses one of the world's most robust surveillance and security apparatuses. Any omission of this context — any rhetoric of 'an unprovoked Palestinian attack' — is shamefully misleading," the group said.
The group further claimed that anyone who called for peace is "not asking for peace" but rather "quiet submission to systemic violence" while recalling attacks on Gaza by Israel in years past, which the group said were "indiscriminat[e]" bombings of Palestinian civilians.
"As long as you perpetuate this narrative, fighting will continue to break out until justice is achieved. Because nothing else is working," the group said. "As Columbia students, our classes regularly discuss the inevitability of resistance as part of the struggle for decolonization. We study under renowned scholars who denounce the fact that the media requires oppressed peoples to be 'perfect victims' in order to deserve sympathy. Yet not only does our institution neglect to align its actions with its ostensible values, but it actively normalizes Israeli apartheid and subjugation of Palestinians."
The statement went on to condemn several university officials who released statements supportive of Israel amid the carnage and demanded that the university "divest" from Israel and end a dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
"We call upon our administration as a whole to start verbally acknowledging Palestinian existence and humanity," the group said, adding that it will be urging students to sign their statement later this week.
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The statement from the Columbia students comes after a coalition of student groups at Harvard released a statement that said Israel was to blame for the weekend's terror attacks. The statement went viral as politicians on both sides of the political spectrum condemned it.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine did not respond to a request for comment.