By Jordan Fleisher
CCC Journalism Program
The latest flareup of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has drawn the attention of Camden County College students.
Israel launched an offensive in Gaza vowing to destroy Palestinian-affiliated Hamas after the group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians dates back to 1948, when the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War.
Among the CCC students reacting to the latest conflict is Malachy Magner. “I wouldn’t really consider it a war, more like a genocide, (an) ethnic cleansing of people who lived there originally,” Magner said. “As much as I believe it’s colonization and other people may have their own opinions, at this point in time all it is is a genocide.”
CCC student Dani Vanzandt-Marchewka said people should know “it’s just another genocide, you know, it’s not a war, they’re (Israel) killing everyone. They don’t deserve to kill people just because they’ve been there 100 years.”
On the other side of the topic, at a debate at the University of Massachusetts, Professor Jay Berkovitz stated, “Equally important is the cultural and religious attachment to the land. Early 20th-century Muslim authorities actually affirmed Jewish attachment to the land. The return of the Jewish people to their homeland did not occur after the Holocaust, (it occurred before).”
University of Massachusetts debate: https://www.umass.edu/cmass/news-and-events/opposing-views-israel-palestine
History of the conflict: https://www.un.org/unispal/history/