A year has gone by since the terrorist group Hamas, which governs Gaza, declared war on Israel. On October 7, 2023, thousands of armed terrorists crossed the border during the early morning and killed a few soldiers who were in the area, and a large number of civilians. Most of the victims were women, children and elderly people living on farms near the border, and young people who were dancing at a music festival. The murders, torture, and rapes were filmed and broadcast by the killers themselves.
In addition to killing more than 1.200 people, the terrorists kidnapped hundreds, whom they still hold hostage. Among the murdered and kidnapped are Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, atheists from over 20 nationalities. The kidnapped include children as young as one year old to 90 year old grandparents. Many of these hostages were sexually abused in captivity, and several dozen were murdered in cold blood. Those who still survive are doing so in inhumane conditions in tunnels without adequate food, without the most basic medication available; some of them have been operated without anesthesia by veterinarians to continue being used as human shields.
This war, initiated by Hamas, still continues and has caused the death and suffering of many. Hamas took refuge in tunnels, leaving their own civilians exposed. The dead in Israel did not deserve their death, and neither did the Gazans. Hamas did not ask them if they wanted to go to war against Israel and be left abandoned, while those who started the war occupied the shelters.
This war is a tragedy for all people who wish to live in peace. We hope it ends as soon as possible. We hope that after all this suffering the messengers of death will be defeated, and everyone living in the region can focus on what all humans want: a peaceful and prosperous life for us and our children.
The attack on October 7, 2023, was a tragedy that led to an armed conflict, but it also generated a moral collapse in some societies. A distorted world where feminist groups defend rapists, human rights organizations support kidnappers, progressive youth tear down posters of hostage children, yet carefully protect posters of abandoned dogs, and defenders of academic freedom exclude professors for being Zionists (i.e. Jews).
We will all pay dearly for this return to the world of obscurantism, racial prejudice, and witch hunts if we do not react in time. Racism and prejudice displace intelligence and steer the human spirit away from scientific advances and artistic achievements. The human spirit consumes itself in conspiracy theories, primal fears, and false knowledge. In the long run, reservoirs of hatred overflow, collapsing the trust and collaboration that differentiates us as humans from other species.
As an academic, my greatest disappointment was realizing that education was not the cure for racism and discrimination that we once thought it would or should be. Witnessing how some of the most elite universities in the world tolerated harassment of Jewish students and public support for terrorism shattered the belief that education would ensure that reason, dialogue, and openness to other cultures would form the basis for moral progress.
What we saw for months was the antithesis of university thought: groupthink and herd behavior. We were bombarded with speeches that reveal deep ignorance about the people they claim to defend, the region they claim to care about, and the history of their conflicts. We have witnessed a pernicious form of selective morality, where a single conflict in the world monopolizes the outrage of certain groups, who seem obsessed with Israel, even though there are dozens of ethnic and religious conflicts in the world.
As educators, we need to reflect deeply on this moral collapse and lead us to fulfill our ethical obligation to contribute to a social life free of prejudice and persecution. The legitimacy of universities is not based solely on the quality of their research and teaching. They must also be a moral reference. Respect for others and rational discussion of disagreements is also an integral part of the university's responsibility. And some of the world's most important universities have failed miserably in this mission.
We thought that every human being's right to a dignified life free from persecution was axiomatic, universally accepted in democratic countries. October 7 set us back in this moral progress. We will have to recover the lost ground. We will have to choose between a world that ensures the sanctity of life or one that glorifies death. Universities have much to contribute if we have the conviction and the will to do so.