Tensions are rising throughout college campuses in response to the Israel and Hamas war. 

Campuses including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California, Riverside (UCR) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) have faced increasing threats and safety concerns amid demonstrations and rallies.  

At UCLA, some student groups received threats for a lecture called “Emergency Teach-in on the Crisis,” causing the class to transition from in-person to online. At UCR, students spoke out in response to Palestinian flags on campus. Several students at CSULB who held a rally in support of Palestine created an uproar on campus, to which the university’s administration condemned the rally but acknowledged the students’ right to gather.

Within Orange County, antisemitic flyers were being distributed as residents discovered them across their neighborhoods. Some of the flyers were also seen on cars parked near Harwood Street and Chapman Avenue.

Rising tensions at Chapman University emerge as students and faculty respond to the recent Israel-Hamas war.

Chapman postponed an ‘American Islamophobia’ author's speech at a symposium until next spring. Khaled Beydoun, the keynote speaker and a law professor at Arizona State University, worried some officials at Chapman as having Beydoun speak in the current climate could be seen as insensitive and unsafe.

Fowler Law School Dean Paul Paton sent an email to students, announcing that the symposium would be postponed until “the situation in the Middle East will have hopefully calmed down and Beydoun’s speech might be better received.”

Dean of Students Jerry Price affirmed the university’s role in supporting students who are impacted by the war.

“Our job is just to unconditionally support our students the best we can,” Price said in an interview with The Panther. “So, I think there are times it’s easy for some students to feel as if that’s not the case, so we’ve been trying to go out of our way to let students know it is the case and try to help them trust that.”

On Oct. 10, President Daniele Struppa sent an email to students and faculty regarding the university's commitment to build an inclusive and empathetic community. Struppa also provided campus services and resources for students impacted by the Israel-Hamas war.

“These events are deeply tragic, and we must further an environment of empathy, understanding and respect for one another, even when faced with deeply polarizing global events,” Struppa said. “I encourage each of you to lean on the resources available to you, including Fish Interfaith Center and Health and Wellness Services.”

Shayk Jibreel Speight, the director of Muslim life and a chaplain at the Fish Interfaith Center, commented on available resources students impacted by the war can use.

“We offer spaces for students whether they be Muslim or Arab, non-Muslim or Arab, whatever their denomination might be,” Speight told The Panther. “We offer them an opportunity to come to our offices, whoever they feel comfortable with talking to, and expressing their feelings.”

Speight emphasizes that the resources offered don’t apply to any one community in particular. Any student is welcome to utilize the services that the center provides.

“We advocate here as well, if (students) feel any type of anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian type of feeling, we navigate that their concerns are addressed with the right people; that would be Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Jerry Price’s office, the Dean of Student Affairs and anyone else that are stakeholders in making sure that whoever the student is, whatever position that they are taking, that they feel welcomed for whatever position that they take,” Speight continued.

Senior business administration major Leah Hallal stated how the war has impacted her. 

“It’s definitely scary, you know, I just feel like the East never gets a break,” Hallal said. “There’s just always turmoil, and it’s always backed by Western powers, like the U.S., so it’s really frustrating and scary because at the end of the day, the only people that are at risk are the civilians that want no part in this.”

Several student organizations on campus, such as Chapman Hillel, Chapman Democrats,

Chapman’s Students Supporting Israel and Chapman’s Students for Justice in Palestine, are addressing the recent war. Some have released a statement regarding their stance on the issue. 

On Oct. 9, Israeli and Palestinian flags were planted around the Atallah Piazza and then shortly removed. Recognized student organizations are allowed to post flyers on approved locations on campus and create exhibits as well. However, Price sent an email to explain that students are required to schedule a space reservation in advance when placing exhibits on campus. 

“The policy is in place so that impromptu exhibits don’t disrupt the plans for students groups and departments who have already reserved that space (or adjoining space),” Price said. “Understandably, the groups of students who displayed the flags last week were not familiar with this distinction, so Chapman staff removed the flags and returned them to the students involved.”

On Oct. 18, Chapman’s Student for Justice in Israel held a memorial for the victims of terrorism. 

Chapman Chabad and Hillel, two Jewish community groups on campus, held a vigil on Oct. 9 in response to Hamas’ attack in Israel.

Rabbi Daniel Levine, a staff member for Chapman Hillel, commented in response to a roadmap to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. 

“I identify as a Zionist, but fundamentally, my Zionism also has room for Palestinians,” Levine told The Panther. “I also deeply care about Palestinians, both as individuals and also as people who I believe are deserving of a state and country of their own or equal rights in a country of Israel if the wider, regional and security concerns allow it.”

Junior political science and peace studies double major Michael Pepito, who currently serves as the president of Chapman Democrats, weighed in on some students' concerns in discussing the recent event.

“I’ve had Muslim and Arab or Palestinian friends who have been too scared to come to school, too scared to talk about this,” Pepito said. “We invited a few to (last) Monday’s meeting, but a lot of them personally told us that they got cold feet or they didn’t want to do anything to inflame the situation on campus, and so they were afraid to kind of go into these shared spaces between Jewish students and Muslim/Arab or Palestinian students.” 

Chapman Democrats Vice President James Moore, a junior political science major, shared how facilitating a safe environment can be a way for students to feel comfortable amid heightened tensions.

“I think that one of the more distressing or problematic things that can occur during these kinds of crises is that students get really worked up, students start separating from each other, alienating from each other, only hanging out in one space (and) not interacting in a kind of interconnected community,” Moore told The Panther. “And I feel like when tensions really heighten, this can happen. So, one of the best things you can do is try and facilitate creating environments where people can feel comfortable around each other with no feeling of being threatened.”  

Chapman’s Students for Justice in Palestine declined a request for an interview in response to a stated desire to hear from both sides.

“SJP is going to decline to comment on this piece, as we’re not interested in engaging with stories that are equating Palestinian and Israeli violence. This is not a “conflict” this is the precursor of a genocide against the Palestinian people, and we just can’t in good faith engage with media that will paint both sides as being equally at fault and equally suffering,” SJP said. 

However, the organization did release a statement on Oct. 11, calling for the support of the liberation of Palestine.

“Here at Chapman, in the last few days, our community members have been harassed by the same racist rhetoric that is being leveraged towards our people back in Palestine… all we ask is that our community and the broader incidents occurring abroad are treated with the objectivity that they demand, and that we can be met with more than empty placations and afterthoughts,” the statement read. 

The organization released another statement that same day, expressing their discontent with Chapman’s administration in response to the escalation of the recent Israel-Hamas war and how it is impacting the Palestinian community. 

“Instead of using their platform to critically analyze the violence of an apartheid regime, or to even comment on the history of the region that indicates any honest understanding of the region that indicates any honest understanding of the dynamics at play, Chapman University has chosen silence,” SJP wrote in this statement.

Price commented on Chapman's efforts to keep students safe in a state of heightened tension connected with the ongoing war.

“There are tensions, and so we have been reaching out proactively to students and student groups to check in and see how they’re doing,” Price said. “Many students have been reaching out to us with concerns and questions and things, so (we are) making ourselves available to hear those concerns.”

On Oct. 7, war broke out between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, when the group recently launched an attack inside Israel. More than 3,000 lives have been claimed on both sides since Hamas launched its attack on Israel. Israeli airstrikes on Hamas-ruled Gaza have also led to a mass exodus of over a million people to evacuate south in the northern Gaza Strip. 

The deadly violence has raised concerns of threatening discrimination and prejudice against members of Jewish or Palestinian communities. 

This is a developing story. Follow The Panther on social media and at www.thepanthernewspaper.org for updates.