Campus Controversy: Here’s How the Israel-Hamas War Has Divided Colleges Across the US

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last week, college campuses across the U.S. have been roiled by divisions from the conflict, as students and professors take sides, stage protests, spark controversy and, in some instances, allegedly turn violent over the tensions.

Professors at at least three Ivy League schools have faced fierce criticism and some calls for their removal after voicing pro-Palestinian sentiments, while student groups at colleges around have expressed support for the actions of the Hamas terrorist group.

Last week, student debates boiled into protests, as campuses grappled with dissecting the latest chapter of the complex history between Israelis and Palestinians.

At some schools, those passions seemed to take serious, and sometimes violent, turns.

Drexel University in Pennsylvania launched a possible hate crime investigation after a Jewish student's dorm room was set on fire.

In New York City, a 19-year-old was is facing charges after she allegedly assaulted a Columbia University student who was hanging posters of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.

And at Harvard University, the student group behind a controversial statement blaming Israel for the war said students have been subjected to a "doxxing" truck that displayed the pictures and names of those who signed onto the letter. The vehicle was seen on streets near the historic campus.

Here's a rundown on the campus controversies since the war began on Oct. 7:

Police probe possible hate crimes at Columbia and Drexel universities

Drexel University in Philadelphia, Penn. is investigating a possible hate crime after a Jewish student's dorm room appeared to have been intentionally set on fire.

Whether the incident is directly tied to fallout over the war was not immediately clear soon after the fire was reported last week, but the university is probing what happened as a possible hate crime.

No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Manhattan have charged 19-year-old Maxwell Friedman with hate crimes after she allegedly assaulted a Columbia University student.

The alleged attack last Wednesday played out soon after Friedman tore down posters of Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas and confronted a 24-year-old Israeli student with a broomstick, authorities say.

Friedman reportedly claimed to be Jewish, before she hit the unnamed student with the broomstick, cut him and fractured his finger.

She now faces assault in the second and third degrees as a hate crime, as well as harassment and weapons possession charges.

Panic at University of Florida vigil

Dozens of people were injured at a candlelight vigil in support of Israel at the University of Florida on Oct. 9, after panic ensued when someone at the event fainted.

Attendees started yelling to call 911 when the person collapsed, but others in crowd misunderstood and “dispersed in a panic,” according to the campus police department.

In a statement last week, University of Florida President Ben Sasse clarified to students there was no attack at the vigil and that the incident was indeed spurred by confusion over medical episode, the Gainesville Sun reported.

"While we all wish the night had ended differently, we are tremendously proud of the students who came to stand with Israel," Sasse wrote.

Students' Pro-Palestinian views lead to 'doxxing,' loss of jobs

Students at two prestigious schools have faced consequences for voicing views that Israel bares blame for the Oct. 7 surprise terrorist attack by Hamas.

At New York University, the president of the Student Bar Association Ryna Workman lost a job offer from the Chicago-based international law firm Winston & Strawn after sending out a message saying Israel "bears full responsibility" for the assault.

“Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life,” Workman wrote in a newsletter. “This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary.”

The association has also moved to remove Workman as its president, with the group writing in its own statement that other members did not approve of Workman's message before it was published.

At Harvard University, dozens of student organizations issued a controversial statement penned by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee last week that deemed Israel "entirely responsible" for the war with Hamas.

Amidst the ensuing backlash was a box truck configured with an electronic billboard listing names and photos of the students who signed onto the statement. The display was sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based conservative news media watchdog nonprofit, Accuracy In Media, and vehicle drove around Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. last week.

The truck proclaimed the students were "Harvard's Leading Antisemites," leaving the Palestine Solidarity Committee to slam the "doxxing" truck as "the ugliest culmination of a campaign to silence pro-Palestinian activism that the PSC has experienced for years.”

“It is quite literally a physical threat, a heinous intimidation technique, a warning sign meant to scare ideological allies into repudiating our mission — and for the Jewish members of associations linked to our own, an unjustifiable and insulting slap in the face," the group said in subsequent statement.

The committee's initial letter sparked fierce outcry from within the Harvard community and from its affiliates, including criticism leveled against university leadership for not outright condemning it.

Additionally, a dozen business executives have backed a call from hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman to publicly identify and blacklist members of the group behind it, “so as to insure that none of us inadvertently hire any of their members.”

The letter came amid a backdrop of student solidarity with Palestinians across the country.

More than 50 student groups around the U.S. expressed support for Palestine and Hamas' actions in a letter published on social media last week.

The statement expressed "unwavering support of the resistance in Gaza and the broader occupied Palestinian lands" and was signed by 51 groups, according to Bears for Palestine, an organization affiliated with students at the University of California, Berkeley.

Student groups supporting the letter include the Students Allied for Freedom and Equality at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Students of Justice in Palestine at the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Muslim Student Association at UCLA.

Three Ivy League professors face criticism for remarks about Hamas; Stanford instructor suspended

Professors at Columbia, Yale, and Cornell universities have faced criticism and calls for removal after they publicly voiced support for armed action against Israel.

More than 35,000 people have signed a petition seeking to remove Columbia professor Joseph Massad, who called the Hamas attacks "awesome" and "incredible" in an article on the Electronic Intifada.

The petition was created by honors student Maya Platek, who wrote, "condoning and supporting terrorism is not acceptable."

Yale, meanwhile, has faced calls to terminate the employment of professor Zareena Grewal, who made social media posts slamming Israel as a "murderous" and "genocidal" state last week.

“My heart is in my throat," Grewal wrote in one post. "Prayers for Palestinians. Israeli [sic] is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity. FreePalestine."

The student-organized Change.org petition to oust Grewal neared 50,000 signatures on Monday, four days after Yale released a statement defending Grewal's right to free speech.

“Yale is committed to freedom of expression, and the comments posted on Professor Grewal’s personal accounts represent her own views,” the university said.

Cornell professor Russell Rickford was videotaped at a rally on Sunday calling the Hamas attacks "exhilarating," according to the New York Post.

And at Stanford University, an instructor was suspended after he reportedly asked Jewish students to stand in a corner during class, telling them, "This is what Israel does to the Palestinians."

In an open letter on Wednesday, Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez said the non-faculty instructor had been removed from teaching duties, but did not provide additional details of the incident, which was first reported by the Jewish newspaper Forward.

Campus protests show split support for Israel and Palestine

Rallies, protests and demonstrations both in support of Israelis and Palestinians have unfurled on campuses since Hamas's surprise attack.

The scenes played out especially last Thursday, after the national chapter of the pro-Palestinian student-led group, National Students for Justice in Palestine, called for a "mass mobilization" at campuses across the country.

Hundreds of students at Columbia University joined in chants, shouting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Meanwhile, some 100 feet away, students backing Israel silently held posters with the faces of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.

"Jewish students are afraid," 20-year-old protester David Hidary, who had an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders, told Reuters.

Multiple protests were reported at several other universities, including the University of Arizona, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Brooklyn and Hunter College.

More demonstrations were held on Friday, after Students for Justice in Palestine declared a "day of resistance," and rallies were slated for its reported 200 chapters at colleges across North America.