NBC Nightly News decided Wednesday evening they would give voice to the grievances Palestinian students have against Israel days after 1,200 innocent Israeli men, women, and children were slaughtered, with the number still rising. There's a time and place for everything, and this was neither the time nor the place for this.
"The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the escalating war it sparked may have led to heartbreak, anger, and tension in the United States. Many Americans are on edge as rhetoric gets heated and misinformation spreads," anchor Lester Holt announced at the top of the segment.
Correspondent Stephanie Gosk took over from there and gave her report: "At times this week, the hostility between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups has spilled out on the streets. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always fueled intense debate but after Hamas' indiscriminate killing of so many innocent people, the tension in the U.S. feels heightened."
"College campuses are a flash point. In the hours after the attack student groups at Harvard released a letter saying they hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence," Gosk added.
She then interviewed Palestinian & Jewish students on both sides of the divide:
NORA SULEMAN: I'm here to give support and a voice to the people without a voice.
GOSK: Columbia grad student Nora Suleman is Palestinian.
SULEMAN: I do not support Hamas at all, right? I support the Palestinian right to resist. I don't support the slaughtering of innocent people on either side.
GOSK: At Rutgers these Jewish students are concerned anti-Israeli sentiment could fuel anti-semitism.
SHARI SAMUEL: I've been hearing the tone of it's less of Israelis are bad but more of Jews are bad and that's really scary.
Suggesting there's some moral equivalence between the two sides, Gosk ended her report by proclaiming: "The worry words can be dangerous. Thousands of miles away or right here at home."
The transcript is below:
NBC Nightly News
10/11/2023
6:46:24 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the escalating war it sparked may have led to heartbreak, anger, and tension in the United States. Many Americans are on edge as rhetoric gets heated and misinformation spreads. Stephanie Gosk reports.
STEPHANIE GOSK: At times this week, the hostility between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups has spilled out on the streets. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always fueled intense debate but after Hamas' indiscriminate killing of so many innocent people, the tension in the U.S. feels heightened. College campuses are a flash point. In the hours after the attack student groups at Harvard released a letter saying they hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. Former Harvard president Larry Summers called their message morally unconscionable.
LARRY SUMMERS: The university like many other universities move very slowly to condemn Hamas terror.
GOSK: Under pressure by Summers and others, the university's president condemned Hamas saying the letter did not speak for the school. Since then multiple groups have withdrawn their signatures from the letter.
SUMMERS: Terror is beyond the pall. There is only one legitimate position with respect to terror.
GOSK: Is it possible right now to be both horrified by these attacks and also publicly critical of the Israeli government?
SUMMERS: Of course.
GOSK: A position we heard at a rally.
NORA SULEMAN: I'm here to give support and a voice to the people without a voice.
GOSK: Columbia grad student Nora Suleman is Palestinian.
SULEMAN: I do not support Hamas at all, right? I support the Palestinian right to resist. I don't support the slaughtering of innocent people on either side.
GOSK: At Rutgers these Jewish students are concerned anti-Israeli sentiment could fuel anti-semitism.
SHARI SAMUEL: I've been hearing the tone of it's less of Israelis are bad but more of Jews are bad and that's really scary.
GOSK: The worry words can be dangerous. Thousands of miles away or right here at home, Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, New York.
