Meeting of the maligned: the disconnect between college students and administrators in the United States over Gaza and Israel

Since 7 October 2023, campuses have become political battlegrounds between students and administrators over the conflict in Palestine and Israel. Administrative messaging has been criticised by supporters of Palestine and of Israel alike, as campuses have become sites of both antisemitic and Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian acts. Supporters of Palestinians have led protests on campuses, created campus encampments, demanded divestment from Israel, and walked out during commencement proceedings. In some cases, these protesters have been met with counterprotests from supporters of Israel, arrests, forcible removement of their encampments, expulsion, degree revocation, and threats of deportation. How administrators have responded to the October 7 attacks in Israel, the subsequent Israeli violence in Gaza, and student activism has been a continuing source of disquiet among students. In our research for this paper, we analysed university messaging for biases, finding that, across all university communications analysed, there were clear biases in the following ways: (1) unbalanced use of the language of transgression and the corollary language of sadness; (2) biases in severity attributed to Antisemitism and Islamophobia; and (3) vagueness in reference to doxxing.