Tensions mount on campus as go-links turn the spotlight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Tensions mount on campus as go-links turn the spotlight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Three student-made go/links (go/Palestine, go/Palestinian, and go/sjp) were found to bring users to an Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs web page titled “Palestinian terror and incitement.” They were created by student Benjamin Lesch ’24. The links were eventually taken down by Lesch, and he was placed on indefinite leave from multiple Middlebury organizations that he had been a part of. Another go/link (go/Jewish) was created by student Eyal Yakoby ’24. This led to a piece written by Yakoby, saying how he felt "saddened and unsafe" due to the events of the previous week and said that other Jewish students on campus felt similarly. He wrote that the Middlebury SJP chapter has "frightened many Jewish students here on campus' and listed examples of SJP chapters at other institutions that had reportedly targeted Jewish students or individuals on those campuses".

Abigail Chang

The Campus

03/18/2021

Benjamin Lesch ’24
Eyal Yakoby '24

"At the end of the letter, Yakoby shared a list of eclectic 'fast facts' about Israel — from the Arab representation in its government to Tel Aviv’s ranking as a 'best gay city' to the country’s ban of underweight models from fashion shows — stating that he wanted to 'attest that Israel is not the evil regime that SJP portrays.'"
"