A year after the reignition of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a panel of Washington and Lee faculty members reflected on the aftermath. While the situation has not materially changed, opinions have.

On Oct. 15, professors Seth Cantey, Matthew Chalmers and Mohamed Kamara offered reflections after a year of conflict. The three professors offered opening thoughts and reserved an hour for questions from attendees.

Cantey, a politics professor who specializes in Middle Eastern and terrorism studies, took a more critical stance on Israeli policy than last year. Last year, Cantey said he thought that “Israel has a right to destroy Hamas.”

While Cantey’s position on Hamas has not changed, he described Israel’s actions over the last year as “a relentless parade of war crimes and atrocities.”

“That is not to say that Israel is the only party that has committed war crimes,” Cantey said. “We know that Hamas has committed war crimes, but there has been unconditional American support for Israeli actions.”

Chalmers, an assistant professor of history who studies the pre-modern Middle East, Judaism, Islam and other Abrahamic religions, added historical commentary to the panel discussion.

“I am someone who is trained within Jewish studies, so I have spent an awful lot of time on the history of Zionism, and I am more sympathetic to Zionism than a lot of people,” he said.“I look at contemporary Israel and contemporary Zionism, and I’m deeply disappointed. A lot of the original elements of empathy and compassion have not found their way to Israeli politics and policy – to my mind, that is a failure.”

Kamara, the romance languages department head, said “I am on the side of humanity, no matter where humanity presents itself.”

“No human life should be viewed as collateral,” Kamara said. “No identity is more crucial than the human identity we all share.”

An hour of the panel was devoted to a question and answer segment, with audience questions ranging from the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Missile Defense System to the long-term implications of curtailing students’ freedom of speech. The panel also discussed the role of humanitarian aid in conflict.

“Humanitarian aid has value only if it is backed by a genuine wish for peace,” Kamara said.

The last campus panel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was held in February. Before that, a conversation was hosted on Oct. 18, 2023, when panelists discussed the outbreak of conflict that had occurred just 11 days earlier.

These events included more disagreements between faculty and students regarding Israeli actions and Palestinian rights, according to previous reporting by the Ring-tum Phi. This month, however, each professor raised concerns about whether Israel’s response could be justified as self-defense.

Cantey, who participated in the panel last October, said last week’s panel was different for him.

“I didn’t want to play the ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ game tonight,” he said. “If people had stood up and said how would you respond to X, I would have been so happy to do that, but there wasn’t a ton of that, which may be because the situation is really, really bad and the war crimes have been really frequent.”

During the panel, Cantey said that Israel has lost a significant amount of credibility in the international sphere and with younger generations. He attributed this in large part to Israeli government narratives that he says have been fabricated.

“I believe that it’s very likely that sexual violence happened [on Oct. 7],” Cantey said.  “Rape and sexual violence often happen in situations like this, but I can’t conclude there was mass systematic rape on that day. A lot of that was claimed in the service of justifying what was to come.”

Sanil Partha, ’25, said they didn’t think a diversity of perspectives was represented on the panel but also didn’t believe they were necessary.

“I don’t think there should have been a wide range of views on the subject,” Partha said. “I do think the way in which they analyzed where to move and how to understand what has happened had a wide range of perspectives, and that was very helpful.”

Throughout the year, Washington and Lee students have not been as politically active as other campuses, but have placed flags to honor those who lost their lives on both sides of the conflict.

Chalmers, another professor on the panel, said college students should have the right to hold protests. He condemned the actions of national higher education administrators who have stifled demonstrations on college campuses.

Shae Reinberg, ’25, was appreciative of the university’s attempt to create a space for intellectual discussion.

“I was glad that I went because it was an opportunity to reflect and talk about an important conflict going on,” Reinberg said. “I am glad the professors are creating that space for students to learn, because my role as an American citizen is to be more informed.”

Partha said the university and student body have made a commitment to conserving free speech throughout the year but have not promoted any major action or demonstrations.

“On this campus, I think [the panel] is a momentous step because we don’t see it,” Partha said. “It becomes dangerous when you are doing it in lieu of action that could be done, but I don’t know that in Lexington, Va., we’re going to be able to move the needle in a great way.”

The panel concluded with thoughts on what the future might look like.

“Israel should come to terms with the fact that this war may have to end before every last militant is gone,” Cantey said. “Especially considering that new militants are being created every day.”