That's a mischaracterization of what the letter said. It explicitly said that Israel was entirely responsible for the unfolding violence.
That's the cause of the backlash since while it can be acceptable to say that what Israel has been doing to Palestinians is wrong, nothing should justify terrorism.
If you're saying that Israel deserves all the blame, you're saying Hamas is blameless, thus supporting Hamas.
IMO it's messed up that this is going to follow those kids for many years in their careers, but on the other hand, most of these kids have probably harassed others with the "free speech isn't freedom of consequences" bs too.
It’s quite different to target an innocent civilian and another to destroy a hospital because that’s where hamas launches rockets from.
Intent matters quite a bit.
When Hamas stars criminally prosecuting its soldiers for killing and raping civilians then you can start talking about how Israel and Hamas are similar.
But equating Israel incidentally causing civilian deaths with Hamas purposely is not helpful to the conversation.
Of course Israel bears responsibility for how they respond to the terrorism perpetrated against them, just as Hamas bears responsibility for the terrorism in the first place. However, what Israel is doing is war, not terrorism.
Unlike Hamas, Israel's target is Hamas members and not random civilians - many not even Israeli citizens - who were enjoying a music festival. There will be civilian casualties in what Israel is doing, but it's fundamentally different from terrorism as the civilian deaths are not the primary goal.
Edit: Are you trying to push the unreasonable interpretation that by saying "unfolding violence" the students were referring to Israel's response rather than what Hamas did?
War is terrorism. They are bombing a densely packed civilian area knowing it will kill civilians. They disabled water and electricity. That’s not war, it’s terrorism. They are inflicting suffering on civilians purposely.
Also yes that is what I am saying and no it isn’t unreasonable just because you say so.
That's the cause of the backlash since while it can be acceptable to say that what Israel has been doing to Palestinians is wrong, nothing should justify terrorism.
If you're saying that Israel deserves all the blame, you're saying Hamas is blameless, thus supporting Hamas.
IMO it's messed up that this is going to follow those kids for many years in their careers, but on the other hand, most of these kids have probably harassed others with the "free speech isn't freedom of consequences" bs too.