Columbia University has fallen

[DBCowboy]

That is a most important question.

Frankly, the entire object of the argument seems based upon a premise that is poorly understood.

Exactly "how" is it that Israel is "occupying" Palestine?  I'm not excusing Israeli government policy that led to, and in some cases reinforced, an oppressive experience for the Palestinian people.  But Israel did not conquer the land they call home.  It was given by ostensibly international consent.  The fact that the Palestinians had no voice in the matter is proof that up until relatively recently, Palestine wasn't "a state," and hence didn't have standing in the debates that led to the establishment of Israel.  This cannot be changed by argumentation.

The activist movement in our country (and others) have relied heavily on emotionalism and social virtue signaling to ensure the footing of their complaint doesn't veer into this area of discussion.  But the emotionalism alone is 'good enough' for dominating the news cycle... this is a good one for keeping people feeling off-balance.

Before the October attack, Palestine "news" coverage was en par with the current "news" coverage about Sudan.  It does not, however, delegitimize the complaint, and therefore can easily turn into more noise in the thread.  A point ignored in our discussions, is seldom a point "lost;" although all conversations differ, of course.

In the end, until we can see defined in common terms "how" Palestine came to exist, and how the state never formed until after Israel was created remains very relevant to the pervasive word "occupied."

I've no time to teach history about the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France and the spoils of war.

Palestinians  attacked, raped, killed, tortured hundreds on Oct 7th. 

They did that under the banner of hamas.

Any support for palestinians right now, while they serve under the hamas banner is a tacit approval of hammas.