That’s morally repugnant.

Due to fear, hatred, politics or all of the above, Israelis and Palestinians cannot interact. Unfortunately, I see that same dynamic at play on our campus. I was thrilled, for example, to see students protesting on the Diag on Thursday in response to the escalating violence. But I was less thrilled that these protests were literally divided along political lines. Pro-Israel students stood on one end of the Diag, while pro-Palestine students stood on the other.

I have strong feelings on this conflict, but that’s not the subject of this column. For our current purposes, my only opinion worth sharing is that civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, are the true victims. It’s necessary to distinguish combatant from non-combatant. Under these circumstances, both are threatened. That means we should protest not against one another, but together.

I’d like to see interfaith events held immediately to promote dialogue on these latest developments. In the meantime, before you “like” a post you see online, let’s try to remember that you’re “liking” the death of a real human.

Daniel Chardell can be reached at chardell@umich.edu.