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Harvard University’s dining service has removed labels from soda machines in its facilities over concerns that merely reading them could damage the fragile psyches of university students.
The root of the problem, like so many other campus food fights, is Israel. Until last spring, Harvard Undergraduate Dining Services (HUDS) purchased water machines from a firm owned by SodaStream, an Israel-based firm that operates a plant in the West Bank.
According to The Harvard Crimson, those purchases have stopped after activists on campus complained that the machines were offensive to students of Palestinian origin. Nor did HUDS stop there, as they even stripped SodaStream labels from machines they already owned in order to minimize any potential psychic harm to students who oppose the company. (RELATED: Anti-Israel Activists Torpedo Hummus At Wesleyan)
Activists say its only fair to hide the machines’ manufacturer, given the potential harm they could inflict on students.
“These machines can be seen as a microaggression to Palestinian students and their families and like the University doesn’t care about Palestinian human rights,” sophomore Rachel J. Sandalow-Ash, a member of the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance, told the Crimson. A “microaggression,” according to modern campus activists, is some minor everyday statement or action that entrenches discrimination or degrades a person based on their group identity.
The root of the problem, like so many other campus food fights, is Israel. Until last spring, Harvard Undergraduate Dining Services (HUDS) purchased water machines from a firm owned by SodaStream, an Israel-based firm that operates a plant in the West Bank.
According to The Harvard Crimson, those purchases have stopped after activists on campus complained that the machines were offensive to students of Palestinian origin. Nor did HUDS stop there, as they even stripped SodaStream labels from machines they already owned in order to minimize any potential psychic harm to students who oppose the company. (RELATED: Anti-Israel Activists Torpedo Hummus At Wesleyan)
Activists say its only fair to hide the machines’ manufacturer, given the potential harm they could inflict on students.
“These machines can be seen as a microaggression to Palestinian students and their families and like the University doesn’t care about Palestinian human rights,” sophomore Rachel J. Sandalow-Ash, a member of the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance, told the Crimson. A “microaggression,” according to modern campus activists, is some minor everyday statement or action that entrenches discrimination or degrades a person based on their group identity.
