A recent November 14 Letter to the Editor begins with the sentence: “Bowdoin’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) state that a majority of the Bowdoin community are of the opinion that Israel is guilty of genocide. Opinion, however, is not fact, and the prevalence of such opinions on campus is, sadly, unsurprising if students are only fed distorted views by a seemingly biased and ideologically myopic faculty.”

The above sentiment unfairly demeans Bowdoin students’ intelligence by implying that they lack the capacity for discernment and critical-thinking skills and that they are easily manipulated. I instead offer a more rational explanation: that young people are in fact more independent of thought, more curious and more worldly than ever.

The evidence for a determination of genocide is overwhelming and easy to access (if you are not wearing blinders). More than 45 esteemed human rights and humanitarian organizations have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Council on American-Islamic Relations, B’Tselem, Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Genocide Watch.

A stunning body of work from Palestinian journalists is also readily accessible to anyone who reads beyond the pages of The New York Times. These professionals have been reporting, documenting and livestreaming daily from Gaza. Horrifically, over 248 journalists have been targeted and killed in the past two years.

Furthermore, multiple genocide scholars have called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, including Omer Bartov, Uğur Ümit Üngör, Amos Goldberg, Raz Segal, Shmuel Lederman, William Schabas, Dirk Moses, Daniel Blatman, Lee Mordechai, Melanie O’Brien, John Quigley, Don Vaxman, Avi Shlaim and Martin Griffith.

Perhaps the ability to call a thing a thing is actually quite simple: With a massive amount of expert and primary source evidence easily available, it should not be shocking (or controversial) that a growing majority of students now agree with the determination that Israel is committing a genocide. What is myopic is ignoring the evidence.

Rachel Brown is a member of the Class of 2003.