Over the past few weeks, conversations about Israel and Palestine at Wellesley have escalated, receiving both national and international coverage. Articles in Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, and the Boston Globe have focused on recent changes facing the Jewish community at Wellesley, which includes the creation of the Wellesley chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (WSJP).
A poster in the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, hung by WSJP, asks, “What does Zionism mean to you?”offering a space for any member of the community to add their comments anonymously. The responses ranged in equal measure from support of a Jewish homeland to criticism of Israeli military campaigns and laws. Anonymous comments written on the poster used rhetoric like “apartheid” and “genocide,” leading to accusations from a handful of students in a recent community post that the campaign itself was “hateful [and] inflammatory.” Such comments are certainly controversial. I have no doubt they are deeply painful for many members of our community, just as many of the comments on the other side were no doubt painful to those who feel that the State of Israel attacks their own right to a homeland. As Jews, we are often told, and we often tell ourselves, that criticism of the State of Israel is not the same thing as criticism of the Jewish people. Still, that message can be hard, even impossible, to internalize. As we saw this summer, increased violence from the Israeli military, such as Operation Protective Edge, correlates with increased attacks on the Jewish people across the globe. Jewish people are often punished for Israeli actions; a synagogue in France was firebombed, and chants of “Death to the Jews” were heard in rallies across Europe. At the same time, Israel promises that the campaigns it undertakes are to protect the safety of the Jewish people both in and outside its borders. Both Israel and its critics have at times irrevocably tied together the futures of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel, so even legitimate criticisms of state actions and state violence feel deeply personal.
I fully understand the impulse to recoil from comments. These conversations are inevitably emotionally charged. Talking about these issues can be excruciating, even terrifying.
Yet these conversations are not only inevitable, they are vitally important. As Jewish students, we need to recognize that the safe and easy conversation we wish for cannot exist, nor should we want it to. Easy answers are not a part of our Jewish values. WSJP has been accused of inciting hate on Wellesley’s campus; these accusations are an attempt to silence public conversation and differing political opinions.
The conversation on college campuses is changing, and Jewish students must be open to being a part of them. WSJP’s work this semester is deeply rooted in education and promise of a public discourse. That’s why the lecture WSJP hosted sought to provide understanding of both Israeli and Palestinian roles in the Occupation. That’s why students from all backgrounds, and with many conflicting views, have attended the lectures and written on the posters to voice both their questions and their opinions. WSJP events have provided spaces for both Zionist and anti-Zionist, Jewish and non-Jewish students to take part in conversation on one of the most deeply divisive, deeply important issues we face. This can never be comfortable; that’s the reality of the conversation. Yet as college students, our goal is to challenge ourselves and each other, and not to accept limits on our academic freedom. Recently, the College president put out a statement calling on the Wellesley community to “support a dialogue that is reflective of the very diverse ideas, opinions, and backgrounds” on campus. The right to these political opinions must be extended to WSJP students as well.
WSJP welcomes both Jewish and Palestinian anti-Occupation voices that have traditionally been excluded from a more established narrative. WSJP was formed to bring the traditionally suppressed Palestinian perspective to campus. This perspective, and the vocabulary it uses, is not a threat to Jewish students, nor is it an excuse for Jewish students to disengage from the conversation entirely. The existence of Palestinian voices, and a Palestinian story, is legitimate and must be taught, engaged with and protected.
In its few months on campus, WSJP has made its principles clear: it values heated discussion, academic education and debate. WSJP holds human rights as non-negotiable and works for justice and against oppression, including anti-semitism, in all instances. I believe that this mission reflects my own deeply-held Jewish values. If the right for Palestinian voices and their allies to redefine their own narrative is considered hate against the Jewish people, then I am being asked to choose between my principles and my community. This is a painful choice, and one I do not feel I should have to make.
Both my Jewish community and my community here at Wellesley have always valued my voice, just as they value the voices of others who disagree with me. The future of our communities rests on our ability to make a home for all of us within our borders, not by asking us to keep quiet, but by asking us to speak out.
ZMS • Dec 6, 2014 at 11:59 pm
Justice and rights for Palestinians cannot come at the expense of Israelis. Just as Palestinians are entitled to self-determination, Israelis are entitled to the right to live safely and securely and self-determination themselves. Every attempt by Palestinians and their supporters to get Palestinians their rights that cause Israeli rights to be diminished or abolished is untenable and not a sustainable route to take.
SJP groups across the country and world have been advocating for such a route, and as a result have taken on a toxic feeling among pro-Israeli groups. Just as the US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, Israel and its supporters should not be expected to discuss or debate with groups that don’t recognize Israel’s and Israelis’ rights as a state and citizenry.
No one should be denying Palestinian self-determination, but it won’t come as long as Israelis aren’t afforded their rights as well. And that is why so few pro-Israeli groups interact with SJP groups, not because of the refusal of Palestinian rights, but the lack of recognition of Israeli rights.
Arafat • Dec 2, 2014 at 11:55 am
I think we should help Abbas and his dear friends and allies Hamas create a Palestinian state. Since Hamas is more popular than Abbas let’s call it Hamasistan. It could be based on all the other Islamist states. Women would have zero rights. Gays would be hung. Jews would be verboten. Non-Muslims would be killed unless they convert to Islam or pay a crippling tax that is designed just for them.
I think this makes a lot of sense and is something college punks should march for, shout about, and pretend they care about. The world needs another Islamist state. What will we do without another one?
In Hamasistan criminals will be punished by being tied to the back of jeeps and skinned to death on dirt roads until they die. The lucky criminals will simply be pushed off rooftops, and if they’re really lucky the rooftop will be very high.
In Hamasistan they will blame all their problems on Israel that way the politicians can line their Swiss Vaults with endless international aid money and not be held accountable.
In Hamasistan they will shoot rockets into Israel during rush hour and when schools get out. That’s the way they do things in Hamasistan. Then they will blame Israel for making them do it.
Yes, this will solve all the problems just ask any leftist, liberal, dreaming moron and he will scream it at you as if there is no doubt about it.
Bmak • Dec 1, 2014 at 1:39 pm
The only self suicide here is in watching Israel drive itself off a cliff by becoming the most despised so-called democracy on earth. If you truly love Israel then save it from ignominity, disgrace and both political and economic isolation. The alternative is to stick ones head in the sand and hope more extremism and more militarization will somehow make things better.
Anonymous • Dec 1, 2014 at 9:46 am
You wouldn’t call the statement “Muslims are a bunch of baby killing camel *******s” to be a “controversial opinion” that is worthy of debate. There is a difference between criticism of Israel and calling for its annihilation and the subsequent revoking of the basic human rights of the Jewish people.
If Palestinians cannot advocate for their people without hate speech or demanding that Jewish people be discriminated against, what does that say about the Palestinian cause?
Andrew • Nov 26, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Jewish students do not want to engage in a conversation which calls for self suicide of Jewish Israelis. The writer of this article should understand Israel is a a sovereign country which seeks to protect it’s citizens against terrorism and extinction.
Disgusted • Dec 1, 2014 at 9:24 am
What a lie. If that were true it wouldn’t invest solely on warfare and creating enemies by demonizing Israeli born non-Jews into second class citizens, denying the existence of peoples, annexing lands, creating open air prisons, glorify racism, calling for genocide, declaring war on a sovereign nation ( Lebanon) occupying peoples and waging proxy wars.
Among many many many MANY other horrors.
That is not a sovereign nation that a rouge state that deserves nothing but contempt. It has become a cancer and doctors merely focus on the symptoms rather than the actual cause of those symptoms.