I sat in on the teach-in held in Hamilton last night by the newly formed Columbia Palestine Forum, and I have to say, I was definitely inspired. There is a prospect that Columbia students will actually come together for a worthy cause - divestment from Israel and entities that profit from/perpetuate the occupation of Palestine - and commit to action rather than simply talking. This group has a clearly defined agenda, which you can find here, dedicated members ready to fight, and a firm intellectual and moral basis upon which to stand.
More after the jump
What's more, from what I saw last night, they have people who are ready to stand by them. The crowd trying to get into the meeting (which was stuffed into a relatively tiny room) stretched across the fifth floor of Hamilton, and even after many were told that only a little over sixty people could fit into the room, dozens of people huddled around the threshold to listen to the panel of professors and Boycott, Divest, Sanction representatives.
The group will definitely need the support. As any one who walks around campus can see, LionPAC and various other pro-Israel groups are already working to stifle discussion of divestment with their foreboding posters stating that "Divestment is NOT a game". They've even got quotes from officials like Israel's Tzipi Livni and our own President Bollinger condemning divestment and comparisons of Israel to apartheid, for what that's worth. This campaign is just one example of the forces of the status quo and ignorance that are aligned against the burgeoning divestment movement on our campus.
If one ever needs more proof of the backwardsness and hypocrisy that runs rampant here at Columbia, they can take a gander at the Spectator's Commentariat blog. It seems like that blog's writers are hard at work every other day blinding themselves to the truth and immersing themselves in ignorance. Last Tuesday, Dov Friedman made a post condemning the academic freedom movement, which is sprouting up alongside the divestment movement. As he and his fellow writers Armin Rosen and Noah Baron usually do, they get bogged down in issues that, while of some import, obscure what is truly important in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Disputes over what school was or was not bombed, or what weapon was or was not used, only serve to distract us from what professor Mahmoud Mamdani, one of the professors sitting on the panel last night, is the real issue in the conflict: violence is not its own explanation, and there is always a root of violence and anger.
The conflict did not start when Hamas lobbed shoddy missles into Israel in November, as the Commentariat and Israel's various partisans would have us believe. This conflict began sixty years ago, when millions of Palestinians were deprived of their land by a Western colonial project, and were then subjected to a continued assault upon their rights as human beings to self determination in their own land. From bulldozed homes to killed protestors to beaten Palestinian politicians, this assault has continued down to the present day. Hamas did not spring out of a vacuum. They were formed in the late 80s as a response to Israeli occupation. Before then, Israel was busy blaming the PLO and Yasser Arafat for its problems. There will alaways be a group to blame for Israel's aggression, but that will always distract us from the real issue - the occupation, for too long, has rendered the lives of Palestinians deplorable, leading to the cycle of violence that we witness today. The divestment movement on our campus is the first step in putting pressure on Israel to do its part in ending that cycle. Hopefully, my fellow students will respond to the movement as I have and join us in making a real change in the Middle East
Historically Suspect
This language would raise a lot of eyebrows. Do you have any sources for:
"millions of Palestinians were deprived of their land by a Western colonial project, and were then subjected to a continued assault upon their rights as human beings to self determination in their own land."
Also, why do you leave the history of militant attacks against Israeli civilians out of your account of the conflict? Suicide bombings in cafes, buses, and hotels have persisted in Israel long before the rocket attacks. Do you think divestment adequately addresses this part of the conflict?
Here you go
Baileys Original
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZSG_LWhncnEC&pg=PA313&lpg=PA313&dq=theo...
You should read that book, it helps point the way to a different history of the conflict from the one we're routinely fed. The important things to take away from it are that Herzl, the father of Zionism, proposed his project of a Jewish state in Palestine as a colonial project to the British, a project that would serve as a "rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism". Israel was conceived of as a colonial project in the best interests of European Jews persecuted by anti-Semitism and by European imperialists seeking to subdue the Ottoman Empire and Arabs. To this end, Herzl saw Israel as a European colony which would transmit civilization to barbarous Arabs and Muslims.
Also, I don't see how anyone could refute that millions of Palestinians were forced to leave their lands without giving consent. The U.N. partitioned the land in Israel's favor without any input from Arabs at all. There was no coherent Palestinian voice of leadership saying "Yes, we want to leave our land for a contrived Palestinian state so that Israel can be created". Many Palestinian villages were destroyed and their residents driven across the Jordan - there are pictures of it in Israeli historical archives. Then when Arabs attempted to resist what they could see only as an encroachment upon their rights as human beings (try to see the Israeli war of independence from the Arab view, not the Jewish view that's been taught to us), more of their land was taken and many were forced into exile. I'm sorry, but historically, nothing about how Israel was created was just for Palestinians, and one has to understand the deep roots of their anger at being kicked off their land and submitted to a racist social system (I don't care what people say - ID cards coded according to ethnic differences that allocate different rights is apartheid).
Lastly, I think Israel's suffering at the hands of barbarous, unreasonable Arabs has been more than promoted in America. But more importantly, however, to take a line from professor Mamdani, violence is not its own explanation. It comes from somewhere. For you to bring up Palestinian violence (as reprehensible as it is) and use that as a reason for raised eyebrows is inane - where does that violence come from? You have to think about these issues. But yes, I do think that divestment can adequately address the cycle of violence that Israel and Palestinians are caught in. In my mind, an end to the brutality of the occupation should lead to more enlightened views among Palestinians regarding Israel, sucking the life out of violent movements like Hamas in due time. Hopefully, the end result will be moving on to the two state solution.
I think the Zionist argument
I think the Zionist argument is quickly losing (if it hasn't already lost) a lot of credibility. Its fundamental premise is that Jews need a homeland in which they can feel secure and not have to deal with rampant Antisemitism. That Antisemitism is no longer anywhere near as prevalent as it used to be.
That said, reverting back to the injustice of the establishment of Israel to begin with isn't necessarily the best course of action for Palestinians. Instead of looking backward, we should be examining the present and looking forward. Israel isn't going anywhere, and it shouldn't have to.
Matthew Yglesias wrote a piece (http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=its_not_iran_its_palestine) in which he speculates how the lack of human rights for Palestinians could be exploited in their defense and put Israel in the same position as apartheid South Africa. He wisely observes that if that were to be the case, international support for Israel would quickly diminish and a two-state solution might be easier to achieve.
Unfortunately, there never seems to be enough of a sense of urgency to solve this problem. The other issue is that for an American president to focus on solving this would necessitate an otherwise empty agenda and a willingness to accumulate and immediately spend huge amounts of political capital. With our current economic problems, an American-brokered solution in the Middle East still seems unlikely in the near future.
great post!
I was also at the panel last week, left really inspired and I have to say, this campaign has been long needed. Israel's massacre in Gaza finally started to pull the curtain back on what the nature of day to day life is like for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, constantly under siege in almost every aspect of their lives.
For people who still attempt to deny that the dispossension of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians ever occurred, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" should clear up any confusion.
People should also remember that this campaign is part of an international movement for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) that came out of a call by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, using the lessons of the movement against South African apartheid. In fact, many Israeli dissenters and refusniks support the BDS campaign, because they are also against what their government, or university, or company supports. So there is nothing random or arbitrary about the Columbia demands, they come out of a much larger movement.
thanks again for your post!
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine?
Does not appear to resolve any confusion - http://www.meforum.org/1886/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine
That's Not a Review
Baileys Original
I should be studying, but I just had to respond to this ... the review you posted is not really a review ... it's a historical hit-job. As much as the writer disdains the author of Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine for ignoring context, he makes the same mistake himself. While he cites Arab atrocities against Jews in Palestine, he forgets to mention that there was a civil war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews before and during the partition of the British mandate. So, of course there were numerous and horrific atrocities - committed by both sides, even if the writer of the review would have you think otherwise.
Secondly, he completely ignores the involvement of groups like the Jewish Agency and the Zionist Congress, which had their own plans for a Jewish state and partition of the land. David Ben Gurion, the revered first PM of Israel, is on record as saying that Jews would never settle for partition of "Jewish land", and while he publicly accepted the U.N. Partition plan, he railed against it in speeches to fellow Zionist as an affront to the Jewish people. The Zionist Congress even had its own, separate partition plan. In addition, in negotiations with Arab leaders, the Zionists leaders touted the existence of thousands of armed Zionist fighters within Palestine, threatening Arabs with violence. So, though I have yet to read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, I know the background history of Palestine's partition, and can determine that there is at least weight to its author's claims, even if he is not totally objective in his studies.
Israel-Arab Peace Plan Principles
Starting in 1948 from very first day of recreation of the State of Israel on the part of Israel territory, Arab countries waged several wars to eliminate Israel from her historic land. Israel won all wars and now Arab countries propose a peace agreement with Israel under conditions, which they intended to dictate. However, only Israel, who won all the wars and defeated Arab countries, has legal rights to formulate and dictate peace agreement terms and conditions, which, in general, shell include the following provisions:
1. Palestinian muslims must compensate Jews for damages caused by Jews massacres (actually, it was Holocaust) conducted in Palestine in 1920s-1930s under British administration supervision, for providing Hitler with idea of Final Solution and for taking active part in implementing the idea in Europe.
2. Arab countries must compensate Israel for damages inflicted on Israel during wars launched by Arab countries.
3. Arab countries must compensate several million Jews expelled from Arab countries between 1948 and 1953, where they lived for centuries, for violation of international law and stilling Jewish properties.
4. Arab countries must recognize “Article 24 of the 1964 PLO charter addressed to UN, which stipulates: Palestinian muslims do not claim Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza their territories” which gives Israel full legal rights to remove muslims from occupied Israel land of Palestine.
5. Arab countries must comply with Geneva Convention, which recognizes Israel rights on Gaza, Judea and Samaria, historic Jewish land liberated by Israel in 1967 war from Jordan and Egypt occupation.
6. Arab countries must recognize Jerusalem as historic Israel capital.
7. Egypt and Jordan are obligated to relocate Palestinian muslims (their former citizens) from Gaza (Egypt), Judea and Samaria (Jordan) inside their territories within 1 (negotiable) year term.
8. Arab countries have no right to develop or acquire WMD or weapon that can be used against Israel.
If any Arab country denies this peace terms and conditions, Israel has full legal rights for preemptive strike against this country using all available military power. All islamofascism organizations operating on Israel territory occupied by Palestinian muslims, such as PLO&Fatah (created after WWII on the principles of Hitler’s ideology and with close ties to Nazi party), Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Agsa Brigade, must be totally, unconditionally and immediately exterminated. All other Palestinian muslims must be expelled from Israel back to the countries of their origin.
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