[Peace-discuss] My letter in Daily Illini

[David Green]

 The letter below was published today at the link below, edited both for
length and to add grammatical errors. Notice in particular that "sea
change" became "sea of change." Oh well.
There are links to both Cary Nelson and Jeffrey Brown's (dean of business
school) previous letters below and in the DI version. The Nelson letter
includes all 17 signatories, although only 10 of them were included in the
DI published version.
I think that the sponsorship of Dershowitz by the Business School and
Chabad (but not other local Jewish institutions is instructive and
supportive in relation to the content of my letter, and Brown's as well.
DG
https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2018/04/08/letter-to-the-editor-bds-movement-needs-clear-goal/
During my 20 years in this campus community, I’ve been involved in both the
general anti-war movement, especially subsequent to 9/11/01, and in the
pro-Palestinian movement as a Jewish dissident, first with Not In My Name
(Chicago) as a founding member (2000), and more recently with Jewish Voice
for Peace, a national organization. I’ve been privileged to know several
cohorts of Students for Justice in Palestine.

These two decades have seen a sea change in general awareness of the
historical and current dispossessed, oppressed, and brutalized plight of
the stateless Palestinian people, from the planned Zionist ethnic cleansing
of *Nakba* (1947-49) through the current incipiently genocidal siege of
Gaza. Israel is rightfully compared by informed critics to apartheid South
Africa, especially regarding its illegal settlements on the West Bank and
in East Jerusalem.

Incontrovertible historical and critical work by Palestinian,
Jewish-Israeli, and Jewish-American scholars (e.g., Edward Said, Rashid
Khalidi, Ilan Pappé, Avi Shlaim, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein) leave no
doubts regarding the one-sidedly brutal nature of Zionism as a European
settler-colonialist project, comparable in many ways to our own racist
history. Given these understandings, Israel’s behavior can no longer be
justified in relation to the Holocaust, from the Zionist terrorism of the
1940s to the present day.

The recent (March 30th) massacre of over 15 unarmed Palestinian civilians
in Gaza by heavily-armed Israeli forces is, obviously, consistent with
preceding asymmetrical historical realities.

Prior to Israel’s most recent invasion of Lebanon (2006) and Operation Cast
Lead (Gaza, 2008-09), this campus and community were decidedly pro-Israel.
But the increasingly wanton nature of Israeli behavior over the past
decade, including vis a vis Iran, has been accompanied by increased
awareness of and support for the Palestinian struggle. Opposition to UIUC’s
institutionalized abuse of Palestinian-American scholar Steven Salaita in
2014 was also indicative of this trend.

Meanwhile, Israel’s policies have largely lost the support of
Jewish-Americans in general and of Jewish youth in particular. Local Jewish
institutions—Sinai Temple, Hillel, Jewish Federation, and UI Program for
Jewish Culture and Society—no longer, as previously, host Israeli and
Zionist speakers in order to justify Israel’s chronically bellicose
behavior. Mention of Israel has been nearly cleansed from their websites.
The tiny local student Israel Lobby/propaganda group, Illinipac, is no
longer supported by Hillel.

Nevertheless, Israel’s imperial ambitions in the Middle East remain in
accord with those of the United States as we continue our post-Cold War
invasions of the energy-rich region, 1991 to the present. Support for these
synchronized (with Saudi Arabia) ambitions is, unsurprisingly, embedded in
American governmental, military-industrial, corporate, and educational
institutions, including our own.

When coming from Cary Nelson and the 16 illustrious and wealthy
professorial co-signers of his recent commentary in the *DI* (3/8)
<https://medium.com/@nelson.cary/another-acrimonious-debate-about-israel-29d1b0dd4b92>,
or from Dean Jeffrey ($400,000) Brown (3/4),
<https://dailyillini.com/opinions/your-opinions/2018/03/04/letter-editor-gies-college-business-engages-world/>
justifications for collaboration with institutionalized racism, gross
violations of human rights, state-sponsored violence, and the brutalization
of children are couched, of course, in liberal terms of openness,
opportunity, research, and progress (and even internships).

This is as unsurprising as it is hypocritical and Orwellian. These
individuals would claim to support a Palestinian state, but have never
uttered a public word in opposition to Israeli and U.S. policies that
prevent this. Indeed, they denigrate those students who conscientiously
oppose such policies by cynically accusing them of engaging in “hate
speech.”

Nevertheless, given the recent referendum, I must honestly conclude that
the efforts of the BDS movement to challenge powerful institutional
structures and interests seem increasingly unfocused and futile for any
number of tactical and strategic reasons. I would suggest that local
organizing efforts make both a clear commitment to a two-state solution and
a serious effort to include enlightened Jewish students. That could be the
basis for both the consciousness and solidarity needed to send a clear
message to the cynical powers-that-be on this campus, whose behavior is
utterly shameful at a fundamental moral level.

I welcome good faith responses and interaction.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20180409/e79679c5/attachment-0001.html>