[Peace-discuss] My letter in Daily Illini

Tue Apr 10 02:59:47 UTC 2018

Excellent letter, meaning I admire it for its clarity and its content—until the last paragraph, with which I disagree. One is beating a dead horse with the two state “solution” and undermining the BDS movement with nebulous reasoning.

—mkb

On Apr 9, 2018, at 5:44 PM, David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

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.

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