[Peace-discuss] Unfortunately, "multiculturalism" does not always lend itself to truth-telling

[David Green]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Review ordered after Mideast presentation sparks arguments

By JULIE WURTH

jwurth at news-gazette.com

URBANA — A residence hall presentation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
led to complaints of anti-Semitism at the University of Illinois, prompting
a campus review and an apology from Chancellor Robert Jones.

The chancellor issued a statement late Wednesday denouncing anti-Semitism
following that incident and Monday’s discovery of a swastika in the UI’s
Foreign Languages Building.

“Bias and prejudice are antithetical to the educational foundations of our
university

and hurtful to our entire community. The idea that any individual feels
threatened for expression of personal religious or ethnic identity is
unacceptable,” Jones said in the email.

The Sept. 25 presentation was based on the Palestinian perspective, and
student

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groups aligned with Israel and Palestine had very different reactions
Thursday to the chancellor’s statement.

In his mass email to campus, Jones said a student raised concerns about
“anti-Semitic content” at a staff development program for residence hall
advisers, which included 11 RAs and one full-time Housing staff member. It
was part of a program to help students learn to share “diverse perspectives
that lead to new understanding,” he said.

“Instead of fostering dialogue, it incited division, distrust and anger.
The program allowed our students to enter an extremely challenging and
potentially volatile situation without the preparation, training, education
and professional oversight they needed to succeed. This is inexcusable and
unacceptable. This is a failure to our students, and that is my
responsibility,” Jones said.

♦♦♦

The chancellor’s email didn’t include details about the presentation.

But it was later shared online, titled “Palestine & Great Return March:
Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror.”

It made a distinction upfront between anti-Zionism, opposition to the state
of Israel or its actions, and anti-Semitism, the stereotyping or
persecution of Jewish people.

It presented the history of the conflict from Palestinians’ perspective,
showing maps of their dwindling territory since 1948, and photos of
Palestinians crowded into Israeli checkpoints and the miserable living
conditions in Gaza.

It also equated Israel’s actions with apartheid in South Africa and
1940s-era Jim Crow laws in the United States and showed photos of “martyrs”
for the Palestinian cause.

Housing Director Alma Sealine said one of the RAs at the meeting was
concerned and shared his views with another student who used to live in the
building. That student then filed a complaint, she said.

The presentation was one of many given by multicultural advocates, who
share information on topics related to diversity and inclusion as part of
an ongoing staff development program, she said.

They play an important role in educating residence hall staff about “the
identities students bring to the residential experience,” from race
relations to body image to feminism to LGBTQ issues, she said. The goal is
to do it in a safe environment where people can ask questions or
respectfully disagree.

In this instance, she said, “it would be important for them to also talk
about what is the Israeli viewpoint as well,” she said. “Some individuals
don’t feel that that happened.”

Housing has followed up with all of those who were at the event as well as
the person who filed the complaint, Sealine said.

“We’re working on some additional training for our staff and making sure
that our multicultural advocates are not perceived as experts on any given
topic. And we also make sure that we take the time to identify all sides of
an issue,” she said.

♦♦♦

Jones said the campus is: — Instituting anti-Semitic training for all
full-time housing staff, resident advisers and multicultural advocates by
the end of the semester.— Launching an “immediate, full review” of the
hiring, training and professional oversight and management of resident
advisers and multicultural advocates.

— Commissioning an external review of UI Housing’s
multicultural educational programs “to help us identify and to implement
best practices

based on leading national peers.”

He also promised the campus would continue to track incidents of
anti-Semitism, racism, bias and prejudice on campus.

“We will always recognize the rights of those on the campus to safely and
freely express their perspectives and opinions. But we will also be ready
to condemn statements and actions that violate our shared values and seek
to demean, intimidate or devalue others in our community,” he said.

“I apologize to all of our students and to our community. This university
promises an experience that prepares students to live, work and lead in a
multicultural, diverse and international society. We did not live up to our
obligations in this case.”

UI Professor Bruce Rosenstock, who teaches a course on the history of
anti-Semitism for the Jewish Culture and Society Program, applauded the
chancellor’s efforts to increase staff knowledge about that topic. But he
also hopes it includes “diverse views about the state of Israel.”

♦♦♦

Jewish organizations on campus welcomed the chancellor’s statement.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel of
Illini Chabad. Anti-Semitism has been an ongoing challenge, he said, from
swastikas to vandalism of Chabad’s outdoor menorah in years past.

But the UI chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was disappointed by
the chancellor’s statement, saying it “demonizes a student presentation on
Palestine” and equates the concept of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. The
group demanded that any training make a distinction between the two.

“We firmly believe that everyone has the right to criticize the unjust
actions of a state, and we wish to highlight the difference between what
students in the Palestine movement are often accused of perpetuating, as
opposed to what they are actually fighting for,” the group said in a
statement signed by a dozen other student organizations.

“Students for Justice in Palestine unequivocally condemns anti-Semitic
violence, such as the reported swastika on the Foreign Languages building.
We extend our solidarity to Jewish students on campus who are impacted by
this violent anti-Semitism. SJP is committed to the struggle of ending all
forms of discrimination,” the statement said. It also said the role of
multicultural advocates is to help raise awareness about marginalized
groups, and information about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territories is “well within” that scope.

But the Illini Public Affairs Committee, a group that works to strengthen
ties between the U.S. and Israel, said it was inappropriate to “push
one-sided political messaging” about a complex topic at a mandatory staff
meeting.

The group’s main grievance was that the presentation labeled Israel as a
terrorist nation and “as a result did not facilitate any sort of
conversational pieces of information for both sides of this very complex
political debate.”

Illini PAC said the multicultural advocates are supposed to generate
“productive conversation” on cultural issues, noting that the Housing
website says they should serve as role models “by confronting acts of
intolerance and hate, encouraging dialogue among students, and working
toward the creation of truly inclusive communities.”

Instead, the incident created a “hostile environment” for residents based
on their national origin or identity, the group said.
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