Deeper issues keep campus dialogue on Israel-Palestine quiet

This is the second in a series of two articles discussing the campus reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While some explain Boston University students’ lack of activity on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as mere apathy and distraction, leaders from several BU Arab and Muslim organizations said there may be deeper issues within their own communities that may contribute to a quieter campus environment.

Students and staff on the pro-Israel side explained the apparent lack of campus action on the issue as a result of the ‘sensitive’ and ‘civil’ tone of dialogue between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel campus groups. But pro-Palestinian campus activists blamed numerous things, from a huge and dominating Jewish population to a fractious campus Arab and Muslim population to a simple lack of interest in the situation from BU students. The issues are more serious, they said, than a simple lack of interest from students.

‘BU is a Jewish dominated school, and Arab students don’t have a presence on campus,’ said Arab Students Association Vice President Monem Rafai, a native of Egypt. ‘A lot of people we talk to are not really informed on what’s going on, so we can’t really get into a debate. It’s all new to them, so we can’t get engaged in a discussion.’

Several members of BU’s Arab community leadership attributed the Arab community’s relative silence on the issue to the community’s culturally divided nature.

Much of the community of international students, originating from the more than 20 countries that call themselves home to Muslim majorities. And though they may all speak the same language and many of them may practice the same religion, Arab Student Association President Dana Kadrie, a native of Lebanon, said organizing around one banner in America is difficult.

‘The problem with the Arab population at BU is that it’s very fragmented,’ said Kadrie, a junior in the College of Communication. ‘We don’t have a presence.’

Compared to BU’s Jewish population, Kadrie said the campus Arab community is not well established as a cohesive group. And the problems begin right when Arab students come to school, she said.

‘When you come to school, there’s no way to connect with other people from the same area,’ Kadrie said. ‘I may come from one area and I may know two or three other people that may come with me, but I don’t know anyone from Saudi Arabia. There is no connection like we are all Arab Students.’

The campus community is divided into three main Arab or Muslim groups: the ASA, the Islamic Society and the Middle Eastern Society. Kadrie said the ASA has an email list of approximately 100, though the active membership is much smaller, and Inas Khayal, a member of the Islamic Society, said group’s active membership is similarly small.

The Arab community’s lack of cohesion creates an environment where it is difficult for those interested in speaking out on the Israel-Palestine conflict to do so, Kadrie said. While the Jewish community has large numbers to back up everything they say about the issue, Arab students feel more isolated when they speak out, she said.

‘The Jewish community has a very strong presence on campus,’ Kadrie said. ‘They have strong groups, they have big followings. Whenever they do it, they’re in a big group and they have 100 people backing them. Anything I say, I’m going to have 200 people jump on me.’

The number of letters to the editor in The Daily Free Press on each side shows the disparity between the two communities, according to several members of the Arab community. For each pro-Palestinian letter to the editor, there have been more responses to the contrary, especially this year, they said.

‘It’s a big force to fight against,’ said Gaza City-native and College of Arts and Sciences senior Yasmin Khayal, whose pro-Palestinian letter started a string of pro-Israel responses early on this semester. ‘If you’re writing something, you will have someone writing against you. I expected someone to write in support, but it didn’t happen.’

And the very fact that much of the Arab community is made up of international students also has a large affect on how comfortable many Arab students feel speaking out, Kadrie said. According to BU spokesman Colin Riley, students from the Middle East make up 10 percent of the international student population at BU, or about 350 students.

Kadrie said Sept. 11 and the federal government’s increased scrutiny of the Arab community didn’t help things either.

‘It’s a defense mechanism,’ Kadrie said. ‘You say ‘I’m on my own here, I’m in a foreign country and I don’t have a family to back me up or run home to if I don’t like what is happening.’ Am I going to speak up about such a heated topic or am I going to keep a low profile? The safer route is to keep a low profile.’

Arab students also have many different issues to focus on besides the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, creating a lack of focus on the issue within the community, according to Islamic Society President Salman Shazeeb, a Kuwaiti native with Bangladeshi parents. From the budding American war in Iraq to the conflict over Kashmir between India and Pakistan to human rights issues throughout the Arab world, Shazeeb said Arab students must think about numerous serious situations in the Arab world right now.

‘You can pretty much find something everywhere you go,’ Shazeeb said.

The diversity of issues within the community makes it even more difficult to compare the Arab and Jewish communities, Yasmin Khayal said. The Jewish community’s ability to unite around one cause immediately makes it stronger than the ‘very disunited’ Arab community, she said.

Many Arab students are also in the ‘hard core sciences’ and don’t feel as comfortable writing in to defend their positions on the situation, Khayal said. Meanwhile, she said the Jewish population is well established in the right areas, including politics and the media, and have many resources at their disposal.

DEFINING ANTI-SEMITISM

‘A lot of people say automatically, ‘you’re pro-Palestine, you’re anti-Semitic, you’re against the Jewish people and you’re against the state of Israel,’ Kadrie said. ‘In most cases, we’re not against the Jewish people and we’re not against the state of Israel we’re against the occupation and what it does to people. It’s a very humanitarian point of view.’

The simple fear of being called anti-Semitic dissuades people from speaking out against Israel, both in discussions and letters to the editor, several pro-Palestine campus leaders said.

Anti-Semitism is a touchy subject on both sides of the issue. Because the Middle East conflict is so intimately tied to two religions that have often been in conflict since the birth of the state of Israel, deciphering between simple arguments and deeper prejudices can be difficult. Bringing the idea of racism into the argument is dangerous and can be another factor in cutting down discussion, both sides said.

While leaders from the Boston University Students for Israel said they never throw the term around and do not accuse pro-Palestine students at BU of anti-Semitism, pro-Palestine students said the worry is still there.

‘It’s ingrained in people that being called an anti-Semite is worse than death,’ said ASA Treasurer Majid Ikhwan, a senior in the College of Engineering. ‘It does scare people, only because it’s been made to look that way a lot of times.’

Pro-Israel leaders had differing definitions of where arguments begin to bridge on anti-Semitism, though students said they have not encountered many such arguments at BU. BUSI Treasurer Jackie Belkin said anti-Semitism begins when people start advocating against Israel, instead of advocating for Palestinian rights and positions.

But Polak went further. Simply equating Palestinian suicide bombings with Israeli army actions is anti-Semitism, and the divestment movement is one such example, he said.

Polak’s use of the term caused consternation among pro-Palestinian groups last year when, after several local Episcopal bishops helped demonstrate against Israeli action in front of the Israeli Consulate in Boston, Polak called the bishops’ actions an ‘egregious act of anti-Semitism.’ His words caused debate among letters to the editor shortly thereafter.

Pro-Palestine students called such incidents cheap shots, simply intending to stop the opposition from speaking, and ASA member Ahmed Dailami said it’s an argument they do come to expect from the opposition. ‘It’s a sad fact,’ he said.

‘I think it’s basically a way to shut people up,’ Ikhwan said. ‘You slap someone, call them an anti-Semite and hope they’ll be too intimidated, but it doesn’t really carry any weight it’s just name-calling basically.

‘You can’t equate criticizing someone with being anti-Semitic,’ he said.

BUSI President Jessica Rosenraich said BUSI stays away from such allegations, and said BU’s Arab students should not be afraid of discussion because of the term.

‘That’s a very serious allegation and we don’t throw it around lightly I hope people recognize that,’ she said. ‘It’s unfortunate when people use that as a pretext to distance themselves from discussion, because as of now, in terms of discussions with BUSI, we do not throw that term around lightly and there shouldn’t be any cause for concern.’

Former BUSI President Hillel Bavli agreed.

‘Just so we can keep open dialogue, we have to be very careful about things like that,’ Bavli said.

FUTURE DISCUSSION, FUTURE HOPE

Campus leaders on both sides maintain that discussion of the conflict is important, and expressed optimism about future prospects for dialogue on campus.

Both sides have discussed coming together to form a discussion group or create a mock peace proposal in the past, though they said those efforts were derailed for different reasons. When they tried to get together last year, Rosenraich said, talks disintegrated after violence heated up. But both sides said they will continue to work toward educating BU students about the conflict and encouraging discussion.

Bavli said he and several pro-Palestine students have even informally discussed forming a joint group in the near future to discuss the conflict. He said he hopes that idea can get off the ground next semester.

In the end, Belkin said, discussion will be the best way to solve the crisis.

‘It takes a long time, and it starts with education and both sides really starting to listen,’ she said. ‘It starts with teaching children that peace is the way to go. Once that is instilled in both communities, peace will happen. You just have to educate people to believe in peace and go for peace.’

Kadrie agreed the future is the only direction in which to look, she said.

‘We have to learn to move on from what has happened to what will happen and what we can do as a solution,’ Kadrie said. ‘Can you come up with solutions? I don’t know how feasible that is, but it’s something we should strive for.’