Each winter, Boston University Students for Israel hosts Israel Peace Week, a full week dedicated to advocating for peace in the Middle East, teaching students about Israel and celebrating Israeli culture. BU’s Students for Justice in Palestine hosts Israel Apartheid Week the week after Israel Peace Week. To the outside observer, these two weeks present some confusion. Both groups seem to have positive messages: BUSI claims it is advocating for peace and SJP claims it is advocating for liberation and justice. So, why are they two opposing groups? Like most pro-Israel groups, BUSI advocates for peace and a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict through direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab nations, which have historically sought to destroy Israel. Such negotiations have led to peace between Israel and Egypt in 1978 and Israel and Jordan in 1994. Israel Peace Week is celebrated by educating students about Israel’s peace and humanitarian efforts and advocating for a two-state solution where both Israelis and Palestinians would have sovereignty.
On the other hand, SJP and Israel Apartheid Week are focused on defaming this single nation, presenting it in the worst light possible. They will shout “free Palestine” without acknowledging Israel’s lack of peaceful partners in the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority’s consistent rejection of Israel’s offer for direct negotiations, the goal of major Palestinian political parties such as Hamas to destroy Israel, and the rifts between different Palestinian governments.
They will only talk about Israel in the context of violence, failing to acknowledge the historic peace agreements Israel has reached with other nations and peace and humanitarian efforts today. They will also not acknowledge the Arab apartheid problem ubiquitous in countries such as Egypt, Syria and Lebanon and endorsed by the Arab League: The isolation of Palestinian refugees, who are placed in camps generation after generation and refused education, healthcare, work and citizenship so that the Arab nations may use the refugee problem as a weapon against Israel (Arab League Resolution 1457).
In summary, these groups both appear to have good goals, but what they actually stand for tells a very different story.
-Holly Bicerano
CAS 2015
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
Holly is right — the Arab nations need to step up and stop teaching their kids hatred of others.