Judging by the temperature on campus, the Israel-Palestine conflict is starting to gain traction and attention among students. As a representative for Students for Justice in Palestine, there could hardly be better news. For too long, the legitimate rights of the Palestinians have been submerged under the unfortunate alliance between United States geopolitical strategy in the Middle East and Israel’s project of occupation and expropriation.
Now, the balance has shifted a bit, and for perhaps the first time ever, the Israeli apologists are on the defensive. Unsurprisingly, their response has been to try and silence and shut down opposition groups on campus, like SJP, and downplay or gloss over Israel’s brutal crimes. This is why SJP have chosen to erect a mock apartheid wall: no longer will Israel’s crimes go unmentioned and unknown to campus audiences, especially when the United States is the sole enabler left for the Greater Israel project.
Israel’s apologists claim sensationalism on our part, but they can only claim such so long as students on campus remain ignorant of the facts on the ground.
For one thing, it is difficult to “sensationalize” something that is very real. The real Wall, if part of it were placed in front of Marsh Chapel tomorrow, would tower over the mock wall Students for Justice in Palestine built this week. The real Wall is, in many places, 25 feet tall, often dressed in sniper towers designed to enforce arbitrary buffer zones with live bullets. Moreover, the real Wall extends twice as long as Israel’s recognized border, close to 440 miles in length.
Despite the leaflets Student for Israel pass out, which claim the “Security Fence” (a lesson in the propaganda of semantics) was built to stop Palestinian terror, close to 85 percent of the real Wall is built over Israel’s recognized border, the Green Line, and onto Palestinian land. In this light, the true purpose of the Wall becomes clear: the Wall is built, on the one hand, to insulate the major Israeli settlements – all of which are illegal under international law – from Palestinians living in the West Bank and incorporate them into the project of Greater Israel, and, on the other hand, to harass, frustrate, and intimidate Palestinians into destitution. The Wall’s location is the clue in judging intent. For, if security concerns were the true justification for the Wall, then the Wall would be built on Israel’s recognized border, not inside the West Bank. As B’tselem, the major Israeli human rights group, has said, the Wall’s purpose is the “de facto annexation of parts of the West Bank…[so that] 60 [Israeli] settlements will be situated on the Israeli side.”
Perhaps the most important declaration on the Wall’s illegality came from the International Court of Justice in 2004. There, the Court held that the Wall was illegal under both international humanitarian and international human rights law. The Court, which took into full account Israel’s security justifications, found that the Wall violated Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions, insofar as the Wall’s purpose was to assist the illegal settlement enterprise. The Court ruled that Israel must end construction of the Wall; remove those parts of the Wall built over the Green Line and compensate those Palestinians who suffered economic deprivation due to the illegal positioning of the Wall. Thus far, Israel has refused to abide by any of these commands from the world’s highest-ranking court.
These are not controversial issues. The weight of authority lies on the side of those who condemn the continued expropriation of Palestinian land, the continued demolition of West Bank homes, the harassment and imprisonment of Palestinian youth, and the apartheid conditions in both Israel proper and the West Bank. The entire world condemns Israel’s four-decade long brutal and repressive military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza – outside of the U.S.
But this is also why Israel’s apologists on campus, whether they be Students for Israel, Hillel, or, more recently, the ADL, are so desperate to silence student debate and discussion and accuse Students for Justice in Palestine of “sensationalizing” this issue. Not unlike the case of apartheid in South Africa, the United States is the last man standing, willing to once again sacrifice its moral standing to continue offering critical diplomatic, economic and military support for the brutal Israeli occupation regime. As long as students ignore these issues, Israel’s occupation wins. But when attention is drawn to the conflict and students on campus are organized in defense of Palestinian rights, Israel’s apologists are forced to resort to more back-handed tactics as their defense of Israeli’s occupation is called out for what it is: apologetics for apartheid.
-Tyler Cullis, BU School of Law and member of Students for Justice in Palestine
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.
Will the “Student’s for Justice in Palestine” also provide a model of the Palestinian bomb vest? These are simple devices filled with improvised but deadly explosives and bits of scrap metal, ball bearings, metal bolts and designed to wreak havoc when exploded by Arab suicide bombers infiltrating in Israel. Their main targets are city buses, university cafeterias, restaurants, kindergartens, public cafes. They particularly targeted businesses that were owned and managed by both Jews and Israeli Arabs.
If anything, it was this kind of urban terrorism that built the wall, which the Israelis decided to do rather than militarily subdue the population of the West Bank. Since the construction of the wall, deaths of both Arabs and Jews due to terrorist acts has been radically reduced.
The only really effective way to end this conflict is by negotiation anyway. And sadly this “Israel apartheid week” is nothing less that a propagandistic con job by radicals who have no intention of building a unique Palestinian country…rather they are much too lazy and violent and radicalized and more intent upon destroying the country of their neighbor and killing all of the inhabitants.
And so the apartheid supporter shows his/her true colors, once again. If you’re so deluded that you’re convinced that the only logical way to understand the situation is to lump BU students who oppose the occupation with suicide bombers and those who want to kill every single Israeli, then that’s a hell of a delusion you’re living in, and I hope it offers you at least a few *fun* unrealities too, like jetpacks, or unicorns.
Patrick, you totally dodged the point of Holden’s article. The wall that you use to misrepresent “apartheid” was built to keep out suicide bombers. Suicide attacks decreased by over 85% after the wall’s construction. Are you suggesting Israel should have left their borders unprotected and open to attack, all to appease the Palestinians? Rather than invade the West Bank and jeopardize millions of Palestinian civilian lives, they built a wall to protect themselves. Sounds like a reasonable decision to me. Everyone wss all up in arms when Gaza was invaded in 2008, would you rather the same had occurred in the early 2000s rather than the wall being built? While I will concede that Arabs living in Israel are discriminated against to a degree, they are given the benefits of full citizenship and live better lives than Arabs living in most of the countries neighboring Israel. To use the word apartheid is disrespectful to the South Africans who lived under a true apartheid regime. If you’re going to continue to claim Israeli apartheid, your definition suggests the the United States is as much an apartheid state as Israel.
If it wasn’t clear enough already that Students for Israel and friends are desperate to justify the existence of a colonial settler-state, these comments should lay the issue to rest. Comparing those who use nonviolent demonstration to raise legitimate concerns over land theft and human rights violations to suicide bombers? Really?
The hypocrisy of the Israel bashers continues! Protesting every move the “Zionist” state does yet ignores the Lebanese treatment of Palestinians, the Turk and Arab massacre of the Kurds, the Chinese oppression of Tibet, the Northern Sudanese Arabs who have massacred Sudanese Christians and continue to exploit their oil resources.
Where is the boycott and “solidarity” movements against the human rights violations in almost every Arab country and Iran? These includes Gaza which is directed under Hamas (an organization you obviously do not protest against.) The stoning of women, the death penalty for gays, the arrest of the opposition.
The Israel bashers show their “true colors, once again.” “Israel Apartheid Week” is just a mere movement to demonize Israel, attack the Jewish state with every move it makes, and continue the anti-Zionist fad that so many college students (who have never been to Israel) join to look “cool.”
Yet the hypocrisy continues. Where were all the Israel Bashers when Arabs were oppressed throughout the Arab World decades before you were all born? Now that the Arabs have finally erupted in Egypt and Libya, it looks like the so-called international community cares.
Oh and to comment on Pete. This “colonial settler state” is the only thriving state in the region that respects women’s rights, gay rights, free speech, and all other forms of human rights.
The Israel Bashers love declarations. You comment on it all the time. “UN this, UN that.” Well the Balfour Declaration of 1917 established a call for a Jewish state to the West of the Jordan River and an Arab state to the right. Yet you do not support these declaration? Oh right only if the declaration is clearly anti-Israel (like most of the Israel hating UN.)
If you’re really concerned about human rights why don’t you have a nonviolent demonstration against the Iranian government for arrested and killing protesters or the Syrian government for allowing the stoning of a woman who marries out of wedlock.
So I have to pick every single cause and human rights violation on the planet to save and defend every oppressed people? Oy vey! That’s a big task (and a lot to ask) don’t you think? I consider myself a jill of all trades but there are not enough hours in the day to be an effective activist for all causes, I’m sorry.
So instead I chose the one I am most knowledgeable about. The one where I have been and seen the conflict firsthand, making friends on BOTH sides and enemies for that matter. I’ve stood in the shadow of this wall, I’ve been without water for a week, I’ve seen the refugee camps. If speaking out about a situation which I have a personal knowledge of makes me a hypocrite (rather than knowing only a little about every conflict on earth) than I will accept this title, and leave the role of global policeman to someone more capable. Like yourself?
You are most “knowledgeable about.” Well that’s fair enough and exactly my point. You have been exposed to the demonizing and slander lies against Israel. You unfortunately have been exposed to this brainwashing and have protested against a “conflict” where Israel is made the enemy everywhere for every move it makes. For what? Protecting its citizens from rockets fired from Gaza?
Did you know that the Lord’s Resistance Army in Congo hacked up 35 people this week and have been kidnapping people all over the region.
I bet you didn’t pay attention to human rights violation committed by Hamas in Gaza the other day. Young college students like you and me were arrested by the Hamas Police Force for protesting Hamas’ treatment of the Palestinians.
But of course despite the human rights violations of every single Arab county in the Middle East, Israel is the enemy!
Meanwhile Arabs have seats in the Knesset and Arab Israelis have every right to voice their opposition against the government in Israel. But of course Israel is the “apartheid state” we are dealing with.
Again, you ignore my point completely (in typical fashion). I am not IGNORING the crimes of anyone else (I certainly don’t support the LRA or Hamas or Arab dictators etc etc etc) but answer my question, am I not allowed to choose the cause I am most passionate and knowledgeable about?
I don’t support Hamas’ arresting student for protesting. I also don’t support Israel arresting Palestinian students simply for trying to get to their university (which can take several hours due to checkpoints and roadblocks) The situation in Gaza is complicated and honestly, not one I can speak on with any real authority, not having been there. But I’ve lived on both sides of the Green Line and seen how West Bank Palestinians are treated, so yeah, I’m taking up my cause. No one had to “expose me to slanderous lies” or indoctrinate me as you seem to be suggesting- I saw conditions for myself and established my own viewpoint so I’ll thank you to stop jumping to conclusions about me and my experiences.
Nice try, dude. But as I told the Hillel crowd today, I didn’t see any of them at the Egyptian solidarity demonstrations that I helped organize here in Boston, nor did I see them at the Green Movement solidarity protests that I participated in New York a couple years ago. I don’t recall the State of Israel or its supporters condemning the dictatorship of Mubarak (in fact, as Eliot Spitzer, a loyal supporter of Israel said on MSNBC following the Gaza boat raid, Mubarak was the ‘democratically-elected’ leader of Egypt) – just as I recall one of Netanyahu’s top aides saying, in a Time Magazine article, that the Arab world wasn’t ready for democracy.
You can continue to label us as a ‘single-issue crowd intent on demonizing Israel to the exclusion of all others’, but it is your crowd that is the single-issue one. Everything refers back to Israel and its misguided (if not criminal) intentions. Israel loved Mubarak (which is why Egyptian troops were allowed into the Sinai for the first time in close to 40 years, following the start of the demonstrations last month) – just as Israel loves the other dictatorships in the region, all of whom repress and brutalize the Arab street.
Moreover, as a non-Jewish U.S. citizen, my focus is on highlighting Israel’s four-decade long occupation (one that is much older than Hamas and those suicide bombers) for the purpose of ensuring that the U.S. ends its role as the sole enabler of Israel’s crimes. Truth to be told, I don’t care all that much about Israel. What I care about is the role the United States plays in the world and whether it is intent on recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinians to self-determination or not. Personally, then, my focus is on the United States, not Israel. That is why I focus on Israel to the exclusion of Hamas: once U.S. dollars start pouring into Hamas’ coffers, you can be sure I’ll be there standing beside you calling for an end to U.S. aid to that regime. Until then, I’ll continue to live in the real world.
Well isn’t that funny? U.S. money is definitely in the hands of Hamas. Do you honestly think the billions of dollars that goes to the Saudi family doesn’t also transfer to Hamas? I could give you many sources on how Saudi Arabia backs the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza. The U.S. is one of Saudi Arabia’s most reliable partners in money transfers and also is a supporter of Hamas. So you obviously cannot face the fact that your money does go to Hamas plans to destroy Israel and start another Holocaust. But you don’t know this because you are too brainwashed by the anti-Israeli media to ever realize it.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/01/saudi-arabia-to-give-hamas-one-billion-dollars.html
Where is your protest against the U.S. involvement in the Saud family and the money going to terrorist regimes? I thought you didn’t like dictatorships like Egypt. Saudi Arabia is yet another one (hint: they behead people in public!)
I guess everyone ends up “loving dictatorships.” And Hamas is clearly a dictatorship but I guess it doesn’t matter when they are at the forefront of the “Palestinian Plight.”
Next point. You are now confusing me, the State of Israel and supposedly a third party. “My Crowd” doesn’t exist. I am not in BUSI nor do I work for the Israeli government. I am just someone who is sick and tired of listening to the garbage spewed by Israel bashers like you. People who are obsessed with Israel and every single step it takes. Yet you are not protesting Hamas’ treatment of the Palestinians and I didn’t see “your crowd” protesting against Egypt’s dictatorship before the 2011 revolution. It seems you like to jump on the “human rights” bandwagon (which of course loves to demonize Israel.)
Israel’s “four-decade long occupation.” Well now that is just misguided. Israel does not control Gaza nor does it have any influence on the terrorist government. It has created a blockade which is stopping Hamas’ rockets coming into Israeli towns and killing people. There are no IDF missions in Gaza. The area is controlled by the Hamas and the people in Gaza have been brutally oppressed by the terrorists. Yet you continue to blame Israel.
Tyler if rockets were slamming into Boston from Canada, what would you do? Open your arms and have tea with the terrorists? No I think you would be a little pissed that preschools were in danger of being destroyed and children killed. Having said that I do not like war. I am against the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan but there is a difference here because Israel is protecting itself. The U.S. is not surrounded by people who want to destroy the country.
Israel does not stone women, ban gay relationships, disallow free speech, arrest any kind of opposition. You ignore these points in my last post.
Hamas does though! But because Hamas has only controlled Gaza since 2006, it doesn’t matter? You points are very misleading.
And one final thing “Truth to be told, I don’t care all that much about Israel.”
Oh come on.
You must think we’re not just wrong but actually dumb!…. you quote a Jihad Watch article that is quoting/link to a ARUTZ SHEVA article. OF COURSE they are biased on this issue its a Neo-Zionist paper with a painfully blatant right wing leaning! Gooooooood source. Find me a better one and I’ll be willing to consider your point.
Israel doesn’t arrest opposition of any kind? You have got to be joking?! Do you know how many Palestinian (especially students) have been held in administrative detention for months and even years for crimes they may or may not have ever committed/may or may not ever be charged for. Thousands.
Fun fact: Israel only legalized homosexuality in 1988. Its never been illegal in the West Bank. 😉
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4795574.stm
here is a link from BBC, a notable anti-Israel organization like Students for Justice in Palestine.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/hamas-funds.htm
Here’s another link.
Israel does not arrest Palestinians dissents. They arrest people who they believe might have involvement with terrorism. If you think Israel arrests anyone like the terrorist Arab regimes, you are just showing your true anti-Israeli colours. Yet you will read about Israel arresting “innocent” Palestinians because of the anti-Israeli bias slant in the so-called international community.
“Israel only legalized homosexuality in 1988”
Are you kidding me? It was never ILLEGAL to have a gay relationship in Israel. The Israeli government never persecuted gays or arrested gays for having relationships. Yet in the West Bank it is illegal to have a gay relationship
Watch here: http://wn.com/Arab_boy_jailed_for_being_gay_by_the_Palestinian_Authority
Doesn’t the FREEP say they doen’t publish any pieces that are self promoting: “s a representative for Students for Justice in Palestine” DEFINES self promoting. Does BUSI get one too?
Did BUSI write one that was worthy of publication? If not, maybe thats step number one. Don’t fault Mr. Cullis for getting his coherent, articulate opinions published.