The War Against Israel on American University Campuses

Henry Srebrnik, [Toronto] Jewish Tribune

In the 1960s, American college students marched against the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, activists protested against apartheid in white-ruled South Africa.

Now, the cause du jour is the attempt to delegitimize Israel.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement is gaining strength on campuses across the United States. At many schools, it has become the main issue uniting otherwise disparate groups of students.

Its objective is to force Israel through various boycotts to comply with its goals, which, though somewhat opaque, would arguably lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

The BDS message has started to resonate with many trade unions, churches, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and universities, who see Israel as oppressing Palestinians and violating their human rights.

Jewish student groups, often aided by local Jewish organizations, have sought to curtail these initiatives by appealing to university administrations, in a manner reminiscent of medieval Jewish communities who sought the protection of monarchs against anti-Semitic mobs.

In some cases, they succeed, in others they don’t.

In November, San Francisco State University President Les Wong condemned placards at a Palestinian campus event that said, “My heroes have always killed colonizers.”

Stencils allowing attendees to paint the slogan on placards were available at an event celebrating the sixth anniversary of the creation of a campus mural honoring the late Palestinian-American academic Edward Said. It was organized by the General Union of Palestinian Students and the school’s Cesar Chavez Student Center, as well as the university’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative.

A conference organized by the American Studies program at New York University, held from Feb. 28 to March 1, entitled “Circuits of Influence: U.S., Israel and Palestine,” noted approvingly the American Studies Association’s decision in December to boycott Israeli educational institutions.

This was followed by a statement from NYU President John Sexton condemning the boycott movement. “Our provost and I have made our opposition to boycotts of Israeli academics and universities clear, both in response to the recent American Studies Association vote and in the past,” Sexton said.

A similar event was held at the City University of New York, co-sponsored by the Critical Palestine Studies Association, Middle East Studies Organization, and Post-Colonial Studies Group.

Last month, Northeastern University in Boston suspended its campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. On Feb. 24, during this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week, Northeastern students had eviction notices slipped under their dorm doors. The notices, clearly marked as fake, copied the eviction orders the group says the Israeli government posts regularly on Palestinian homes in the West Bank.

The university asserted that the notices alarmed and intimidated students, and Northeastern President Joseph Aoun made a campus-wide announcement that antisemitism would not be tolerated.

Also in March, at Loyola University of Chicago, Pedro Guerrero, the president of the Loyola United Student Government Association (USGA), vetoed a resolution that called on the university to remove its holdings from eight companies that provide equipment or services to Israel for use in the West Bank.

The veto came a day after the USGA had passed the resolution, proposed by the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, by a vote of 12-10 with nine abstentions. However, the student senate can still override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote.

At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Central Student Government (CGS) had on March 18 voted 21-15 with one abstention to “table, indefinitely” a divestment bill presented by student representatives of the campus group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE).

The next night SAFE and its supporters launched an indefinite sit-in at the CSG chambers, demanding that the student government consider their proposal. A poster hanging on the door to the CSG chambers renamed the room the “Edward Said Lounge.”

Finally, on March 25, a vote was held on the resolution. The atmosphere, according to those in attendance, was tense. All 375 chairs in the venue were filled and hundreds more students were refused entry because of fire code restrictions. About 200 students were placed in an adjacent screening room where they and over 2,000 others at home tuned in to a live-stream of the event.

On the back wall, a few students held up a 20-foot-long Palestinian flag, and the room erupted in cheers. The vote was by secret ballot, as some CGS members said they felt intimidated by the crowd. In the end, the student government’s 25-9 vote, with five abstentions, defeated their proposal.

But these might be temporary victories. The BDS and pro-Palestinian movement is energising students in ways not seen since the 1960s and it is especially strong among those who originate in third world countries, and who see Israel as a colonial, settler state.

Israel is losing the next generation of activist students, many of them possible future leaders, in the very country that it depends on for political and military assistance.