Published: Monday, November 26, 2012
Two weeks ago, our group, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity
Committee, partnered with the Harvard College Progressive Jewish
Alliance to organize an event that
dealt explicitly with the struggle to strengthen a Jewish identity that
fights nonviolently for social justice and equality for all people in
the Holy Land. Because of the event’s relevance to Jewish audiences, PJA
originally reserved a room for the event in Harvard Hillel, the center
of Jewish life on campus. Although we were delighted that Harvard Hillel
initially agreed to have this dialogue take place in its building, the
offer was suddenly revoked a
week before the event. Due to pressure from Hillel International, the
event was prevented from taking place in Hillel because PSC was a
co-sponsor.
As
rationale for excluding our organization from this dialogue in Hillel,
Harvard Hillel’s executive director noted that PSC supports the
nonviolent boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. BDS is a
movement initiated in
2005 by Palestinian civil society in order to nonviolently demand an
end to Israel’s anti-Palestinian policies, and it has since become the
largest international, peaceful movement successfully calling for change
to these policies. According to the Institute for Middle East
Understanding, companies targeted by BDS have lostbillions
of dollars in contracts, and companies around the world have divested
from Israel. In October, Richard A. Falk, the U.N. special rapporteur on
human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, called for a boycott of all companies profiting from Israeli settlements.
Harvard
Hillel’s decision to ban us from co-sponsoring events at Hillel has
silenced dissident voices in the Jewish community, a disconcerting act
itself, given Hillel’s intention to be a space for all Jewish students.
However, it has also made us wonder: if Hillel does not want to interact
with pro-Palestinian groups that support nonviolent resistance for
peace, how does Hillel expect people to resist Israel’s brutal
occupation and well-documented human rights abuses?
Hillel
International’s policies opposing groups which support BDS is a
disgraceful attempt to silence critique and dissension against the
policies of the State of Israel in the Jewish community. We appreciate
the solidarity of the Progressive Jewish Alliance and that of countless
other pro-peace Jewish groups and hope that Hillel will be able to
evolve not only to accept modern discourse on a peaceful solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also to accept viewpoints in its
community that do not align with those of its main sponsors and leaders.
Last
week witnessed a dramatic rise in violence between Israelis and
Palestinians unprecedented in recent years. The fighting began last week
when Israel ended a tacit trucewith Hamas by assassinating the Hamas commander who was tasked with
enforcing ceasefires and was in the process of negotiating a new one.
In the following week, widespread Israeli bombings of Gaza killed at least 150 Palestinians. Hamas and other militant groups responded by firing rockets into Israel, killing five Israeli civilians.
The
recent violence is the tragic consequence of over 60 years of Israeli
dispossession of Palestinian lands and the continuing occupation and
siege of the Palestinian people, which has ensured an unsustainable and
unlivable reality, especially in Gaza. Between 2007 and 2010, Israel prevented even
the most basic of goods—including staples like concrete and medicine as
well as items like pasta, fruit juice, and chocolate—from entering the
Strip, enforcing a siege by land while controlling and limiting
Palestinian access to air and sea. Today, many imports and most exports
are still banned by Israel.
The
Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee is strongly opposed to
the use of violence by any actor, especially violence targeted at
civilians. However, we also recognize that Palestinian support for Hamas
and participation in violent resistance is a response to a regime of
occupation and human rights abuses that has lasted for over 60 years.
This week’s events and Israel’s latest attack on Gaza demonstrate the
tragic consequences of violent resistance.
The
violence does, however, raises questions for all people who are
interested in seeking a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. The Israeli occupation and siege of the Palestinian population
is immoral, and it perpetuates an unsustainable situation, resulting in
a violent conflict last week in which Palestinians lost their lives
daily and Israeli civilians were threatened with violent responses. If
we understand this, then we must support resistance against Israeli
policies: No government will change its policies if people do not speak
out against them. Additionally, all occupied populations have the right
to resist, defend, and reclaim their homes and land. It follows that if
we truly seek peace in the Holy Land and reject violent resistance as a
means to accomplish this, it is irrational and illogical to exclude
nonviolent resistance from the available strategies. If Hillel seeks to
be a relevant part of discourse on a just peace in the Holy Land today,
it must stop silencing those voices that advocate BDS as a form of
nonviolent struggle.
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