Israel-Palestine discussions lack civility

Last month, students berated and walked out on an Israeli journalist who came to Boston College because of his perceived bias, while tearing up pro-Israeli literature outside of the event.. A week later, police were present when a pro-Palestinian speaker came to counter the presentation.

These types of situations, however, are not solely BC phenomenons. At Brandeis, the president ordered an Israeli student to remove graphic paintings done by Palestinian refugees. Penn State University barred a Jewish student from showing paintings of Palestinian terrorists. Tensions even escalated to the point of vandalism and arson at the University of California, Irvine, in 2003.

Why can college students debate peacefully over issues like abortion, war, civil rights, religion, and racism, but not Israel and Palestine?

An article in the Boston Globe last month said better student organization has contributed to greater tensions on campuses, but the visibly small number of Jewish and Muslim students at BC has prevented formidable groups from emerging on either side of the debate.

Right now, BC has Hillel, a national Jewish student organization founded in 1923, and the Muslim Student Association (MSA), but active students and faculty say these groups have shied away from dialogue and debate, leaving the Global Justice Project (GJP), an unofficial student group, and the faculty-led BC Coalition for Israel (BCCI) to fill the vacuum of debate.

"The GJP has in a way filled the need for discussion and has provided several good events to educate BC on the conflict," said Jeremy Kaplan, A&S '07, in an e-mail.

"I have not heard anything about the Muslim or Arab student clubs here," said Kerns Lane, A&S '10.

Seif Ammus, CSOM '08, said part of the reason is that "there's not a heavy Muslim or Jewish presence [at BC]," but he added that Muslims on campus are "too quiet," especially compared to the "strong" Muslim association at BU, and he asked, "Where's the Muslim voice?"

Ammus is from Saudi Arabia, but his mother is from the Gaza Strip and his father is from the West Bank. In an effort to educate the BC community about Palestine, Ammus co-founded the Palestinian Awareness Project (PAP) last fall as an offshoot of the GJP, which Ammus said is pro-Palestinian even though he's the group's only Muslim.

"When you're pro-Palestine, you have to give people facts they've never seen before since most people in this country are pro-Israeli because of what we see," said Ammus. "You can go down the C-Line and see three or four 'Stand with Israel - Stand with Democracy' signs, so even if you're not pro-Israeli, it's still programmed into you to a certain extent."

Ammus said he's surprised nobody from the MSA has contacted him about activism or issued any statement concerning the Yochay event. After several attempts, the president and vice president of the MSA remained unreachable as of last night.

Rabbi Ruth Langer, associate theology professor of jewish studies and associate director of the Center for Jewish and Christian Learning, said before she and other faculty founded the BCCI, "the only discourse on campus was anti-Israel." The BCCI is an attempt to create balance and to counter the GJP's pro-Palestinian events, she said.

Although Yochay's presentation was not what she expected, Langer said he was responding to a GJP event the week before called "Combatants of Peace," which Kaplan described as a "great example of productive, just dialogue about the conflict" since "many people [at BC] are very unaware of the damaging, dehumanizing effects of the Occupation in Palestine."

After "Combatants of Peace," the Consulate General of Israel to New England "expressed concern over a series of 'one-sided, anti-Israel events'" at BC put on by GJP, according to an article in the Jewish Advocate last month.

"What's most concerning is a majority of students that go to BC don't know about Israel beyond what they see in the news and in the paper and what they are hearing on campus," said the Consulate's Academic Affairs Officer, Gerri R. Pozez, in the article. "There isn't a large Jewish population at the school, and students are mainly getting a one-sided view of Israel."

One thing Langer, Kaplan, and Ammus seemed to agree on was the ostensible apathy of current student groups."Hillel has not been interested in teaming up with BCCI," said Langer.

Kaplan agreed, saying, "unfortunately at times Hillel is very apolitical on campus" because of the low Jewish population at BC that hinders the group's operational capacity.

This doesn't seem to be the case at other schools."As far as BU goes, the Hillel House is very vocal about the [Israeli-Palestinian] issue," said Matt Negrin, news editor of BU's Daily Free Press.

At Tufts, there is the New Initiative for Middle East Peace, "which is now trying to establish connections with students at other area universities who are interested in Middle East related dialogue," said Tufts Daily news editor, Marc Raifman, in an e-mail.

"There is a great deal of Israeli-Palestinian debate that occurs at Tufts," said David Pomerantz, Raifman's fellow editor, in an e-mail. "The debate has been generally constructive and open, mostly occurring between a small numbers of people on both sides in various groups."

Although BC Hillel president-elect Gulienne Rollins, A&S '08, was unreachable after repeated attempts, outgoing president Will Markis said in an e-mail that he has spoken with MSA President, Ibrahim Dayib, A&S '09, about setting up a multi-faith program, and has also set up events with the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Student Association.

Despite this, Langer said Hillel functions mainly as a social network and a cultural nexus rather than a political forum. Before the BCCI, "standing up for Israel on campus was difficult," Langer said. "Students had to take some heat if they wanted to."