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Israel's 60th Birthday Inspires Protests at Columbia |
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 by Jessica Miller, April 30, 2008 |
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Columbia's main lawn: In a rare protester-free momentSo, protests sometimes happen at Columbia University. In the past month alone there has been a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the 1968 riots, a week-long CU Democrats war protest (including a massive red balloon display that, despite its seriousness, only succeeded in getting that song stuck in my head), a protest about Tibet, protests about Columbia’s impending expansion into Manhattanville, and a Take Back the Night rally. Not to mention the blood drive, arts fair, sex fair, free Mumia posters, a relay for life, and that random jumping castle and pink balloon-display that showed up last Friday. Seriously, Columbia students have recently done everything short of throwing a pie in Thomas Friedman’s face.
So what are those crazy kids going to do next? How about an al-Nakba rally – Say, day before Yom Hashoah-ish? Sure, why not – it can at least provide topical fodder for name-calling.
Many Jewcy readers will know that this May is the 60th anniversary of Israeli independence. They might be less familiar with the fact that many Palestinians and Palestinian support groups are marking this time as the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba, a time in which Palestinians were forced out of their homes to make room for the new state of Israel. That's why, starting this week, a new flier campaign began over at the Columbia campus about the mistreatment of Palestinians as a casualty of Zionism. According to the fliers, it’s officially Nakba Week.
Competing birthdays: A poster commemorating Al-Nakba's 60th anniversary
Also, a Pro-Nakba Week student published this article in the campus newspaper, accusing the campus Hillel (and its president, Emily Steinberger) of disrespecting the week’s commemoration by refusing to co-sponsor the event simply because it used the word “Nakba.”
Then came the backlash. LionPAC, the pro-Israel group under the broader Hillel umbrella, put up a bunch of retaliation fliers equipped with their own pro-Israel statistics. And in retaliation to the original Spectator article, Steinberger submitted this report, which, among other things brings up (drumroll, please)…the Holocaust! So the whole debate becomes not the “new chapter in Columbia’s Israel-Arab discourse” that LionPAC says it wants, but instead a great big print-based shouting match.
It is of course the prerogative of every ethnic group to raise sympathy for and awareness of their respective oppression by waiving their grievances in people’s faces. But will shoving opposing tragedies at the opposition really solve anything? As Spectator columnist Armin Rosen puts it, this methodology is “more proof that the Zionist and anti-Zionist blocs totally deserve each other.”
Holocaust discourse in general is something that is all too easily buffeted about. Palestinian supporters often accuse Zionists of acting like Nazis toward the Palestinians -- within a homeland that was created to be a Jewish safe haven in the face of Nazism. Similarly, Zionist are often too quick to pull their own Holocaust card. We’ll see who racks up the most references when we get down to the “discourse.”
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I currently live and study in New York City. I'm a religion major, which basically means I spend most of my time writing essays about the journeys of metaphorical Sufi birds and how tripped out the book of Daniel is. I have also been caught DJing for More... |
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Anonymous
Language... Language
Why do you use a political term to describe the Jews who accept(ed) the U.N. resolution, but an nationalist/ethnic term to describe the descendants of Arabs who didn't and still don't? Should acceptance of the U.N.'s decision to recognize a country be selectively politicized?
Palestineisamyth
Palestine isa fraud created to destroy Israel.
There has never been a Palestinian country, people, culture or language. It's a myth created by Russia and the Plo for propaganda purposes. The word Palestine is just another name for Israel. The first "Palestinians" were Jews who had always lived in the Jewish homeland of Israel.
The phony country of Jordan was created from 80% of ancient Israel. It's the Arabs who are the occupiers and land thieves of Jewish land. The invadors from Arabia need to stop their savage attacks against the indigenous Jews and go back to their homeland.
Ismail
I'm a fool to take the bait,
I'm a fool to take the bait, but here I go anyway:
"There has never been a Palestinian country, people, culture or language."
Well, all the world referred to that chunk of real estate roughly between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean as "Palestine" for quite a while. I guess you could say that they were all deluded....
A Palestinian people? This is a question of philosophy rather than demographics. I'd say that if a group of people with similar customs, language, geographic location and similar attributes call themselves a people, that pretty much closes the deal.
No Palestinian culture? Demonstrably, howlingly false. Palestinian ceremonial dress, particularly the embroidery patterns of the women's clothing, is distinctive. My Lebanese mother would turn up her nose at Palestinian cuisine, although her cooking and a Palestinian's would probably appear identical to a Dane or Thai. These are precisely the sorts of things that anthropologists advise us constitute culture.
No Palestinian language? Hey, genius, is there an Egyptian language? Syrian? Saudi? No? I guess there are no Egyptians, Syrians or Saudis, then. Fucking dope.
I know, I know, why bother addressing this lunatic. Sorry. Carry on.
Anonymous
Palestine
is much older than Israel. There was a Palestine before the Jews showed up to wrest it from the Philistines and Canaanites. The Zionists are great at changing history. Jews have never controlled Palestine for more then 500 years total. It was someone else's land before and will forever be someone else's land.
JessM
EDIT
I was mistaken... the red balloons and rocket counts were set up by LionPAC in response to the violence in Sderot, not by the CU Dems. Although the fact that I got this fact wrong speaks volumes about the effectiveness of certain campaigns. Too often are there quick and eager impulses to protest and too little an explanation of the basic message or motives behind the attempt, resulting in a powerful display that ironically lacks in meaning.
Anonymous
This piece might interest
This piece might interest you. It is long, scholarly, detailed, and sad. I confess I haven't read it. I am too old and tired. But you seem to be interested, and you are not old or tired.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/1948--israel--and-the-palestinians-the-true-story-11355
I am so sorry for you because you have to be on a college campus a little longer. Since it is necessary, please milk the experience for some serious instruction, in, say, English literature, astronomy, biology or languages. You have your whole life to study religious matters, with Partners In Torah, for instance, at 1800-STUDY 42. That is free phone study, arranged for anybody, any time. I just hope you can find some honest, competent instruction, in a department that has escaped leftist political domination. This will not be easy.The "progressives" have been very thorough. They always get in their commercial. And just try disagreeing with them. You will know pain.
As for the "violence" in Sderot, Sderot is being continually SHELLED. You know, bombed. Not like at McSorley's either. Not that kind of bombed. Anyway good luck. You write well.
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