Too often the democratic nature of the state of Israel is disputed on college campuses around this country. Too often student organizations at universities like Students for Justice in Palestine which has a campus arm at Dartmouth resort to intimidation and incitement to perpetuate the myth that Israel in some way, shape or form represents a 21st-century manifestation of apartheid.
Israeli democracy is vibrant and in no way represents the systematic racial discrimination that was present in apartheid South Africa. The Israeli Declaration of Independence states: "[Israel] will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants ... It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants." These notions stand in direct contradiction of the racist creed of apartheid. All the people of Israel are given equal voting rights. In the recent Kadima party primaries, the Arab vote propelled Shaul Mofaz to become the new opposition leader in Israel. In the Knesset the Israeli House of Representatives there are three separate Arab parties, and Arabs serve as members of parties such as Likud, Israel Beiteinu, Labor and Kadima. Arab Israelis serve proudly on the Supreme Court, and Majalli Wahabi has served as acting President of Israel.
As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America explains, "When examined in detail ... the apartheid charges fall apart ... Like other Western democracies, Israel is imperfect, but when mistakes and injustices occur, they are usually, in the end, rectified thanks to the country's extensive checks and balances."
Much of the discourse among certain student organizations on college campuses dismisses the strength of Israeli democracy and instead aims to harass supporters of the Jewish state. SJP regularly hosts "Israel Apartheid Weeks," which unjustifiably draws comparisons between a democratic state that, despite its imperfections, hardly resembles the former oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa.
Following a recent lecture by two Israelis at the University of California, Davis, anti-Israel groups and organizations directed "anti-Semitic slurs" toward students and faculty. At the lecture, one student claimed the Israeli speakers were "rapists and child molesters." Both sides in the Israel debate have a desire to be heard. But too often, the actions and tactics of groups like SJP cross the line and are counterproductive to any respectful discourse.
Just this past Friday, activists belonging to Florida Atlantic University's SJP campus arm posted "eviction notices" on the doors of the dorms of some 200 Jewish students. Not only is the targeting of student property belonging to a particular group of people distasteful, it represents a larger tactic by some prominent anti-Israel organizations of manipulating the truth to scare and intimidate supporters of the Jewish state.
As the Anti-Defamation League noted in its 2011 report "Backgrounder: Students for Justice in Palestine," SJP has consistently demonized Israel by comparing Israelis to Nazis. The European Union's working definition of anti-Semitism includes: "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, ... holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel ... and denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination."
It appears that SJP and several of its campus chapters wade in to the waters of that European Union definition on a consistent basis. If our campus arm of SJP rejects these notions that seem fundamental to the overall national umbrella organization of SJP, it should repudiate them to our campus and disassociate itself from SJP national. No Dartmouth student group should tread in the spheres of hate and discrimination.
At Dartmouth, we can have a respectful debate on the multitude of issues that face our world and our generation without referring to an opposing side with hateful and manipulative language. We must cling to intellectual honesty and refrain from referring to Israel in terms associated with the Nazis or apartheid. Freedom of speech is a right worth protecting. But is a group like SJP really illustrative of the very values of tolerance and respect that a school like Dartmouth holds dear?
