Dear Editor,
On Wednesday, April 18, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren spoke in Cohen Auditorium on the topic of the "U.S.-Israel relationship" organized by Tufts Hillel and Friends of Israel (FOI) as part of their "Israeli Independence Week." As Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), we opted to walk out: We refused to legitimize the Ambassador with our presence. Likewise, we refused to normalize the celebration of historic and current ethnic cleansing that is "Israel Independence Week" under the false pretense of "dialogue" and "peace takes two."
In 1948, the state of Israel was founded through what Israeli New Historians have called a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Zionist militias against the indigenous majority. Palestinians mourn this "catastrophe" or "Nakba," in which approximately 75 percent of the indigenous population, over 700,000 people, were expelled from their homeland. These refugees, today numbering about 5,000,000, have been unequivocally denied their United Nations-recognized right of return to their homes by Israel, which has instead opted to enact the Law of Return, exclusively privileging the return of world Jewry, regardless of whether they have actual ties to the land of Israel/Palestine. This dichotomy of return/expulsion represents the cornerstone of a colonialist system that privileges one ethno-religious group over and above all others through over 30 laws that discriminate against Palestinian-Arab citizens and other minority groups. For these reasons, the notion of "Israeli Independence Week" is little more than an explicit whitewashing of these historic and present realities of oppression.
Michael Oren's mission is that of whitewashing war crimes and ethnic cleansing. Oren has had quite an illustrious career, first as a paratrooper during the devastating siege of Beirut in 1982, then covering up Israeli war crimes in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2008-2009. Officially, he was an "army spokesman" for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the former and a "media relations officer" during the Gaza invasion. He also served as the media spokesperson defending Israel's actions when they stopped the 2010 flotilla to Gaza and killed nine Turkish citizens on board. As a spokesperson for these types of violent actions, Oren is responsible for the misrepresentation, sidestepping and legitimization of racist injustices committed daily by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people and their international allies. Just as the Tufts community would be reluctant to welcome an "academic" presentation by Basharal-Assad or a member of the Syrian government that is currently engaged in massacring its own people, we firmly believe our fellow students should take a stand against oppression, even if the perpetrator claims to be a "strategic partner" to the United States. Michael Oren represents a state that is responsible for maintaining a system of apartheid and colonialism against the Palestinian people. As students of conscience, we reject his presence on our campus: There can be no "dialogue" with apologists for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In solidarity,
SJP
