The Tufts chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) last week hosted its first annual Israeli Apartheid Week, an international initiative aimed presenting Palestinian narratives, examining Israeli policies toward Palestinians and fostering discussion among the Tufts community.
The event was co−sponsored by the International Relations Program.
Tufts SJP is a coalition of Tufts students whose goal is "to place the Palestinian narrative squarely on the agenda at Tufts and to alter the power dynamics and end our institutional complicity in the Israeli occupation," SJP member Lucas Koerner, a sophomore, said.
SJP chapters in the Boston area have supported the Tufts chapter in coordinating Israeli Apartheid Week. The Brandeis University chapter of SJP, which also presented its first annual Israeli Apartheid Week, has shared ideas and materials with the group.
"The most important part of Israeli Apartheid Week is to highlight all the aspects of social, economic, political reality in the occupied territories that constitute apartheid," SJP member Cory Faragon, a senior, said.
"I would like to put the issue of apartheid into the campus discourse," Koerner said. "I would like to see Palestine removed from its marginalized place, and I would like it to be restored to the center of social justice campaigns on campus."
The weeklong series of events, which ended on Friday, featured a lecture last Monday by Diana Buttu, a Palestinian−Canadian lawyer and former spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization Negotiations Support Unit.
The members of SJP went on a hunger strike Thursday as an endorsement of non−violent protest and to recognize KhaderAdnan, a Palestinian activist. Adnan went on a 66−day hunger strike in protest of his detainment without charge. The SJP hunger strike ended with a 6 p.m. meal in Dewick−MacPhie Dining Hall.
Max Blumenthal, a Jewish−American journalist and author, delivered a lecture Friday on the "Brand Israel" Campaign and Taglit−Birthright Israel, a program funded by Jewish communities from around the world that provides a free 10−day trip to Israel for Jewish students between the ages of 18−26.
"I think that Blumenthal is going to be very controversial and exciting in the sense that Birthright is something that is very relevant on this campus," a member of SJP, who wished to remain anonymous, said prior to the lecture.
"We are not trying to conflict with the message of peace in the country … Peace isn't possible until all of the nitty−gritty problems are recognized," a freshman and member of Tufts SJP, said. "You can't overlook segregation, apartheid or occupation."
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This article has been edited from the original version. A student's name was removed.
