The Facebook event page for Tufts Apartheid Week features a collection of quotes, all of a similar nature. In each, the speaker voices concerns over Israeli policies, and their implications on Israels character as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people.
These quotes are connected not just by their content, but by the origin of their speakers each was voiced by a notable Israeli. While I imagine this was not the intended effect, I couldnt help but be proud as I read them.
How beautiful is the state of Israel that her dignitaries, her heads of state, her generals, authors and academics are amongst her most outspoken critics.
This criticism is vital to any vibrant democracy. As citizens of Israels greatest ally, the United States (a nation that currently boasts historically high levels of support for Israel), we too have an obligation to engage in serious criticism and dialogue.
To that end, I encourage you all to listen to the speakers on campus this week. They should be heard, given proper consideration, but also viewed within their specific, and unfortunately narrow, context.
Because that is what Apartheid Week truly is: a prohibitively narrow context through which to view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It gives no credence to the complicated history of sacrifice and loss on both sides, and instead aims only to defame Israel. And let us be clear: labeling Israel an apartheid state is defamation in every sense of the word.
No, Israel is not an apartheid state. Israeli Arabs are afforded full and equal rights under Israeli law, and as such benefit from more liberties than do their counterparts in any other Middle Eastern country the right to worship the God of their choosing, the right to participate fully in the democratic process. Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel are unfortunately not afforded the same rights by the Israeli government precisely because they are not citizens of Israel. (It is important to note as well that they do not want to be citizens of Israel.) But what divides Palestinians living within the West Bank from Israelis be they Arab, Christian or Jewish is just that: a matter of citizenship, not of race.
Yes, there is discrimination in Israel, as there is in any nation. There is inequality in Israel, as there is in every nation. This is not a symptom of apartheid but rather the byproduct of a young democracy growing amid a decades-long conflict. But here is the key: the only way for this growth to continue is through the types of conversation that Apartheid Week does not leave room for. The goal of Apartheid week, as well as the greater Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement, is not to better the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, but rather to vilify the Jewish state the only Jewish state and to shut down any conversations that could lead to meaningful change.
It is easy to label; it is easy to shut out those with whom you disagree. As students who firmly believe in the power of discourse to effect change, we must challenge ourselves to do more than simply hurl harmful epithets. Only then will we be able to truly claim we are acting in the pursuit of justice, not for one people over another, but for all.
Itai Thaler is a senior who is majoring in English. He is vice president of Tufts Friends of Israel. He can be reached at Itai.Thaler@tufts.edu.
