BDS: You Are Not Welcome At Columbia

BDS Columbia not only runs counter to progressive values, but violates indigenous rights and worsens the conflict on the ground.

The three demands of ApartheidDivest, founded as a coalition between Columbia SJP and JVP, serve to undermine the democratic State of Israel, as well as the Jewish indigenous claim to the land.

We, Student Supporting Israel (Columbia SSI) are a group of students, comprised of many nationalities, religious backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. We have one thing in common: we support the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish State, in peace and security.

While the demands of SJP & JVP may seem innocuous at first glance, should they be met, the existence and security of the Jewish people on their ancestral homeland, the State of Israel, will be placed in jeopardy. They also promote hatred and destroy any attempts to build bridges or momentum of coexistence on the ground and abroad.

Let’s address their demands one by one.

  1.  “Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall.”
    In 2008, former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, offered exactly what BDS “claims” to be seeking in exchange for peace. It was rejected by the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. They wanted all of Israel. It is clear that the Palestinian leadership do not want a two state solution unless it is a segue into taking over the Jewish ancestral homeland and turning it into Arab land. Their leadership have clearly stated, on several accounts, that they would only go back to the 1967 borders to get one step closer in taking all of Israel. You can even hear it in their chants where they shout “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” Meaning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, all of Israel will be destroyed.The wall that they refer to, in one of their demands was only built in 2007 in response to the wave of terrorist attacks (the second intifada), as the only means for Israel’s protection. Removal of the wall, which is mostly a fence, would give extremist terrorists unfettered access to Israeli civilians, effectively resulting in more casualties on both sides. The fact that people think the “Wall” and the “Settlements” are what the Palestinians are complaining about is a sign of their severe historical myopia.The “Occupation” or Israeli military presence within the disputed territories, has only been in place since 1967 when the land was won in a time of war, and the military is only places where Jews reside in order to protect the Jews from the constant attacks they have experienced over the years. Let us be clear that when Judea & Samaria (West Bank) was under Jordanian rule, nobody boycotted Jordan or complained that they should be forming a state for the Palestinians.
  1. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.”

By law, their equality is recognized. With one exception:

Arabs don’t have to serve in the army, giving them a huge advantage, a two to three-year head-start in life.

The Arab citizens of Israel hold full equal rights like those of all other peoples living in the State. Those who live in the disputed territories live under the Palestinian Authority, which has done everything in its power to prevent it from becoming a recognizable Palestinian state, but rather use and promote the sufferings of Palestinians to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel. It is easy to give a great big speech at the UN while the world is watching TV, but they refuse to negotiate and have rejected all peace proposals.

  1. “Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.”

The so-called “Right of Return” for Palestinians, the only multigenerational refugees in the world who continue to be called refugees despite receiving citizenship in other countries, is completely irrational. The Palestinians never had sovereignty over this land or had any nationalistic ties to a flag or name until way after Israel’s creation. If there is a debate about creating a Palestinian state, then a change in leadership is necessary and improved relations on the ground is what students should support. Yes, the Palestinians have an identity today, but it is a cultural one. They do deserve full and equal rights in any country they live in, including Israel (in which they do). To have peace we must first have two partners who want it, and the Palestinian leadership has made that impossible and continue to profit from the conflict by pocketing aid pouring in by foreign countries.

Facts are important because they give context to what is happening and if one truly wants to cast a vote in any direction they must fully be aware of the impact it may have. Historically, Jews have inhabited the land continuously for almost 4000 years. There was never an independent Arab country, but there was a Jewish one called the Kingdom of Judea. The vast majority of Arabs in the region (also known today as “Palestinians”) migrated from the surrounding Arab countries to the land in the past thousand years for a variety of reasons. They were always referred to as Arabs, and mostly rejected the term Palestinians because it represented a term often used to describe Jews. (Ex: The Palestinian Post was a Jewish newspaper). In fact, the origin of the name “Palestine”, after previously being called Judea, was coined by the Romans around 2,000 years ago. The Kingdom of Judea had successfully taken down a Roman legion and embarrassed the Roman Empire. As a result, the Romans renamed the land “Palestine” in honor of the biblical Philistine nation (a polytheistic people that have been extinct for thousands of years), which were historical enemies to the nation of Israel. This was done in order to further enhance the Jewish pain of their victory.

The land was later conquered by several empires including the Ottomans and later the British and the name was kept as Palestine. In 1948, the Arab leaders in the region instructed all Arabs civilians to leave in order to make way for the massacre of Jews by six Arab armies that was soon to take place. They were certain that they would kill all the Jews and allow re-entry to the Arabs in a new Jew-Free land. This never happened and Israel, against all odds, won the war. It is true that the Arabs that left were not allowed to return but at the same time over 800,000 Jews were exiled from the surrounding Arab countries, meaning there was a population exchange. These Jewish refugees are no longer considered refugees since they were given citizenship and accepted into Israel. However, the Arabs who left during this time of war (mostly willingly) are still to this day considered as refugees even though they hold citizenship in other countries.

There is a pervasive naivety among many university students, a trust in the Palestinian Authority, who have shown the world that they support the murder of innocent Jews and consider all blood spilt as “holy and pure blood”. If one wants to be an activist and end the sufferings of ALL people in the region, then they should take up the fight with the Palestinian leadership.

The BDS movement is not pro-Palestinian. It is anti-Semitic, targeting and singling out the only Jewish state in the world for a boycott, while holding it to a double standard. It makes pro-Israel, Jewish and Israeli students feel unsafe and targeted on campus, and creates a climate of hate and incitement against Jews around the world.

We must not let history repeat itself.

BDS Columbia: We are Students Supporting Israel. We will not allow any group to use disagreements with policies to delegitimize Israel’s existence or use the sufferings of any people to pursue their own political agenda. We will continue to defend the Jewish homeland against your campaign of lies and deceit. We want to promote coexistence in order to actually resolve the conflict and dismantle your movement of venomous lies and hatred that will only generate more separation.

To be completely honest, we are not afraid, the Nation of Israel have survived much worse.

 

4 thoughts on “BDS: You Are Not Welcome At Columbia”

  1. You do yourself a huge disservice by adopting the false terminology of a “right” of return. UNGA resolution 194, which the Arab states rejected lest it be seen as their tacit recognition of Israel, provides for no such “right.” And that Arab rejection nullifies any offer, so this argument should have died along with the resolution in 1949, yet it maintains its zombie existence.
    Reading the resolution is instructive. It is non-binding on the parties (as was the 1947 partition resolution) and suggested several interlocking and non-severable actions by the parties. One of the provisions addressed the question of “refugees.” Several conclusions flow from the wording of the resolution. First, there was no right of return but a conditional claim to repatriation. Second, that claim was available to all refugees, Arab as well as Jewish. Third, the term “refugee” had only one meaning back then: currently living persons. The concept of an inheritable refugee status was only developed years later by UNWRA (and only for Palestinian Arabs) and therefore cannot be read back into an earlier UN resolution to expand its meaning.
    In short, pretending you are discussing a “right” when it is nothing of the sort immediately places you on the rhetorical defensive. You are not balancing two equally valid rights. Instead, you are comparing the internationally recognized right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historical homeland, as confirmed by the San Remo Conference, the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and the treaty of Lausanne, with a limited claim that was an inextricable part of a much larger compromise framework the Arabs rejected when it was offered.

    1. The San Remo Conference had no legal status. The League of Nations Mandate and the Treaty of Lausanne did, but neither specified any boundary for a “Jewish National Home”.

      1. are you one of those few observant jews who is anti israel?

        san remo did have legal status, just as much as potsdam did during ww2

        it was clear that borders were to be negotiated

        britain threw a wrench into the matter by helping to create jordan in 22 and then making it as hard as possible for a jewish state to be created

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