Vol. 73/No. 13      April 6, 2009

The meeting was held in conjunction with similar activities in 40 cities around the world, during what has been called “Israel Apartheid Week.” The campaign equates Israel with the apartheid regime in South Africa, which was toppled by a democratic revolution in 1994.

The panel featured Elias Khoury, a Lebanese novelist, playwright, and journalist; Andrew Ross, professor and chair of the Social and Cultural Analysis department at NYU; and Nir Harel, member of Israel’s Anarchists Against The Wall, a group that organizes protests against the building of the wall in the West Bank.

The moderator, Charles Anderson, a member of SJP and former study-abroad student at Tel Aviv University (TAU), opened the program by describing ways in which he said TAU aids the Israel military. Anderson proposed that NYU terminate its study abroad program with TAU, comparing the tactic to the divestment campaign that mobilized international support for the African National Congress (ANC) in its revolutionary struggle to end the apartheid system.

Ross said that, in preparing his presentation, he e-mailed professors at TAU to ask their opinion on the topic. One of the professors that responded explained that a pro-Palestinian petition was circulated to 9,000 academics in Israel during the recent Israeli assault on Gaza, which 400 signed—135 of them from TAU.

Khoury emphasized that Israel still occupies Gaza. He said Palestinians were justified in resisting this occupation, and should be supported. He also pointed to the fight by the Arab population inside Israel against discrimination.

In the discussion period, questions ranged from the potential importance of the election of Obama to the recent student occupation of the Kimmel Hall cafeteria by a group called Take Back NYU! That protest demanded, among other things, 13 annual scholarships for Palestinian students.

Another participant, Paul Mailhot of the Socialist Workers Party, described how the ANC led a revolutionary democratic movement in South Africa to overturn apartheid, which is not the type of movement either Hamas or the Palestinian Liberation Organization are leading today. The ANC's call for a democratic, non-racial state helped to break white South Africans away from supporting apartheid and join the freedom struggle.

In response, Ross said that he questioned whether it would benefit Palestinian students to terminate the study abroad program. Ross said "TAU is one of the few universities in Israel in which a discussion like this can be organized" involving Arab and Jewish students.

Anderson said he disagreed that there was space for such discussions at TAU.

Members of the audience booed a Jewish student when she asked if the panel supported "terrorist groups like Hamas shooting rockets into civilian neighborhoods in Israel." Khoury answered that he had differences with Hamas and opposes religious government. "The resistance should be led by a secular movement," he said. He also said that he opposed the killing of civilians, but that “under occupation, it’s resistance.”

Dan Fein, SWP candidate for New York City mayor, pointed out that NYU, like many large universities, receives funding from the U.S. government and does research that benefits U.S. imperialism. He noted the anti-Semitic character of the divestment campaign in that it ignores these facts and singles out Tel Aviv University.
 
 
Related articles:
Israel boycotts and divestment serve as cover for anti-Semitism  
 
 
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