COLUMN: Suppressing anti-Israel voices is unproductive


At a University of California Regents meeting last month, Regent Richard Blum suggested suspension and expulsion as imperative punishments for students engaging in activities critical of Israel. He also invoked the political power of his wife, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which many took to be a threat of negative consequences for the publicly funded university. This, as well as numerous other instances of intimidation tactics, is cited in a recent article in Salon magazine, which draws attention to the growing difficulty activists in academia have when engaging in a critical discourse about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Silencing activists on campus is largely made possible by conflating any criticisms of Israel with inherent anti-Semitism. Though modern anti-Semitism is no myth, such conflation is an overly simplistic reduction used against campus groups to enforce violations of free speech and stifle an expression of grievances. The active squelching of Israel criticism without any legitimate grounds is antithetical to the idea of a university as a space for critical, innovative thought.

I remember my freshman year walking uncomfortably between two adjacent groups of protesters. One group was standing near the fountain on Trousdale Parkway in front of Traveler, holding the Palestinian flag and signs with the words “occupation” and “oppression”; the other group was situated in front of Tommy Trojan, holding the Israeli flag and signs strewn with the word “terrorism.” These protests occurred in November of 2012, after the Israeli Defense Forces launched Operation Pillar of Defense, which led to numerous casualties and suffering on both sides.

Student participation in either side of this protest involves more dimensions than often represented in one-sided narratives. Frequently, students who represent organizations vocally in support of Israel do so understandably by way of their Jewish heritage and identification with the idea of Israel as a safe haven for the Jewish people, who have endured so much around the world. The USC Hillel website states, “It is very important for us at Hillel that israel [sic] will not be seen in the narrow narrative of the conflict in the middle east [sic], but have our students exposed to the culture, music [and] innovative environment that Israel has to offer.” Students who vocalize support of Palestine often do so equally understandably in solidarity with the Arab, Muslim and Christian populations abroad in an increasingly complex neocolonial landscape marked by occupation and war.

These ideological sympathies are not, despite prevailing narratives, intrinsically at odds. In a preface to the 25th anniversary edition of his book Orientalism, author Edward Said indicates that “Orientalism and anti-Semitism have common roots,” and urges the “vital necessity for independent intellectuals always to provide alternative models to the reductively simplifying and confining ones, based on mutual hostility.” It would seem that universities — institutions dedicated to intellectual thought — should be the obvious default space for the development of said alternative models. But by choking out certain arguments, they instead stagnate in the camp of mutual hostility.

My position as a bystander passing between the two protests is an apt metaphor for my relation to the conflict itself. I learn and write about Israel and Palestine from abroad and have no stake — neither of identity nor more material things — in the ongoing developments. But, as a student, I do know that many of my peers on campuses across the nation will soon be leaders who make influential decisions in the future. Perpetuating a system in which one side of a conflict has the financial and political power to intimidate, silence and punish the other into submission only ensures that the most insidious aspects of our current political system will live on for many more years to come.

Any take on the developments in Israel should be formed, as Said writes of his own activism, “with full attention paid to the reality of the Jewish people and what they suffered by  way of persecution and genocide.” But suppressing any protests against Israel’s actions as a state — or declaring an academic department’s choice to participate in the BDS movement a violation of academic freedom — only entrenches a pernicious dichotomy that already tinges so much of the discourse surrounding the conflict today.

Kristen Woodruff is a senior majoring in classics. Her column, “Old School, New Tricks,” runs  every other Wednesday.

22 replies
  1. DocReality
    DocReality says:

    While Ms. Woodruff described herself as a “bystander” between two protesting groups, it’s quite clear her loyalty is to the type of political correctness being cultivated en masse by liberal academic elitists.

    For the record, Ms. Woodruff, there’s no such nation or country called “Palestine,” and there’s no such people as “Palestinians.” They are Islamic militants who live in disputed Israeli-owned territories, who’s goal – fully aligned with global Islam – is to rid the world of Jews, followed by everyone else who doesn’t adhere to their “religion.”

  2. Bhar
    Bhar says:

    HOLD ON…

    What did Regent Richard Blum actually say at the meeting on 9/17/15? And what was the context? I looked it up. The main statement that has people in a tizzy is:
    “Students that do the things that have been cited here today probably ought to have a dismissal or a suspension from school.”
    What exactly were the things cited at the meeting?
    “Vandalism and graffiti with symbols of hate, including swastikas and nooses; questioning a student’s fitness for a leadership role based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender and other factors; and depicting ethnic or racial groups as less ambitious, less talented or more threatening than others.”

    This entire debate started because of some troubling incidents this year at UC schools, including the defacing of a Jewish fraternity house at UC Davis with Nazi swastikas in January. Then in February, several student government leaders at UCLA questioned a student’s eligibility for a campus judicial panel because she is Jewish.

    So the meeting was about what to do to students who commit hate crimes.

    Well, I would like someone to be punished if that person commits a hate crime. I do not think punishing these hate crimes curtails free speech.

    As soon as it’s about Jews, facts are no longer relevant. It’s time to bash Israel.
    …And then it’s time to make a plug for the BDS movement.

    This is so twisted.
    Speaking of protests:
    Why is nobody protesting ISIS’ treatment of Christians’ rights? They are being killed and displaced in barbaric ways. Why is nobody protesting Iran’s treatment of political dissenters? Why is nobody upset that Cuba is blatantly arresting and torturing dissenters…in front of international journalists? (Even while Pope Francis was visiting Cuba recently). Why do people at USC and other universities not gather with signs to protest China’s treatment of their minorities, including the Tibetans and various religious groups?
    Why is nobody protesting Hamas’ treatment of its own citizens? Why is nobody incensed that children are brainwashed; they are taught to hate and kill. Money and aid is diverted to build terrorist tunnels and prepare for the next war…not to improve the infrastructure or create an educational system that will prepare people for jobs. Many Muslims and Christians living in Israel want to stay in Israel because they have opportunities they would never have in other Arab countries in the area. I know. I have spoken to many of them.

    There is so much ignorance in the world about what is happening in Israel and the Middle East. There is also a concerted effort to twist the facts and prey on young, idealistic students, turning everything into an Israel hate-fest.

    If people really want to make a difference in the lives of Palestinians, then support a Palestinian land free of the hate-filled, self-destructive, oppressive rulers like Hamas. In the Palestinian National Charter, Article 15 “urges the elimination of Zionism in Palestine and worldwide, and strongly urges the ‘liberation’ of Palestine throughout by ethnic cleansing of Jewish presence.”

    If people want peace, changing that goal is, perhaps, a first step.

  3. Arafat
    Arafat says:

    I think we should help Abbas and his dear friends and allies Hamas create a Palestinian state. Since
    Hamas is more popular than Abbas let’s call it Hamasistan. It could be based on all the other Islamist
    states. Women would have zero rights. Gays would be hung. Jews would be verboten. Non-Muslims would be killed unless they convert to Islam or pay a crippling tax that is designed just for them.

    I think this makes a lot of sense and is something college punks should march for, shout about, and pretend they care about. The world needs another Islamist state. What will we do without another one?

    In Hamasistan criminals will be punished by being tied to the back of jeeps and skinned to death on dirt roads until they die. The lucky criminals will simply be pushed off rooftops, and if they’re really lucky the rooftop will be very high.

    In Hamasistan they will blame all their problems on Israel that way the politicians can line their Swiss Vaults with endless international aid money and not be held accountable.

    In Hamasistan they will shoot rockets into Israel during rush hour and when schools get out. That’s the way they do things in Hamasistan. Then they will blame Israel for making them do it.

    Yes, this will solve all the problems just ask any leftist dreaming idealist – any person who has both feet firmly planted in the air – and he/she will tell you this with no uncertainty.

  4. Arafat
    Arafat says:

    While millions of people worldwide are suffering real and extreme
    persecution at the hands of Islamists, it is Israel, the Middle East’s only
    democracy — where no one is above the law, where citizens all have equal
    rights and no one is murdered for expressing his political views — that is
    targeted and bullied by these so-called “human rights activists” and
    academics. Deaf and blind to the real sufferers all around the world, these
    Jew-haters seem in reality just brainwashed, misinformed neo-anti-Semites.

    • Michael Wittmann
      Michael Wittmann says:

      what about the Palestinian protesters? Or the illegal relocation of Palestinians in favor of Jewish settlers…please saying Israel has a clean track record is like saying the Allies in ww2 committed no war crimes.

      • Arafat
        Arafat says:

        Michael, what planet were you born on? “War is hell” and in the heat of war crimes are committed. You obviously have no clue as the most intense thing you’ve probably been through was a hazing at your fraternity.
        But the real issue is light versus darkness. You insinuate that the allies were not that much different than the Nazis or that the Jews are on par with the Palestinians. In doing so you enable darkness and evil in your insane pursuit of moral equivalency.

        • Michael Wittmann
          Michael Wittmann says:

          The Allies were no different than the Nazis…learn your history, come back when you have. “probably been through was a hazing at your fraternity” nice ad hominem attack…Do you use fallacious arguments all the time or is this atypical….Love how you don’t challenge my position that the Jews illegally claim land from Palestinian families. By your “War is Hell” statement which is broad at best. Hell has no rules like the Geneva Convention…Hell has no rules like the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons which Israel is a signatory of along with those ‘great’ countries like Pakistan and India….War is Hell…Your conception of Hell is that of someone is disillusioned. Reply back when you read up on UN reports of human rights crimes by Israel. And perhaps when you read the UN report which finds credible ties between Israel and ISIS…Oh, not to mention your new buddy Putin. Sit down and be quiet. To end it…Anti-Israel arguments are important to the global scene. By arguing against Israel we can gain two things. Either a new idea can either be the new truth through its collision with error, or our current perception of truth may be clearer because of its collision with error.

          • Arafat
            Arafat says:

            Michael writes, “The Allies were no different than the Nazis…”
            Wow. Time to pinch myself and ask: “Earth to Arafat…Come in please…Why are you even communicating with this madman??? He who would just as eagerly have embraced Nazism as the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
            Michael, your moral relativism knows no boundaries. You do not know this – as you do not have what it takes to see yourself for what you are – but you represent the darkness. The darkness you see as equal to light. This is just what the Nazis did. They rationalized themselves into a place where doing surgery on live children without pain killers was a good thing. This is who you support with your relativistic mumbo-jumbo.
            And it goes without saying that a person like you will not have the decency to apologize or admit being wrong. Instead you will continue to blame me for not understanding the complexity of the issue. You. Are. The. Darkness.

          • Michael Wittmann
            Michael Wittmann says:

            “They rationalized themselves into a place where doing surgery on live children without pain killers was a good thing. ” with such a claim you surely have a source? Continue to set things into basic two-component with out incorporating complexity. There is no such thing as one side is light and one is darkness. Nothing is ever that simple, the narrative is never black and white. You sound delusional. I will just sit back from this and watch the world burn with people like you at the helm.

          • Michael Wittmann
            Michael Wittmann says:

            You still have not denied the human rights crimes by Israel, the fact they hide Nuclear weapons and do not want a nuclear free world, they have working operations with ISIS, and allies with a Russian state far beyond reason.

          • Michael Wittmann
            Michael Wittmann says:

            The Allies prior to and during world war 2 conducting similar experiments on mentally insane and disabled peoples. Specifically the U.S. had a large Eugenic program which did experiments on mentally housed individuals. The Allies killed more French citizens than the Germans did. After Stalingrad 106,000 Germans surrendered..6,000 made it home after the war. After the war German POWs held by Western Allies were being killed off by the hundreds through a coordinated effort to starve off the soldiers and let them die by disease. They tortured hundreds of German officers and administrative workers after the war just like how the Gestapo tortured dissenters. I restate “Allies were no different than the Nazis”

          • Arafat
            Arafat says:

            You’ve convinced me and I now understand all this more clearly.
            Yes, Michael, you should become a Neo-Nazi. No question about it.
            Or, better still, you should join one of the hundred plus Islamist organizations and gang-rape women, torture gays, praise Jews killers, shout out slogans about destroying America, and all those things you are so passionate about.

        • Michael Wittmann
          Michael Wittmann says:

          “But the real issue is light versus darkness” this is relative to the person. The Palestinians believe they are fighting an oppressive zionist regime(darkness) while their political, militia, and people are the light. In your own comment you commit logical fallacies by assuming your position is the moral high ground and is automatically the good side. Thus downplaying the opposing. Learn how to be objective, take a serious self-criticism of your views then please come back. “Jews are on par with the Palestinians” No the Jews are worse than the Palestinians..Who has the tanks? Jets? Drones? Highly trained soldiers? must I go on? To say that the violence done and the potential for violence are equal to that of a modern military shows you have no concept of anything related.

          • Arafat
            Arafat says:

            Michael, if you want to believe the Palestinians will bring greater women’s rights, greater gay rights, greater individual freedoms, more respect for diversity, more respect for learning than the Jews than that is OK with me. No doubt you also believe in the tooth fairy too.
            Pure and simple everything the Jews do is in reaction to what the Palestinians do. If the Palestinians chose peace and peaceful coexistence than the Jews would not be forced to use their superior armaments. The problem is, of course, is wherever Muslims live side-by-side with infidels, the infidels are forced to arm themselves or die instead. This includes, of course, when Kurds, Sunnis and Shi’ites live side-by-side for Muslims cannot even coexist in peace with different sects of their religion much less with Jews.

          • Michael Wittmann
            Michael Wittmann says:

            >Jews
            >Diversity

            Pick one..Last time I checked I don’t remember seeing Israel receiving any refugees….or for that fact all they do is tell Europe to accept more refugees and diversity, but they lack it themselves.

            “greater gay rights” inferring I want a greater AIDS presence in my countrY’S population..No thanks.

            “greater individual freedoms” than countries like Saudi Arabia and others. Yes you do. Good job. Still does not change that I dislike Israel’s horrible human rights policies.

            “more respect for diversity” – Israel says “Hey Europe take refugees, if you don’t your against diversity and all good stuff” Europe reply – “But Israel why don’t you take any” Jew -> “Oh, no, All the Muslims want us dead” Spare me your we respect diversity bullshit.

          • Arafat
            Arafat says:

            Given that you support the Palestinians who openly advocate Jewish genocide (see their duly elected leaders clear-cut party covenants), you correspondingly do as well. It’s hard to believe in this day and age that anyone would openly advocate the liquidation of Jews, but you clearly do and it doesn’t seem to bother you a whit.

            Moreover, it would be hard to believe that anyone would support second class status for women, the honor murder of teenage girls, the brutalization of gays and the suppression of dissenters. But you, as supporters of the Palestinians who regularly practice all of the above, are therefore complicit in these sexist, racist and fascist beliefs as well.

            Why are you so bigoted, misogynist, anti-gay and such hater of Jews? Please tell us pray tell.

            And if to be opposed to such garbage practiced by so many Muslims world-wide makes one an Islamophobe, count me and all who believe in freedom and hate sexism and bigotry vs Jews as a proud Islamophobe.

  5. BigSticksWalkSoftly
    BigSticksWalkSoftly says:

    Nice to include Edward Said quotes. And, yes, stifling free speech (that’s not A direct cause for damage or loss of life I.e yelling ‘fire’ in a theater) at universities is absurd.
    Especially absurd that senator Feinstein and her UC chancellor uber-Zionist husband would put the concerns of Israelis over those of American taxpayers/citizens……………..
    Not liking the part about the 2012 Gaza War where ‘ casualties and suffering on both sides’….
    Really?
    I guess 1000 dead Palestinian civilians is equivalent to 1 dead Israeli soldier 500 Israelis who wet their pants from being scared from unguided bottle rockets that rarely hit anything more than an open field

    • Michael Wittmann
      Michael Wittmann says:

      read the trial where Justice Homes said “Fire” in a crowded theater is an example of when freedom of speech should be limited…that case was thrown out as fallacious and the ruling and new definition of restriction it made were thrown out long since. Look up the trial and see what it was about. Doubt you will have the same feelings toward such an overrated quote as Homes gave.

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