OPINION & EDITORIAL
Seeking common ground through on-campus dialogue
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Also by Rick Woolman and Michal Ziv-el:
Related Stories:
- Campustruth ads dangerous, irresponsible (March 13, 2003)
- Rhetoric fails complexity of issue (September 13, 2005)
- Letter (March 6, 2002)
- 'Campustruth' more like campus lies (February 26, 2003)
- Israeli sympathizers present false truths (March 3, 2003)
by Rick Woolman and Michal Ziv-el
Thursday, March 6, 2003
As two of the Israel advocacy groups on campus, we agree with Alexandra Gekas and Mohammed Abed that the Campustruth.org advertisements recently published in the Badger Herald are inflammatory and wrong. We strongly repudiate this advertising campaign, which unjustifiably characterizes all Palestinians as terrorists. We think that such ads are biased and one-sided.
We sincerely believe that most Palestinians and Israelis desperately want peace. Since the outbreak of the second Intifada and Israel’s military response to the uprising, Palestinians and Israelis have had their lives shattered and in many cases destroyed. Everyone wants to return to the normalcy of going to school, starting businesses, enjoying public life and planning for a future free from violence.
In our quest to find common ground on this elusive goal, we wish to address several erroneous and misleading claims made by Ms. Gekas and Mr. Abed.
In her column from last week (Feb. 26), Ms. Gekas asserts that every death in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the responsibility of the Israeli government. Such an accusation stands in stark contrast to the fact that Palestinian terrorist organizations, which openly celebrate and sanctify suicide-bombers, proudly take full responsibility for the murder of Israeli civilians.
Although the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza is controversial, Ms. Gekas’ argument that occupation alone is “responsible” for the violence is factually incorrect. Fundamentalist groups like Hamas and Hizbollah do not simply call for an end to occupation but publicly incite their members to destroy the state of Israel.
By removing all responsibility from these terrorist groups, Ms. Gekas unintentionally legitimizes their horrible actions. To place blame only on the Israeli government is to deny political reality and to move further away from a final peace settlement.
Ms. Gekas also implies that the state of Israel is involved in genocide. She claims that Israel is committed to “the systematic destruction and exile of the Palestinian people” and that the Israeli government demeans Palestinian Arabs in order to “destroy them.” Such statements are slanderous and unfounded.
Every Israeli government since the establishment of the Oslo Accords in 1993 has publicly announced its commitment to peace in the Middle East. Although some political leaders have offered greater concessions than others, each successive Israeli Prime Minister has recognized the need for a Palestinian state.
Moreover, Israel does not intentionally murder Palestinian civilians, nor does the Israeli army seek to “destroy them.” Although civilian casualties are a terrible consequence of any military action, it is crucial to recognize that the targeted killing of civilians is not the policy of the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
Israel’s use of military force in the West Bank and Gaza has nothing whatsoever to do with ethnic cleansing. By suggesting otherwise, Ms. Gekas trivializes real cases of genocide and avoids the crucial issues of war and peace.
Mohammed Abed’s opinion piece in Monday’s Badger Herald (March 3) uses selective evidence to construct a one-sided account of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He provocatively uses racial language to further this agenda and creates an unsophisticated storyline about innocent victims and vicious aggressors.
Instead of aspiring to historical objectivity, Mr. Abed tailors his evidence to meet his foregone conclusion that the state of Israel is illegitimate and therefore should be dismantled. He ignores a significant body of historical literature and journalism that directly challenges his tendentious argument.
Mr. Abed’s goal, like that of Campustruth.org and Ms. Gekas, is to create a simplistic narrative in which blameless victims are repeatedly set upon by brutal terrorists. This artificial dichotomy, regardless of who uses it, distorts reality and pushes on-campus dialogue about peace in the Middle East to the political extremes.
For example, Mr. Abed likens Israel to apartheid-era South Africa and insists that Zionism is committed “to a racist exclusivist ethno-nationalism” that seeks “the establishment of a pure Jewish state.” Such language and comparisons are not intended to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict nor do they contribute to an accurate understanding of Israel’s past and present. Abed’s primary intent is to elicit an uncritical and emotional response from his readers, a response not based on thoughtfulness and veracity but on a crude analogy and inflammatory rhetoric.
Ms. Gekas and Mr. Abed’s assertion that Israel practices racial politics and “seeks an ethnically pure state” is offensive and narrow-minded. Over one million Arabs are citizens of the State of Israel. Despite the difficulties of being a minority in the Jewish State, Israeli Arabs are able to pursue their own economic interests and exercise cultural independence within Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
Just as importantly, they have the guaranteed rights of religious freedom, free speech and political representation. These freedoms, possessed by very few in the Middle East, allow Israeli Arabs to address their political grievances and personal concerns within the framework of Israel’s democratic system of government.
Even more despicably, Ms. Gekas and Mr. Abed imply that Jews are a homogenous race bent on ethnic purity. Judaism does not have a skin color. It does not have a single language, nor does it have a single cultural tradition. Jews who live in the state of Israel have linguistic and cultural roots from around the globe, making Israel one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world.
No Israeli government has ever sought to create a racially homogeneous population of one people. There is no such thing as pure ethnicity in Israel, nor is there a “pure Jewish state” in practice.
As the leading Israel advocacy groups in Madison, we seek common ground with other student organizations that are committed to peace in the Middle East. To further this goal, we denounce the tactics of Campustruth.org, Alexandra Gekas and Mohammed Abed, tactics that are polarizing, misleading and designed to elicit angry reactions.
In writing this guest column, we hope to initiate an on-campus dialogue that fosters a deeper understanding among students about the complex issues and perspectives surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The most important issue in this whole debate is peace in the Middle East. At the University of Wisconsin, we should concentrate on an honest and thoughtful discussion of ways to achieve it. Rick Woolman is a UW senior and president of MadPAC. Michal Ziv-El is co-chair of Kavanee.
