J Street U statement opposing Israel Apartheid Week



J Street U Reiterates Opposition to BDS, "Israel Apartheid Week"

Posted:Monday, March 1st, 2010

J Street and J Street U released the following statement today as "Israel Apartheid Week" begins on a number of campuses around North America:

As "Israel Apartheid Week" comes to campuses across North America this week to advocate for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel, J Street and J Street U reiterate our strong opposition to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

The BDS movement, whose dogmatic, counterproductive approach underlies Israel Apartheid Week, aims to delegitimize Israel's very existence – making no distinction between West Bank settlements and Israel proper, and refusing to support a two-state solution that results in a viable Palestinian state and a secure, democratic Israel that is a homeland for the Jewish people, living side by side in peace and security. The BDS movement's lack of support for a two-state solution puts it well outside the mainstream of the entire political leadership of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the United States.


We also reject comparisons of Israel to South African apartheid. The analogy clearly implies that Israel is illegitimate, that it deserves a wholesale boycott, and suggests a single state for Israelis and Palestinians would be some sort of solution to the conflict, when in reality, it is a recipe for further violence, strife, and insecurity.

Further, the BDS movement wrongly places the entirety of blame for the conflict on Israel. Responsibility for the conflict does not rest exclusively with either the Israelis or the Palestinians, and moreover, this conflict will never be truly resolved if one side wins only at the other's loss.

The approach of the BDS movement only serves to deepen Israel's sense of isolation and thus harden Israelis against the compromises necessary to achieve peace, undermining the regular and inspiring cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians on the ground. This is singularly unhelpful particularly as the United States works to re-launch negotiations and as the window of opportunity for achieving a viable two-state solution grows ever smaller. 

Few events better exemplify the counterproductive polarization on campus than Israel Apartheid Week. J Street and J Street U are committed to an open, honest and civilized debate that allows students to work constructively towards adopting positions and actions that can help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Therefore, we strongly oppose Israel Apartheid Week because we believe that it employs inflammatory, inaccurate language, misrepresents the complex truth of the conflict, undercuts debate, alienates significant numbers of students, and advances the agenda of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

We're proud to continue J Street U's "Invest, Don't Divest" campaign, which gives pro-peace students a concrete alternative to the BDS movement and an opportunity to invest in their campus debate, in their communities, and in the Israelis and Palestinians who will bring about the positive change needed to finally achieve two states and real peace and security for all.

 
Tammy Shapiro
Director
J Street U
tammy@jstreetu.org

Ahmadinejad: "Zionist regime seeks world control."

    It would be a mistake to believe this guy is nuts. //Mark Finkelstein   jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

'Zionist regime seeks world control'

By JPOST.COM STAFF     28/02/2010

In a rant that reeked of old-fashioned anti-Semitism, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that the "Zionist regime" was seeking to control the world.

Addressing the International Conference on National and Islamic Solidarity for Future of Palestine, Ahmadinejad said that the existence of the "Zionist regime" is an insult to all of humanity, asserting that it had lost its raison d'être.

He said it was "well-known for all that the Zionist regime’s mission is threat, violence and beating drums of war," according to an IRNA translation.

Ontario legislature condemns Israel Apartheid Week

TORONTO (JTA.org) 2/28/2010 -- The legislature in the Canadian province of Ontario has condemned Israeli Apartheid Week.

All 30 members of the 107-seat provincial legislature who were present on Feb. 25 voted for the resolution that denounced the campus event that kicks off March 1 at universities and colleges in 35 cities around the world.

IAW events and speakers are scheduled at several university campuses across Ontario.

The term Israeli Apartheid Week incites "hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word 'apartheid' in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa," Conservative legislator Peter Shurman told Shalom Life, a Toronto-based Jewish Web site.

"If you're going to label Israel as apartheid, then you are also calling Canada apartheid and you are attacking Canadian values," he continued. "The use of the phrase 'Israeli Apartheid Week' is about as close to hate speech as one can get without being arrested, and I'm not certain it doesn't actually cross over that line."

Jewish students across Canada have adopted several campaigns to counter IAW.




 

The "3D Test" of Anti-Semitism

"3D Test" of Anti-Semitism

Israeli politician Natan Sharansky uses the “3D Test” to help distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism. Sharansky identifies three categories: de-legitimization, double standard and demonization.

De-legitimize

This refers to the argument made that Israel doesn’t meet the requirements of a legitimate state and therefore should not exist. Rather than addressing the particular issues at hand, there is a call for a destruction of the State of Israel.

Double standard

This is when criticism of Israel is applied selectively. Although other countries can be criticized for human rights violations during times of war, the finger is continuously pointed at Israel and often exaggerated. Little attention is given to the atrocities committed by other countries.

Demonize

Israel is accused of behaving like a demon and its actions are blown out of proportion. For example, comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz.  

 

Source: http://campusintifada.com/widget/LP_V_W.html

Khaldi: anti-Israel campus programs betraying moderate Muslims

Ishmael Khaldi, deputy consul general of Israel for the Pacific Northwest, blasts anti-Israel bashing on campus. Says, Let's be honest. "By any yardstick you choose - educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly,legislative representation - Israel's minorities fare far better than in any other country in the Middle East."

Lost in the blur of slogans

Ishmael Khaldi           Wednesday, March 4, 2009

For those who haven't heard, the first week in March has been designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.

Last year, at UC Berkeley, I had the opportunity to "dialogue" with some of the organizers of these events. My perspective is unique, both as the vice consul for Israel in San Francisco, and as a Bedouin and the highest-ranking Muslim representing the Israel in the United States. I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11 children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the Israel Foreign Ministry.

I am a proud Israeli - along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose - educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation - Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East

So, I would like to share the following with organizers of Israel Apartheid week, for those of them who are open to dialogue and not blinded by a hateful ideology:

You are part of the problem, not part of the solution: If you are really idealistic and committed to a better world, stop with the false rhetoric. We need moderate people to come together in good faith to help find the path to relieve the human suffering on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Vilification and false labeling is a blind alley that is unjust and takes us nowhere.

You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself: You condemn Israel for building a security barrier to protect its citizens from suicide bombers and for striking at buildings from which missiles are launched at its cities - but you never offer an alternative. Aren't you practicing yourself a deep form of racism by denying an entire society the right to defend itself?

Your criticism is willfully hypocritical: Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage - you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available.

You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace: Your radicalism is undermining the forces for peace in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. We are working hard to move toward a peace agreement that recognizes the legitimate rights of both Israel and the Palestinian people, and you are tearing down by falsely vilifying one side.

To the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week I would like to say:

If Israel were an apartheid state, I would not have been appointed here, nor would I have chosen to take upon myself this duty. There are many Arabs, both within Israel and in the Palestinian territories who have taken great courage to walk the path of peace. You should stand with us, rather than against us.

Ishmael Khaldi is deputy consul general of Israel for the Pacific Northwest.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/04/EDRP168GMT.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Hebron rioting moves into fifth day

 

JERUSALEM (JTA.org) 2/25/2010  -- Palestinian riots continued in Hebron five days after the city's Cave of the Patriarchs was designated an Israeli national heritage site.

As Palestinian schoolchildren demonstrated Thursday near the site, other Palestinian protesters set tires on fire and threw stones at Israeli soldiers and police.

More than 300 Palestinians in Hebron clashed with Israelis soldiers while commemorating the anniversary of the murder of 29 Muslims by Jewish radical Baruch Goldstein at the cave's Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994. Goldstein was beaten to death at the scene of the attack, which also injured about 150.

Israeli security forces responded with tear gas and stun grenades Thursday, according to reports.

Israeli Arab politicians who joined in the protest, including  Hebron Mayor Khaled Esseleh, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "lighting a fire" by declaring the cave a national heritage site.

Hebron's Jewish community was set to hold a prayer service at the cave Thursday to mark the Fast of Esther.

JCPA: anti-Israel movement needs to be confronted

JCPA Taking Direct Aim at Anti-Israel Boycotters

By Gal Beckerman

Published February 24, 2010, issue of March 05, 2010.  Excerpt

With anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts gaining visibility, the Jewish community’s main public-policy coordinating body is for the first time confronting the BDS movement as a specific and stated priority.

At its recent annual plenum, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs passed a resolution stating that BDS should now “be regarded with the utmost seriousness and urgency.”

“This is a very serious matter,” JCPA’s executive director, Rabbi Steve Gutow, told the Forward. “We need to wake up, whether we are on the right, left or center.”

The JCPA, an umbrella body representing Jewish community relations councils across the country and more than a dozen leading national Jewish groups, adopted the anti-BDS resolution at its plenum in Dallas on February 23. Gutow said that JCPA member groups are planning to create a permanent body that would respond to the activities of the BDS movement.