Nakba memorial week went well at Columbia. Here’s some favorable coverage in a School of International Affairs journal. Though my friend the journalist Armin Rosen (whom I admire for his doggedness) says the week failed, it was shallow and anti-Zionist and pointless.
The most interesting development for me is this letter from Jacob Shapiro of the campus’s Israel lobby, Lionpac, to the organizers of Nakba week, saying that the debate over Palestine had ripped the campus apart for eight years, so dialogue is needed:
The dialogue we propose requires diligent thought and planning, down
to the smallest details. We do not offer this as a ploy or a political
trick. We fully intend for this to take place, if you are willing to
join us. As a first step, we propose a private meeting among
representatives of our organizations to initiate discussions and talk
about moving forward. While we fully understand the potential for
failure, we believe that the time has come to challenge ourselves and
search for solutions. Next semester we look forward to working together. Our hand is extended. Will you meet us?
The response we have to Mr. Shapiro is simple: we are more than glad to
join in any debate you want, any time you want, anywhere you want.
However, we are only willing to debate the issues themselves, and have
no interest in any meta-meetings to discuss how we discuss the issues… [M]ore importantly, what Mr. Shapiro needs to realize
is that our organizing of our events is itself part of the debate that
needs to happen, just like all of the events that LionPAC organizes are
part of the needed debate. [emphasis mine] A real debate happens when people talk
freely about the conflict, attend stimulating events, and discuss them,
not when people organize meetings to talk about what language to use
and how we can move on with talking about talking about the conflict.
It is only if we engage in such open, honest, and inclusive debate that
there can be a chance for the Palestinians and Israelis to live in
peace.
I think Ammous is right, and that Shapiro is afraid of a wide-open debate for the same reason that the Jewish establishment is afraid of such a debate: if the truth about Israeli crimes against the Palestinians was widely discussed here, fair-minded Americans would turn against U.S. policy, and the status-quo would quickly become unsupportable.
