Last week marked Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine’s one-year anniversary. This past year, C-SJP has worked to convey that the Zionist project was, from its inception, a colonial one. A Zionist leader once stated that “Zionist colonization … must be … carried out in defiance of … the native population. To formulate it any other way would … be hypocrisy.” In the 1930s, F.H. Kisch recommended that Zionists remove the word “colonise” from the names of their organizations (for instance, “The Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association”) since it “is associated with … aggressiveness.” Despite this cosmetic tweaking, however, a colonial reality remains. In 2010, for instance, Israel invoked a British colonial military law in order to expel a Palestinian activist from Jerusalem. Indeed, the apartheid system in Israel-Palestine speaks to Israel’s colonial founding and concomitant disregard for the rights of its indigenous population. For instance, while illegal Israeli settlers enjoy all rights associated with Israeli civil law, Palestinians in the West Bank, who are subject to Israeli military law, have no such rights (and are thus subject to detention without charge, etc.).
In defending this system, some of Columbia’s Zionist students employ arguments that betray the extent to which they have internalized the colonial attitudes upon which Israeli apartheid is based. In honor of C-SJP’s one-year anniversary, I offer you some of the gems of Zionist-speak that we have been privileged to hear since 2010.
“Palestinians don’t exist anymore. You’re a dinosaur! You’re uncivilized!” In this incident, a male Israeli student was harassing a C-SJP member so relentlessly that nearby security guards insisted she file a police report. His assertion that Palestinians are dinosaurs stems from his understanding that Palestinians are extinct. Palestinian existence is an uncomfortable reality for proponents of Israeli colonialism, who often employ the “land without people for a people without land” argument in justifying Israeli settlement.
“My Arab friends in Israel are … grateful that it didn’t expel them in 1948.” This Zionist at least acknowledges that Israel’s foundation brought the forcible displacement of 750,000 Palestinians (a refugee population that has since ballooned to 4.8 million). The “Arabs” to which he refers are Palestinians who remained (less than 25 percent of the Palestinian population). The U.N. has condemned Israel’s treatment of its Palestinian citizens, citing systematic discriminatory practices in education, employment, and criminal procedures. I suppose this is where Palestinians ought to say “thank you”—too bad most are too uncivilized to understand basic etiquette.
“It makes me feel safer around black men.” A Zionist student said this in reference to racial profiling in the U.S., which a C-SJP member was comparing to checkpoints in the West Bank. This Zionist student was in favor of both. Her comments reveal the extent to which the logic that underlies support for racial profiling in the U.S., which rests on the demonization of black men, also underlies support for checkpoints in the West Bank.
“If the indigenous population is harboring terrorists, it’s okay to cut off their water supply.” This student was responding to the fact that Israel expropriates 83 percent of West Bank water for use both within its legally recognized borders and in illegal settlements. That this student would promote such collective punishment is apt, given that he served in the Israeli army during the Gaza Massacre (see below).
“We want peace. The Palestinians brought it on themselves.” A Zionist said this in reference to the Gaza Massacre, during which, according to Israeli sources, 1,387 Palestinians (77 percent of whom were civilians) were killed. Palestinian civilian deaths included 320 children. According to the U.N., Israel deliberately targeted civilians during the operation. Though Israel, and not Hamas, broke the cease-fire that precipitated the massacre, it was, according to this student, caused by Palestinians. This claim that as a colonizer you are victim to the violent habits of your savage subjects, who force you into harshly disciplining them, is an age-old colonial line of reasoning.
“Kahane was right.” Some may believe that I have selectively quoted “extreme” Zionists, excluding those who see Palestinians as alienated brethren. These groups are not mutually exclusive. For instance, during a C-SJP talk on BDS, an Israeli student said to the audience: “Aren’t we all brothers?” This same student is a fan of the page “Kahane was right” on Facebook. Kahane was an Israeli-American politician who founded a party that openly supported ethnic cleansing. His party is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.
C-SJP routinely quotes a number of impartial authorities in our condemnations of Israel. For instance, both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu have characterized Israel as an apartheid state, and the International Court of Justice has issued numerous condemnations of illegal Israeli practices. That being said, sometimes it is best to sit back, relax, and let Zionist students show their true colors. It may not be pretty, but it is certainly instructive.
Yasmeen Ar-Rayani is a junior in Columbia College majoring in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. She has organized with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Turath, The Arab Students Organization at Columbia. This article originally appeared in the Columbia Spectator and has been republished with the author's permission.
My late wife, a Palestinian, was once standing in the bursar’s line at an educational institution, not Columbia — a line which happened to contain an Israeli among the (mostly) “kids”. The bursar’s clerks were making everyone wait a very, very long time. The Israeli was heard to say, “They’re treating us worse than natives.” My wife took the remark somewhat personally. (Ahem.) (Also, the wait. She herself was a teacher of mature years at the time.)
YASMEEN AR-RAYANI, very nice essay. It confirms my suspicions that Columbia’s Zionist students are not any brighter or better informed than any other group of Columbia students.
Why do you always make these false equivalences that exonerate Zionists of their nasty behavior and brutish attitudes? It’s shallow and unconvincing.
Is it really better that, instead of pretending like Zionists aren’t racist like Witty and others do, that you instead choose to slander everyone and make it as if they all sink to your level?
fusty has a high opinion of himself as cleverly sarcastic
it’s a thread highjack chaos, ignore it.
Chaos, you’ve got a bit of a nugget there, but I don’t set out to slander anyone, instead I present what I think to be truth. That it presents many folks in a bad light, does not make it slander.
I do seek to point out that it’s wicked world and that the wicked, wicked are but rather ordinary in their wickedness, despite all the assertions on the blog that they are especially wicked.
Ordinary, lousy but ordinary.
You only see nasty people, fuster, because you surround yourself with like-minded people.
Fuster, if you haven’t already noticed, is a devotee of the four sacred assertions found at:
link to jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com
The article is entertaining and so true, but for gist-lovers who are satisfied with a little nub in a nutshell, they are:
1) Israel Rocks!
2) Arabs Suck!
3) You Suck!
4) So nue, so sue, The Whole World Sucks!
As far as the four horsefeathers fly, Fuster is strictly Orthodox, a regular harridan
I am starting to wonder when some Columbia students will actually walk into their student government and ask for a resolution to totally boycott all products from Israel.
Just asking, and getting that reported in the Daily Speactator, would be a huge boost to other students contemplating the same thing.
It’s easier than you think. It even worked at Wayne State University– a total divestment resolution was approved, April 17, 2003.
why isn’t collective shame working? racist comments haven’t been tolerated for 30 maybe 40 years, isn’t there a university bulletin that can publish these episodes for the whole community to read?
An excellent report Yasmeen. SJP is an awesome group. i attended one of their events last week for israel apartheid week in berkeley.
Palestinians in the West Bank, who are subject to Israeli military law, have no such rights (and are thus subject to detention without charge, etc.).
speaking of israel’s colonialism
more about The Administrative Detention Orders here.
Israel is hard to defend and they know it. truth is definitely on your side. just keep speaking out!!! i’m so proud of you.
While I was a student, the campus Palestinian Solidarity Committee did an action where they taped a large Israeli flag on the ground by the entrance to the administration building during the first week of classes – add/drop week. While it was possible to walk around it, they positioned the flag so that students would be funneled into trampling it.
Of course, any suggestion that this group is at all representative of students (past or present) who support Palestinian rights would be false. (*cough, Rutgers*)
The point being that the plural of anecdotes is not data. This article reminds me of similar reports circulating in the pro-Israel community purporting to show that pro-Palestinian students are prone to anti-Semitism, sympathetic to violence and hostile to free speech on campus. (*cough, Concordia*)
The antisemitism slur is the last refuge of a Zionist scoundrel. Jews haven’t been subject to real proper Christian antisemitism for at least 2 generations. Calling Zionists on their racism isn’t antisemitic. Antony Julius in the guardian has been trying to slur Caryl churchill with antisemitism for her play 7 Jewish children. He has no other point to make.
“Some may believe that I have selectively quoted “extreme” Zionists, excluding those who see Palestinians as alienated brethren.”
Yes, that’s exactly what you did. Would you like it if someone did it to C-SJP?