I’ve been admonished for my lack of finesse for challenging a member of the academia on scholarly turf. Today I created a major faux pas by attending a lecture at Syracuse University and speaking out during Q & A. The speaker, Professor Isaac Kfir, is a Schusterman Visiting Professor at SU, an Associate Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre (Herziliya, Israel) and a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (Herziliya Israel). His contention: That the lack of democracy among the Palestinians is the primary cause of the current stalemate in the peace process.
I know, I know. I just shouldn’t attend these events. Its not even good for my health having recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure. But you know, sometimes you feel compelled to present an opposing point of view. At this point, honestly, I wish I’d stayed home. What good does it do anyway? Aside from the couple of people who thanked me for my remarks, I’m sure the professors and others took umbrage at my statements, which were made with a certain amount of caustic flair. I mean, I actually said that “blaming the Palestinians for their situation is like a rapist blaming the victim”.
I took copious notes as he ran through his primary theses:
Palestinians have traditionally been subjected to rule by the elites, which tended to come from wealthy, educated, professional families. I guess this is something new as most world rulers have come from poor, uneducated, field hands. He lamented the Palestinians’ inability to create true societal reform. Never mind that the US and Israel have done everything to undermine the Palestinian Authority and keep it in a weakened state. Basically, he claims that the Palestinian leadership tends toward corrupt and self-serving – sounds a bit like our leadership here.
He spoke of the uptick in violence, mentioning the bombing in Jerusalem, the slaughter of the family in Itamar, and a barrage of missiles from Gaza, failing to mention the greater number of Palestinian deaths in recent weeks. In response to a question about 1. settlements; 2. East Jerusalem and 3. The Right of Return as perhaps central to the impasse, he explained that due to the lack of democracy, we don’t actually “know” what the Palestinians want, so its useless to have an agreement with them on these issues. Maybe the Palestinians don’t have objections to the settlements after all.
After expounding on the violence which exists between warring factions within Palestinian leadership, Kfir pondered how they would ever be able to reconcile after the harsh treatment they received at each other’s hands. He lamented that Palestinians are “beginning to take Viagra and Prozac” because they are “so disillusioned with their own leadership”.
By way of commentary, I confronted the Professor towards the end of the Q & A session and said it was disingenous for him to blame the Palestinians for their plight . I introduced myself as a fellow Israeli citizen married to the son of a Holocaust survivor “and all that” thus angering one audience member by my insensitivity. I apologized if my remark came across that way. I’m as sensitive to the suffering of Holocaust victims as I am to the current suffering of Palestinians caught up in this hell.
I emphasized that the primary reasons for the lack of peace in the region are Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the form of a humiliating occupation, home demolitions, land expropriations via settlement growth & the “wall, extrajudicial imprisonment, theft of natural resources, and the desecration of the history of the Palestinians via demolition of entire villages.
Pat Carmeli is a member of CNY Working for a Just Peace. These are her views and not those of any group.
