You got to read this to believe it. For Israel Apartheid Week, the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee posted fake eviction notices on students’ dorm rooms to raise awareness of Palestinian conditions under occupation.
Here is the text of one such leaflet:
We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in the next three days. If you do not leave within the next three days, we reserve the right to destroy your suite. Anyone left inside is outside our responsibility. This may seem like harsh treatment, but, in reality, 24,813 houses have been demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967, against international law and without proper justification. Home demolitions are one of many forms of collective punishment used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Surprised? Find out more at www.harvardpsc.com. And no, this is not a real eviction notice.
According to the Harvard Crimson, one of its editors, who is also a leader of Harvard Students for Israel, is upset about the action. Writes Anneli Tostar:
Sara Kantor ’14, co-chair of Harvard Students for Israel, said she believes the Harvard Israeli Apartheid Week is “inherently problematic.” …
“We feel bad responding to something that is so outside the spectrum of what we are willing to engage in,” said Kantor, who is a Crimson Arts editor and a former president of Harvard Hillel. “The issue is that it no longer becomes a question of dialogue—it simply becomes rhetoric and demonizes an entire nation and people.”
The Anti Defamation League has seized on the incident. Its latest press release states: “Mock Eviction Notices at Harvard Intimidate Students.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage after mock eviction notices were posted on students’ doors in freshman and upper class dorms at Harvard University in an effort to promote “Israel Apartheid Week.”
The campaign, which was organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, distributed the offensive notices on March 2, which read “we regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in the next three days” in reference to the group’s stance on Israel’s apparent treatment of the Palestinian population.
“This tactic is designed to silence and intimidate pro-Israel advocates at Harvard and campuses around the country,” said Robert Trestan, ADL Acting New England Regional Director. “Free expression has a place on campus; however targeting the dorms of Harvard students lends itself to creating tension, isolating students and fomenting hostility.”
ADL also voiced its concern about the underlying anti-Israel message.
“We recognize and support free speech, but condemn the anti-Israel views expressed in the eviction notices as factually incorrect and intolerant,” Mr. Trestan said. “This is an example of how anti-Israel activism on campus can cross the line by causing supporters to feel isolated and intimidated.”
P.S. Last year, as we reported, a similar action was undertaken at Florida schools and also elicited outrage from Zionists: “we will not sit idly by when Israel is singled out, delegitimized and demonized.” At that time, the Jewish press sought to claim that the eviction notices targeted Jewish students; but this was not the case, as Phan Nguyen established. And it was not the case at Harvard lately either.
Sara Kantor ’14, co-chair of Harvard Students for Israel, said she believes the Harvard Israeli Apartheid Week is “inherently problematic. “We feel bad responding to something that is so outside the spectrum of what we are willing to engage in,”
Ever since 1998, the international panels of legal experts elected by the State Parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination have identified numerous of areas of concern regarding Israel’s implementation of the Article 3 prohibition against apartheid and other forms of illegal racial segregation. In the 2004 Wall Case Palestine and a number of the interested state parties noted that Israel’s policies and practices amounted to constituent acts of apartheid listed in Article II of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
Like Sara Kantor, the State of Israel has felt so bad that it refuses to respond to findings by competent treaty bodies and UN organs that reveal its policies and practices are illegal and criminal in nature.
No doubt, one of the “inherently problematic aspects” of the crime of apartheid is that it is a crime against humanity. Israel could lawfully avoid responsibility for war crimes in the ICC, but not for the corresponding crimes against humanity. See for example Sigall Horovitz, “How Israel Can (Lawfully) Avoid an ICC Investigation into the West Bank Settlements” and my comments at http://opiniojuris.org/2013/03/03/how-israel-can-lawfully-avoid-an-icc-investigation-into-the-west-bank-settlements/
So you are not willing to engage in home demolitions?
What do you think about them?
Make them feel bad? Sure! Should!
But intimidate? Hard to see how.
Why don’t the Hillelim put out their own information about why [1] Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses is not illegal or [2] why it is justified or [3] reports of it are exaggerated or [4] why it didn’t happen at all? If they want discussion and debate, why don’t they schedule one, on those very topics!
If they really feel the pro-Palestine folks are “crossing the line” (whose line?), why don’t the Hillel folks HELP the Palestine folks not to “cross the line” by organizing (perhaps, and best, together) debates, discussions, etc.
“We feel bad responding to something that is so outside the spectrum of what we are willing to engage in,”
i can’t stop laughing. i don’t know why this just hits my funnybone.
“This tactic is designed to silence and intimidate pro-Israel advocates at Harvard and campuses around the country,”
no it’s not! and if they think that’s intimidating it might occur to them to think about how intimidating it is to get your home bulldozed.
“We feel bad responding to something that is so outside the spectrum of what we are willing to engage in,” said Kantor, who is a Crimson Arts editor and a former president of Harvard Hillel. “The issue is that it no longer becomes a question of dialogue—it simply becomes rhetoric and demonizes an entire nation and people.”
Who wants to put bets on whether or not Kantor spent her time as prez of Hillel collectively demonizing Palestinians for not liking occupation/being murdered/having their homes destroyed?
More hypocrisy, absolutely sickening.