The broad effort to silence Palestinians and to protect Israel from criticism has been underway for some time. American values are on the line, and American institutions are the battlefield. Yet, the fight over Ken Roth at Harvard shows that these efforts to suppress free speech will only enhance the cause of Palestinian human rights.
Ahmed Moor writes that the main failure of the Palestinian leadership is that they act as though Israel can be maneuvered through negotiations with a heavyweight tipping the scales in their favor, even though history has shown this will not be successful. Nonetheless, he writes, there is a path forward: “By restating the goals of the Palestinian national movement, away from state building and towards human rights and dignity, the PLO, Hamas, and the PA may fundamentally alter their dynamic with Israel. The pursuit of equal rights is the only mechanism for transforming statelessness into strength.”
There’s nothing exceptional about Jewish-Israelis, or Palestinians for that matter. Or even apartheid. But a Jewish Israeli sense of exceptionalism and self-absorption serves to justify the endurance of persecution.
Young people studying the Middle East are almost all sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view. Many are conversant on the history of the region and root causes. They understand BDS as a moral imperative. Once we were embattled; today we are insurgent.
The Likud party’s unsurprising success in last month’s Israeli election reinforced the essential argument that the two-state outcome is not viable. Phil Weiss wrote that the time for an open discussion between anti-Zionists and liberal Zionists has arrived. Ahmed Moor says, it’s a good argument, but not one that is easily embraced.
Ahmed Moor responds to a recent post on Michael Manekin and Peter Beinart’s sunless one-state prognostications. They claim equal rights in Palestine can’t work. Moor says their arguments are bad – and they make bad arguments in service of Jewish privilege in Palestine.
Ahmed Moor writes the idea that Palestine is a Muslim issue is one that a lot of people believe in even though Palestinian society is not Muslim and Palestinian history never developed solely within an Islamic context. So who are the people who seek to offer it as a credible structural description? And why is the Palestine-is-a-Muslim-problem line so destructive?
The war waged on Palestinian lives and livelihoods has always been a holy war. Zionism is a religion that draws power through collectivism and idolatry. The religion’s purgatory, totalitarian logic moves believers to act – ruthlessly and single-mindedly to purge Palestine.
Ahmed Moor shares a story from an American friend of his who recently traveled from Amman to Jenin to assist with the yearly olive harvest.
Swedish PM Stefan Lofven has announced that the country will recognize Palestine. The move has two big implications: it telegraphs a normative shift, Israel is no longer regarded as working hard to find a friendly guide through the wilderness. And it opens the door on radical activism, and states supporting BDS.