Naor Amir’s response (“Response to previous letter urging UF to cut ties with anti-Palestinian groups”) to Amanda Nelson’s op-ed (“Call to UF: Cut ties with anti-Palestine community”) was persuasive and thought-provoking. We believed it warranted a response, as it contained many of the arguments that have been used to justify Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. These arguments included, “Israel is the only free country in the Middle East,” “Terrorism is bad” and “What about other Middle Eastern conflicts?”
Amir opened his letter by alluding to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy and reviving the belief that the Middle East is devoid of democracy. Palestinian and pro-Palestinian activists are often asked to account for every instance of injustice in the Middle East.
This suggestion ignores the diverse array of issues within the Middle East, treating the region as a monolith. It ignores the political and social complexities within each country and conglomerates a vast array of groups — Kurds, Palestinians, Syrians — into one.
In addition, we will note that we are in solidarity with other oppressed peoples in the Middle East and beyond. In fact, the Dream Defenders, predominantly made up of African-Americans and other people of color who protest against police brutality and other injustices, recently joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Also, Israel is not the only “free” country in the Middle East because it is not a true democracy.
There are currently more than 50 laws in Israel that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel based on their ethnicity.
They affect every aspect of daily life — from land ownership to family reunification — rendering them second-class citizens in their own homeland. In addition, 93 percent of the land in Israel is owned either by the state or by quasi-governmental agencies, such as the Jewish National Fund, that discriminate against non-Jews.
We are not asking readers to take a stance on everything related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We are simply calling on our fellow students to support divestment from companies that are complicit in the violation of human rights. We do so in the spirit of justice, as we stand in solidarity with oppressed, displaced and disadvantaged people around the world.
Amanda Nelson and Eric Brown
Students for Justice in Palestine
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 1/20/2015 under the headline “Closer look at Israeli-Palestinian conflict"]
