To continue getting breaking news and the full stories from The Boston Globe, subscribe today.

The Boston Globe

Metro

Boston.com

Group at Brandeis stirs debate on Israeli politics

More than 250 students from area schools join conversation led by new organization

By Lisa Wangsness

 |  Globe Staff  

  January 28, 2013

WALTHAM — When the leaders of a new Brandeis student group created to foster a more productive dialogue about Israel began planning their first conference, they did not know that Israel would hold elections just days before. Nor could they know that gains by centrists would lend fresh energy to discussions around the world about Israel’s future.

The unforeseen Israeli political developments helped animate the conversation at Sunday’s gathering hosted by Brandeis Visions for Israel in an Evolving World, despite what many regard as dim prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal anytime soon. More than 250 students from Bran­deis and colleges and universities around the region met to discuss how they could make campus dialogue more civil, and more focused on the future.

Comments

Jewish students quibble about how to be civil while European and Muslim politicicans and media (just this past week -- the UK's Ward, Italy's Berlusconi, Egypt's Morsi, and The Times of London) increasingly express anti-Semitic views that inspire hatred and violence against Jews and Israel. The naivety among young American Jews is astounding and potentially self-destructive.  

Replies

"The naivety among young American Jews is astounding and potentially self-destructive"

  • The Palestinian West Bank has been illegally de facto annexed by Israel. 
  • This territory was not awarded to Israel by the UN General Assembly partition plan of 1947, and Israel’s possession of these lands is not recognized even by the US, much less the rest of the world.
  • The West Bank was conquered by force in 1967 and it has been settled by hundreds of thousands of Israeli colonists, who have encroached on Palestinian orchards and farms, and have diverted Palestinian water.
  • The Palestinians living in the West Bank Occupied Territories have been kept stateless and without the rights of citizenship by Israel.
  •  Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories and accused of crimes are tried and sentenced in Israeli military courts. 
  • Israel controls the West Bank land, water and air space.
  •  Palestinian communities have been so divided by Israeli-only highways, Israeli-manned checkpoints and a concrete Wall, that often getting to hospital in an emergency is impossible and a one-hour journey now takes 8 hours for a Palestinian to make.
  • Israel controls the  lives of Palestinians, but they have no vote in Israel.

Between 1914 and 1945 probably more than 100,000,000 Europeans died as a result of warfare between Europeans.  Ony the most naive among us would believe that they could ever find a way to talk to one another much less live peacefully for more 65 years.  The British occupied Ireland for 400 years.  What reasonable person would ever suggest that the Irish and the English could reach meaningful and mutually respectful understandings?  Peacemakers on all sides have to support and work with one another.  Blind hatred produces only more of the same.

It is encouraging to hear that Brandeis students--not just individually, but in large-scale dialogues bolstered by civility trainings--are building a more inclusive, more productive space to discuss Israel on campus.  Indeed, "thoughts change reality," or at least thoughts are the first step to action.

I also agree with the Palestinian student who is motivated "to prioritize discussing the real issues."  Together, these students, with their various backgrounds and life experiences, will be empowered to help formulate positive visions for Israel.  There is a way forward to peace and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians.  What better time than the present to seize the opportunity?