Fundamental misunderstandings

Recently, LionPAC has undertaken a campaign that reveals the group’s fundamental misunderstanding not only of what the Columbia Palestine Forum aims to achieve, but also of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself. The campaign demonstrates why Columbia needs a group like the Palestine Forum to ignite honest and multi-faceted debate over this issue and challenge the one-sided narrative LionPAC has promulgated.

LionPAC has accused the Palestine Forum of organizing the Nakba week events as a “reactive campaign” against celebrations of Israeli Independence Day. The truth is, we did not organize Nakba week: the Arab Student Association at both the School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia College co-organized this annual commemoration on Columbia’s campus, as they have in previous years. The Palestine Forum was asked to co-sponsor the event, and we proudly agreed to promote this important commemoration of Palestinian dispossession. The Nakba week events were conceived well before publicity over Yom Ha’atzmaut began, and is not organized as a “response” to Israeli Independence Day celebrations. The organizers were not aware of the details of the Yom Ha’atzmaut events until LionPAC’s reaction posters went up around campus. LionPac seems to take issue with the idea that Nakba commemorations take place at the same time as Israeli Independence Day, but this is inevitable, seeing as how both events mark the same moment in history, one with different meanings for Israeli and Palestinian communities. LionPAC might also take to heart that Nakba week was also organized last year, without the help of the Palestine Forum – not as a reaction against Israeli Independence Day, but as a reflection on the Palestinian struggle.

What’s more, the events have nothing whatsoever to do with demonizing Israel. Rather, they are a commemoration of the struggle of Palestinians, as well as a celebration of the perseverance of the Palestinian people under a brutal and illegal occupation. Palestinians have been subjected to great hardship over the last six decades, but their culture has flourished and their longing for freedom has endured. Though militant groups like Hamas and the obstructive Israeli government hinder peace, the Palestinian people remain hopeful that one day they will live side by side, in dignity, with their Israeli neighbors. Unless LionPAC believes that the survival of the Palestinian people itself undermines the legitimacy of the Israeli state and its right to exist, it cannot seriously believe that Nakba week was designed as a slap to Israel and its supporters on campus. LionPAC has chosen to rush to judgment without knowing all the facts, and fails to realize that the events organized in commemoration of Nakba Week included a screening of Arna’s Children, which portrays the loss of childhood innocence in war, and an art exhibit with both Israeli and Palestinian narratives of 1948, organized by a new group on campus called Common Ground.

LionPAC’s misunderstandings are indicative of a problem on this campus regarding dialogue over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All we do is talk past one another, trying to lay the blame on the other side without bothering to understand one another’s positions. LionPAC’s campaign is the perfect example of this self-serving “dialogue.” It is ironic that even as the group chastises the Palestine Forum for neglecting an opportunity for dialogue, it perpetuates a one-sided narrative that blames Palestinians and their supporters for anger, hatred, and lack of understanding. LionPAC has interpreted the celebration of Palestinian identity and commemoration of their history as merely an opportunity for anti-Israel rhetoric, without seeking to discover what the Nakba means for Palestinians. Indeed, LionPAC has passed up an opportunity for genuine dialogue. If it was serious about changing the status quo, the group could have endeavored to learn about the extent of Palestinian suffering and the flowering of Palestinian culture by attending Nakba week events. Instead, LionPAC has chosen to baselessly vilify the Columbia Palestine Forum.

LionPAC also promotes the fiction that Israel has done everything in its power to make peace with the Palestinians, saying that Israel has worked time and time again for the sake of peace. Yet the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land continues despite its violation of international law, and Israeli walls and checkpoints leave Palestinians trapped in an open-air prison. The new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to formally endorse the two-state solution or call off the illegal settlement construction that is expanding into Palestinian territory even now. In fact, Netanyahu has authorized the building of settlements in the E1 Corridor, which was previously off limits to settlers. The new Foreign Minsiter, Avigdor Lieberman, has told the Israeli people to prepare for war rather than peace. When President Obama suggested that both parties in the conflict would have to make sacrifices according to both the road map and the 2007 Annapolis agreement, environmental protection minister Gilad Erdan replied that “Israel does not take orders from Obama.”

The fact that LionPAC can ignore the Israeli government’s hostility to the peace process and instead lay all the blame on the Palestinian leadership is an egregious example of how one-sided the discussion has become. Nakba week was a chance for LionPAC to reverse this trend and learn about what the situation looks like from a Palestinian perspective, but they have apparently rejected that possibility. We hope that in the future LionPAC will choose to engage directly with the Columbia Palestine Forum and other groups and enlarge their perspective rather than demonize our efforts. Only genuine dialogue can foster a better relationship between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups on our campus, and give us the impetus to push, as a unified student body, for peace in the Holy Land.

The author is a Columbia College sophomore. He is a member of the Columbia Palestine Forum.