Perspectives on checkpoints: Columbia/Barnard Hillel

Last Thursday’s mock checkpoint set up on Low Plaza pointed to a wider problem on campus. It seems that Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and others have decided as either written policy or de facto practice never to co-sponsor events with any of the four Israel groups under Hillel’s umbrella. The argument boils down to this: As long as you occupiers have the upper hand, we will never program together. Hillel’s support for the existence of Israel does not make us advocates for or representatives of another country’s government policies. For example, in a recent CSJP press statement, Yasmeen Ar-Rayani writes that “security concerns are not an excuse for human rights violations. If checkpoints are erected solely for the sake of security, why do they not lie solely on the border with Israel?” I wholeheartedly agree that Israeli checkpoints within Palestinian territory are hugely problematic. At best, they inconvenience the lives of innocent Palestinians and at worst, they make life awful. Hillel would have welcomed the opportunity to spread campus awareness about this issue by co-developing an event that dealt with such topics. However, by refusing to program events together, CSJP and others seek to invent a false dichotomy on campus so they can evade discussing difficult subjects. As students and future leaders, it is our duty to leave our comfort zones and hear different perspectives on issues in an instructive format. Calling North American students Israeli colonizers and occupiers is not only brazenly false and offensive—it is counterproductive to the educational values of our university.

Statements and policies like CSJP’s remind me that Israel has not had an “upper hand” in this conversation for a long time. Furthermore, they alienate the moderates, centrists, and left-wingers in Israel and on campus. These groups are loudly pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, and seek to work with Palestinians to ensure that they receive statehood and, in the meantime, equal rights. If Palestinians do not have these liberties, then these groups push all governments involved to change and implement policies that will grant such rights. Israel is not perfect—discrimination certainly exists. Neither any Hillel representative nor I would ever try to proclaim its perfection. However, what country is perfect? To single out Israel and no one else, and to refuse to run events with specific groups on campus unless they only fit the extremely narrow agendas of others, is intolerant and discriminatory.

CSJP’s and others’ refusals to co-sponsor events where both groups share common ground not only stifle debate, but forbid it­—something harmful for our campus. I, a pro-Palestinian Zionist supporter of universal human rights, often find myself without someone’s hand to shake on campus and, really, without any hand at all.

The author is a senior in the joint General Studies and Jewish Theological Seminary program majoring in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies and modern Jewish studies. He serves on Hillel’s executive board as the Israel coordinator.