A few days ago, I went to a meeting of “Huskies for Israel” where active Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officers spoke about their role in the IDF and the protection of the State of Israel. It was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). The room was packed. I was overjoyed that so many Northeastern students came out to support Israel. But then reality hit me. A friend told me that there were a good portion of the students in attendance that were there to protest the IDF. After the soldiers were introduced, more than half of the students started chanting “No justice, no peace!” and other slogans. They then ran out, not before the group photographer yelling behind him in Hebrew “the Israeli Army only wants war!” We sat there in silence for a moment. I was shocked.
My brother served in the IDF, I am moving to Israel in a few months to do the same, and I sat there quietly as a group of students from my school yelled what I would consider slander and defamation at soldiers for defending Israel, and those who supported them. They came to scream insidious allegations and take pictures, not engage in debate. In their books, that is a win for their anti-Israeli cause.
Progress does not come from walkouts and “Apartheid Weeks” on college campuses. If the anti-Israeli group had stayed and asked the tough questions and made their accusations, there would have been room for dialogue, rebuttal, understanding and at the very least respect. But that is what it comes down to; a lack of respect. That is the problem. The same day, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that Hamas fired rockets across the border into towns and cities in Southern Israel, anti-Israeli students fired words of hate speech and bigotry into a meeting meant to memorialize our victimized ancestors and honor those who protect Israel.
I am “pro-Palestinian.” I recognize the Palestinian right to freedom and self-determination; however, making baseless claims about Israel as an “apartheid state” and the IDF as “occupation forces” is anti-Israeli. Northeastern Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hides the fact that they are not only pro-Palestinian; they are anti-Israeli. Israel has, just as every sovereign country does, the right and obligation to defend itself against enemies both foreign and domestic. One of the Israeli officers put it best, saying, “The Israeli Defense Forces only acts as a defense force, not as a war creating force.”
We, as students, must bridge the gap, not widen it. Senseless hatred does nothing. One student who admits he “isn’t even technically Jewish” came to the meeting simply because he wanted to hear the Israeli side because he had not had the opportunity to do so in his Middle Eastern Affairs class here at Northeastern. I hope that there are more students like this one who are willing to go to meetings, regardless of their beliefs, to hear both sides. He asked the tough questions. He informed himself on the opinions of both sides so that he could make a decision for himself on what is right and what is wrong. That is where progress comes from.
As Northeastern students, we are given the ability and therefore the responsibility to put down our differences and be the change we want to see in society. Nothing can be changed through senseless hatred. Nothing can be changed through alienation. Nothing can be changed through anything but the difficult and honest conversations between two opposing ideologies. As Northeastern boasts itself as being an institution of tolerance, mutual acceptance and higher education, I beg not only the SJP but every student to educate him or herself on world events, accept others’ points of view as valid and most fundamentally, accept all students for their beliefs, their ethnicities and their cultures.
When we say, as Jews tied indefinitely to the State of Israel, “never again” on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are not saying “never again to the Jews,” we say “never again to anybody, anywhere.” As Israelis and Jews, we understand the need for protection, statehood and justice. Indeed, better than any other nationality on Earth, we understand. However, antagonizing, protesting and rejecting an open offer to talk helps nothing. This rejection leads in one direction: alienation.
To the supporters of SJP: Protest whatever you want, but realize what it is that you are protesting and what you are supporting. The mission of SJP is to “work to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and inside Israel.” Do exactly that, but don’t disrupt a meeting with IDF soldiers where they are sharing what it means to them to defend their country against threats of terrorism and anti-Semitism, especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Don’t make sweeping allegations and then march out waving kafiyas as if it were a triumph. If you see a problem with something in the world and you want to raise awareness about it, talk. Debate. And at the very least respect that sanctity and validity of all beliefs, not just your own.
-Elon Zlotnik is a freshman business major.
