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CounterPunch
December
4, 2002
"Tension
on Campus":
A Call to Silence
by CHARLOTTE KATES
"Tension
on Campus." The phrase has become
unfortunately common at a wide range of universities, including
my own Rutgers University. From San Francisco State University
and the University of California at Berkeley; from Concordia
University in Montreal, Canada to the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor, universities with active, growing Palestine solidarity
movements and campaigns for divestment from Israel are being
tagged with a new concern about "tension on campus."
This "tension" is described
in a number of ways; "making Jewish students feel unsafe
on campus"-despite the involvement of a number of Jewish
students in the very movements accused of causing this tension,
"creating an environment of hate," "causing discomfort
among students," "making people afraid to be Jewish
on campus," and "poisoning the dialogue." However
it is described, it usually returns to a thinly-veiled allegation
of anti-Semitism and demands that, in some way, this tension
be stopped.
In any environment of strong debate,
mobilization, protest and organizing, there can be, will be,
and, in fact, should be, a certain amount of discomfort, tension
and conflict. These conflicts exist not because of hatred or
intolerance, but because there is a very real and meaningful
difference between calling for liberation of the Palestinian
people and ceasing U.S. aid to their oppressors in Israel, and
demanding support of the Israeli government at all times. The
student and community based movement for justice in Palestine
is an antiracist movement at its core-it is based on a demand
for full equality for all citizens of Israel (and end to Israeli
apartheid) and recognition of human rights for all citizens of
historic Palestine-the rights of self-determination, of freedom
from foreign occupation, of liberation from colonialism, of return
of refugees. These rights are denied Palestinians-citizens of
Israel or residents of the Occupied Territories-because they
are Palestinians, and specifically because they are not Jewish.
The movement for justice in Palestine stands in solidarity with
the Palestinian people inside and outside the Green Line in declaring
that this form of state-sponsored racism and oppression is unacceptable
and indefensible-and should not be supported with our money.
Those who, in response, defend the actions
of the Israeli state, its guiding ideologies, laws and practices,
who declare that "Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel,"
are defenders of state racism, military occupation and the denial
of human rights to Palestinians. This defense of Israeli actions
is in direct opposition to a movement demanding liberation for
Palestine, and in direct opposition to a movement declaring that,
as Americans and others, government, university and corporate
money should not go to prop up the racist occupation regime.
Rather, however, than addressing that direct opposition and conflict
of beliefs, defenders of Israeli government policy have resorted
to raising concerns about "tension on campus."
The university is envisioned as and expected
to be an environment of open debate, innovative ideas, incisive
questioning and analysis. Of course, it is also supposed to be
an environment of tolerance of difference. However, what we are
witnessing in much of the discussion of "tension on campus"
is not a concern about tolerance but rather a demand for silence
and an utter lack of any toleration of viewpoints critical of
Israel. We are told that open debate is negative, dangerous and
harmful; that political ideas make others uncomfortable or unsafe.
Criticism of a government strongly linked to the US government
is rephrased as dangerous, anti-Semitic and intolerant -creating
an environment where many truly are afraid to share their concerns
about Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
Indeed, open debate may cause an amount
of "tension." There is a very real conflict between
defense of racism and opposition to racism-but this conflict
is not a negative development; rather, it is a necessary conflict
in order to end racist practices. Racist beliefs should be called
into question; defense of racist state practices should make
people feel uncomfortable. There is no right to political belief
without feeling discomfort, tension or insecurity in those beliefs;
this is a tension that reflects a struggle between justice and
injustice. Tense it might be, but more importantly, it is necessary,
positive and has the possibility of creating lasting and meaningful
change. It is the sort of tension and conflict we should seek
to encourage-open debate and expression of political ideas-rather
than to suppress on the ground that someone may be emotionally
discomfited by its existence.
"Tension on campus" is another
way of saying "active movement for justice in Palestine
on campus." This struggle is portrayed as somehow uniquely
"complicated," somehow uniquely prone to guidelines
of "appropriateness" in its conduct. Unlike seemingly
all other struggles for justice, it must be subject to mediation
and moderation under the guise of "dialogue." There
is nothing uniquely complicated here; every national situation
is complicated, intricate and bears a long history. Nevertheless,
justice applies despite these complications; there is nothing
specifically "complicated" about the Middle East that
precludes the Palestinian people from their rights to justice
and self-determination. This justice will not be obtained through
any number of well-meaning dialogues about "tension on campus";
it, however, might very well be obtained by the economic pressure
on the Israeli state generated by effective divestment campaigns
on the university, community, corporate and government levels.
The focus on neutrality, on setting up
dialogues and discussion, on condemning partisanship and passion
as somehow negative, obscures the very real situation in the
Middle East, as well as our own campus organizing. In the face
of injustice and oppression, we should not seek to be neutral
in tone or action, but rather to struggle mightily to end that
injustice and oppression. The specter of "dialogues"
between white racists and civil rights advocates, or between
misogynists and feminists, so that those advocating for change
might express their opinions in an appropriately timid and subservient
manner, is both absurd and disturbing. It is absurd on its face;
very few, today, would advocate that Jim Crow racism and segregation
could have been overcome by creating an environment that is comfortable
for racists. It is disturbing because at the time those movements
were on the ascendancy there were a number of people who cautioned
against such dangerous militancy as boycotts, demonstrations
and uncompromising demands. Those movements overcame such demands
for their silence and rightly rejected them as such. Here, however,
a new method of silence is at work-labeling opposition to racism
as itself intolerance, hate, and anti-Semitism, and placing anti-racist
activists on the defensive to prove their own anti-racism. We
need not accept this defensive position. There is no basis for
allegations of anti-Semitism and hatred stemming from political
expression of disapproval of the actions, ideologies and laws
of the state of Israel. We need not accept "tension on campus"
as a negative description. We have no desire to create an environment
where racists may feel comfortable and secure in their racism;
we very much want to call fundamental assumptions into question,
to create an environment where it is, indeed, uncomfortable to
declare oneself an unequivocal supporter of an oppressive, racist
state. It should be uncomfortable; it should not feel equally
welcomed and valid to defend oppression as to fight for its end.
There is nothing making Jewish students
afraid to be Jewish on campus; nothing that is, except for those
whose Jewish identity leads them to condemn the racist practices
of the state of Israel. The Rutgers University Hillel leadership
sent out an Open Letter to the Jewish Community, demanding that
Jews keep their consciences and their concerns silent, except
within the closed confines of their "own community."
Students who criticize racism, who dare to show the links between
the oppression of Palestine and war against Iraq, who stand up
for their own dignity and the dignity of their fellow human beings,
are told that their words cause tension and discomfort, blamed
for their great sin of bringing political conflict to the forefront,
told to be silent, demure and inoffensive. Declaring that Israel
is an apartheid state is not offensive; declaring that it is
unacceptable to dehumanize Palestinians is not anti-Semitism;
demanding that our money not go to support the Israeli state's
oppression and racism is not dangerous. These statements do cause
tension-the tension between those fighting for justice, and those
fighting to preserve an unjust status quo.
Across the country, students are being
called to silence. Their words are too political, their demands
too principled, their activism too committed. A coordinated campaign
is in place to silence activists, to declare their work and their
words beyond the pale. Nevertheless, students are refusing to
be silent, continuing to organize. New divestment campaigns are
launched on a constant and regular basis. Organizers are refusing
to be intimidated by the campaign of silence masquerading about
concern about "tension on campus." There is an active
campaign for justice in Palestine; that campaign might well make
defenders of injustice uncomfortable and insecure. That is not
a sign of intolerance and hatred; it is a call to rethink defense
of injustice and racism and take a stand with those struggling
for human rights. "Tension on campus" indeed is a euphemism
for Palestine solidarity on campus. May the tension continue
to escalate, and the movement continue to grow, until it is recognized
not as tension but as an irresistible force for global justice.
Charlotte Kates
is a law student at Rutgers University School of Law and an activist
and organizer for social justice in Newark, New Jersey. She is
Education Chair of New
Jersey Solidarity, a community/campus organization working
for justice in Palestine, and may be reached at ckates@pegasus.rutgers.edu.
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