As Israeli Apartheid Week continues in its third day, there is disagreement on campus with regard to the legitimacy of the program’s goals.
The week-long event, hosted by Duke Students for Justice in Palestine, asserts policies of Israel as a form of apartheid in order to educate and organize action, such as boycotts and divestment, against the conflict. This is the eighth year of the program’s existence internationally but is, however, the first year the event has been held at Duke. The week has created somewhat of a campus divide and stirred discussion as to whether or not Israel can be classified as an apartheid state.
“The goal [of this week] is to raise awareness and educate members of the Duke community and local community about policies of Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” said DSJP President Ahmed Alshareef, a sophomore. “This is part of an international movement that focuses on comparing those policies to apartheid policies. [We want to] raise awareness about the issue, so although dialogue and discussion is part of it, [our goal is] to raise awareness about that specific issue.”
The week is held annually in cities and at universities across Europe, the U.S., Canada, Palestine, South Africa and the Arab World. At Duke, programming for the week has included a panel discussion Monday delivered from a pro-Palestinian perspective, a screening Wednesday of the film “Voices from Inside: Israelis Speak,” an evening of Palestinian culture Thursday and a presentation by Bekah Wolf, co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project. Wolf’s presentation was scheduled for Tuesday but was cancelled due to Wolf’s flight delay. DSJP is working to reschedule this event, Alshareef said.
Junior Brian Kohen, president of Duke Friends of Israel, said that although he understands DSJP’s goal to raise awareness about the conflict, he disagrees with the characterization of the Israeli-Palestinian situation as apartheid.
“If [DSJP associates itself] with the group that calls Israel an apartheid state, it’s hard to sympathize with what they’re trying to do because Israel is not an apartheid state,” Kohen said. “It’s very offensive not only to Israel and Jews across the world but also and especially to South Africans who truly experienced apartheid... because of all the things Israel does to ensure peace, human rights and democracy.”
Arab-Israeli people have more rights than an apartheid state would allow, Kohen added. He pointed to the examples of Arabs in the Israeli government, an Arab captain of the Hapoel Tel-Aviv soccer team and an Arab former Miss Israel. Arab women can vote in Israel—one of only a handful of countries in the Middle East that permits this, he said.
Sophomore Anastasia Karklina, another member of DSJP, disagreed with this view of Palestinians’ situation in Israel.
“[Israeli Apartheid Week] is an attempt to bring the Palestinian perspective of the conflict as a systematic oppression, which in my opinion best describes the situation on the ground,” Karklina wrote in an email Tuesday.
She said that, in her opinion, pro-Palestine activists—particularly DSJP—are not anti-Israel. Rather, they are “pro-justice and pro-peace.”
An anti-Israel sentiment, however, has been detected by some students.
“It’s kind of weird to have a conversation that’s really one-sided,” said senior Robert Wainblat. “They never invited anyone to come to the Freeman Center [for Jewish Life], or Israeli citizens to counteract. It’s almost attacking Israel blatantly.”
Israeli voices are included in the program—Bekah Wolf is an American-Israeli, as is one of Monday’s panelists, Rann Bar-On, a lecturer in the math department and the program’s adviser—though neither of these speakers are pro-Israel.
And although there is substantial disagreement between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students regarding the conflict, Monday’s panel involved some constructive discussion between the opposing sides.
“It was helpful to see the actual Palestinian students speaking on the issue because it strengthened my belief that these guys have good intentions,” junior Zach Epstein said, noting that he strongly opposes the principles upon which Israeli Apartheid Week is based.
Alshareef said one of the program’s campaigns was received particularly poorly by many. The campaign involved putting fake eviction notices on and under students’ dorm room doors Sunday night. The notices, which parallel the home evictions of Palestinians in Israel, included a schedule of the week’s events. Most of the notices were taken down by Monday morning.
“It’s disheartening [because] we haven’t insulted anyone,” Alshareef said. “Everything we’ve said is either coming from a fact online or a statistic compiled by a reliable source, whether it’s an [nongovernmental organization] or the U.N., or even Israeli sources. We haven’t been trying to insult anyone or intentionally harm anyone.... We’re trying to [address] a topic that hasn’t been discussed before.”
Funding for the week’s events was provided in part by the Student Organization Finance Committee, a division of Duke Student Government. SOFC President Amy Li, a senior, said she did not sense potential controversy in the scheduled events when the group made its proposal to SOFC earlier this year.
“It seemed like the group was primarily interested in raising awareness of the issue,” Li said. She added that SOFC has also provided funding to the Jewish Student Union in the past, noting that the committee does not seek to promote Palestinian views over Israeli ones or vice versa.
Alshareef said the overall reaction to the events of the week has so far been overwhelming.
“It’s been stressful, to say the least—all these responses,” he said.
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