OPINION
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Monday, May 20, 2013
PAGE 6
Guest Column
Missing the peaceful point of Social Justice Week DALIA FULEIHAN
GUEST COLUMNIST
MATTHEW KOVAC
GUEST COLUMNIST
Kamel’s conflation of Judaism with support for Israeli policies seeks to delegitimize alternative Jewish perspectives like that offered by Rabbi Brant Rosen, who argued that Judaism has historically opposed colonialism and military conquest. Finally, as demonstrated by SJP’s events, the power differential between Israel and Palestine clearly favors Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces control the West Bank and Gaza, not the Palestinian National Authority or Hamas. The IDF controls the
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As leaders in the student activist community and organizers of Social Justice Week, we were deeply disappointed by Jonathan Kamel’s recent column, which contained numerous factual errors and simplistically labeled Students for Justice in Palestine and Social Justice Week more broadly, as “anti-Israel� and an obstacle to peace. On the contrary, we believe that any possibility of a just peace requires first acknowledging the power differential between the Israeli state and occupied Palestine, and last week’s events were planned with that in mind. SJP hosted three events during Social Justice Week: Hafla by the Rock, Interfaith Perspectives on Palestine and a screening of the documentary “Roadmap to Apartheid.� Hafla by the Rock commemorated the Nakba, when about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. It is a celebration of the steadfastness of Palestinian culture and resistance in the face of continued occupation and denial of rights. Interfaith Perspectives on Palestine brought members of the three Abrahamic faiths to discuss their personal experiences surrounding Palestine, highlight the common ground that exists between members of the three faiths and emphasize that
collaboration is possible to resolve a conflict that is political rather than religious, as it is often portrayed. Through the use of legal documents and historical facts, the documentary “Roadmap to Apartheid� draws parallels between the Apartheid system in South Africa and Israel’s policies of land and resource control and appropriation in the West Bank and Gaza, the restrictions placed on internal Palestinian movement within those territories, and the secondary status of and denial of rights to Palestinian citizens of Israel. As the film shows, some of the most vocal advocates of this analogy are South Africans who lived under apartheid, including Desmond Tutu, who believe that Israeli policies are as bad or worse than what they experienced under apartheid. The purpose of these events was to educate the campus community on the oppression faced by Palestinians on a daily basis and provide a starting point for dialogue and action toward achieving equal rights and justice for all living in Israel and the Occupied Territories. This was also part of the larger goal of Social Justice Week, which was to give voice to oppressed and marginalized groups. Kamel did not attend any of these events with the exception of Hafla by the Rock, but he claimed they were unnecessarily divisive, one-sided and anti-Israel. We object to this characterization for several reasons. Criticizing Israel’s oppressive policies does not make one anti-Israel any more than criticizing U.S. policies makes one anti-American.
movement of people and goods, as well as resource allocation of land and water. Similar issues exist inside Israel itself. Palestinian citizens of Israel have second-class status and are subjected to a policy of house demolitions, unequal access
to resources, education and employment, to name only a few examples of this imbalance. Furthermore, Kamel’s column contained numerous factual inaccuracies about SJP, SJP’s events, and basic facts about the situation in Israel, Palestine and South Africa. For example, Kamel stated that Israel and apartheid-era South Africa are “incomparable� because South Africa, unlike Israel, was not subjected to terror attacks. In fact, the armed wing of the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela routinely carried out violent attacks during the apartheid period, some of which targeted civilians. We ask that Kamel carefully check and properly source his facts in the future. The goal of Social Justice Week was to highlight oppressed voices and groups. It is not the responsibility of SJP or any other participating group to feature perspectives that attempt to justify oppressive policies. While Kamel’s unfounded attacks on Social Justice Week were clearly directed at SJP, his comments on the week as a whole detract from valuable dialogue on a number of other social justice issues and are a disservice not only to SJP, but to all of the other participating groups. Dalia Fuleihan is a Weinberg sophomore and co-president for Students for Justice in Palestine. She can be reached at daliafuleihan2015@u.northwestern.edu. Matthew Kovak is a Medill junior and member of the Peace Project. Both planned Social Justice Week events. If you want to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to opinion@dailynorthwestern.com.
Letters to the Editor
Clarifying the intent of Alianza and ASG’s Cinco de Mayo letter
Dear Northwestern Community, Over the past weeks, there has been a significant amount of discussion over the letter sent to the student body regarding Cinco de Mayo celebrations. As collaborators on this letter, we would like to clear up some of the discussion surrounding the subject. The intent of the letter was to bring to Northwestern students’ attention that Cinco de Mayo is a cultural holiday that should be respected and celebrated in a way that is not culturally insensitive. Past celebrations of this Mexican-American holiday have led to derogatory “Drinko De Mayo� events across university campuses. It doesn’t take much digging to find instances of negative portrayals of Mexican Americans on college campuses. However, nowhere in the letter do we tell students, whether they are Mexican-American, Latinos or non-Latinos, how to celebrate the holiday. Our organization, is formed to raise an awareness about the place of Latino peoples within the history of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., the nation within which most of our lives and our university are situated, and a nation within which Latinos represent a clearly disadvantaged, underrepresented, and misrepresented population within public and higher systems of learning/education. Our initial goal was not to discourage students from consuming staple foods or beverages. That is, in fact, how many commemorate their cultures. However, more often than not, celebrations of Cinco de Mayo by non-Mexicans, as well as other types of “cultural celebrations,� go beyond taco and
Prentice ads in The Daily are one-sided, don’t offer chance for opposition
Dear Editor, I write to complain about the full-page ads that appeared in The Daily during the past several days by a group trying to save Prentice. I am disturbed by the fact that the ad provides a number to call to protest the demolition of Prentice but does not provide a similar contact for those who object to their cause. True, they
tequila consumption to include rude commentary and behavior, belittling people of Mexican descent and contributing to their marginalization. Alianza understands that much of the disadvantage faced by Latinos in the U.S. derives from misunderstandings and stereotypical representations of their/our history and culture. We thus find our struggle for empowerment connected to the struggle of groups like African Americans, Native Americans, and minoritized Asian American populations, groups that have been systematically disenfranchised, in part, as the result denigrating and normalized representations of who they are and what they value. Our campus, unfortunately, has not been a refuge from such conditions. In fact, such conditions seem to have proliferated here as of late, resulting in serious racial and ethnic divisions amongst the student body. Considering this, our goal was to communicate to our peers, to the student body, a reminder about the things that divide us, about the kinds of insensitivity that students of color interpret as denigration and as contributing to their marginalization. Put simply, the mockery of the holiday under scrutiny by drinking tequila shots while saying things like “cinco de drinko� are unacceptable as they demean Mexican culture. It is our responsibility, as an organization, to address these matters as they contribute to a campus climate that has proven to make many students of color, and especially those from the most historically disadvantaged and underrepresented segments of our society, feel unwelcomed if not often unsafe. For the COMPLETE and unabridged version of the response letter please refer to the Alianza Facebook page. Darlene Reyes, Alianza Co-President, 2013-14 Alianza Executive Board, 2013-14 provide a Facebook page, which you can comment on if you wish to have a Facebook account (which I do not). It is also interesting that they provide a medium (Facebook) that can only accepts “like� but does not allow “dislike�. Furthermore, I find the building ugly and too young to be declared a landmark (one saves such designation for truly old buildings that need to be preserved). Thank you for your attention. Abraham Haddad Northwestern Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Daily editorial failed to move diversity conversation forward
Editorials should be a voice of reason in service to the community, a guiding light, a tempered caretaker of heightened, elevated discourse. In response to the Associated Student Government Executive Board confirmation hearings, The Daily Northwestern Editorial Board posted what amounts to an anti-diversity rallying cry. The sentiment was rallied in the comment section and at Fox News, who made great use of The Daily’s words. Arrogant and ignorant in tone, without respectful consideration of both sides, The Daily Editorial Board disregards the fundamental values of an editorial; it was not reasonable, it was not tempered, it provided no guidance in any direction forward. The Daily needs the same education that Stephen Piotrkowski received at the confirmation hearing: If you are not qualified in knowledge or experience, you should not aspire to authority. Contrary to The Daily’s ignorant suggestion, being a white male did not disqualify Piotrkowski from holding a position of leadership. However, as a white male, Piotrkowski has enjoyed the privilege of not having to meaningfully encounter multicultural communities and leaders. Inhabiting and embodying a dominant culture, category,
or communities allows for insulation and isolation from difference, at one’s wishes. When asked whether he had worked with or even knew leaders in the multicultural communities, he was caught out, only to learn that having a lesbian sister or growing up Jewish in a Christian community does not qualify leadership of diversity initiatives anymore than being queer or of color; taking initiative and promoting cross-community diversity qualifies leadership. So being white does not disqualify you from leading a diversity board, but being out of touch with anything other than white spaces, white faces and white social graces and making no effort to change that most certainly disqualifies you. Any possibility that Piotrkowski was the best option means that ASG needs more qualified leadership on diversity and inclusion. Settling for the “best available� candidate shows that the selection committee didn’t take ASG’s diversification seriously. When it comes to equality and justice, settling is unacceptable. The Daily Northwestern needs to get hip to this. Its leadership embodies the problem of diversity at NU: ignorance aligned with power. Being born into insulated and isolated privilege does not disqualify you from fighting insulation and isolation, but the first insulation and isolation you have to fight is your own, as an individual or an organization. Paul Jackson, Weinberg senior
The Daily Northwestern Volume 133, Issue 125 Editor in Chief Michele Corriston
Managing Editors
Marshall Cohen Patrick Svitek
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