In my three years at Vassar College, I have been told – by a Jewish student leader, no less – that supporting Israel is tantamount to supporting oppression. I have watched Jewish friends bullied into silence by aggressive anti-Israel activists who call the Jews racists. I have seen many anti-Semitic...
Letter: SGA decision promotes dialogue
Supporting peace and rejecting human rights violations may seem like an easy task, but what happens when it isn’t? When any seemingly good topic is presented without context and the full picture is not understood, how is someone to make a decision? Numerous student groups sighed with relief on Feb....
The Life of a Teenage Advocate
I wake up and look at my phone. Two Israeli men were stabbed and killed in Jerusalem. I turn on my computer, trying to make sense of this attack, but the first news article from the BBC that pops up, headlines that a ‘Palestinian [is] shot dead after Jerusalem attack...
Angela Davis and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
On Thursday February 11, Angela Davis, considered a preeminent force in the world of political activism, spoke to the Denison student body. I am writing to comment on her lecture because I feel obligated to point out the misleading and false statements she made regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During her...
York University: It’s More Than Just A Mural
In North American universities, the right to a “safe space” free from dissenting or controversial ideas is, regrettably, becoming sacrosanct. Speech is policed for any statement that could be construed as insensitive or politically incorrect. In light of the widespread tendency to censor even the most innocuous of statements, it...
Indiana Representatives Say No to Discrimination
On January 26th, Indiana’s House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill banning state transactions with entities that boycott Israel. The bill asserts that the effort to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel is “antithetical and deeply damaging to the cause of peace, justice, equality, democracy and human rights for all people in the...
Why is anti-Semitism being excluded from anti-Oppression events at York University?
When the York University student union organized its anti-oppression programming this past October, one group was noticeably omitted from the list of oppressed groups. Events were held to raise awareness about Islamophobia, anti-black racism, consent, queerness, and disability, but not even one workshop or panel was organized to educate students...
Response: Violence should not be the method of peace in the Middle East
In his piece, Toivo Asheeke asks Binghamton to embrace the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, a vibrant democracy in a sea of oppressive and dictatorial regimes, in response to recent Palestinian violence. “Hoping” that the current Palestinian “rebellion,” a wave of indiscriminate attacks against innocent Israelis, will bring...