Ariel Katz’s “Walls, Checkpoints, and the Advantage of Rational Discourse,” is a great op-ed that is relatively short and to the point regarding a checkpoint that students put up at Claremont McKenna College. She describes an incident in which students harassed other students, requiring them to show their ID to enter the dining hall. Their goal was to mimic an Israeli checkpoint.
All over the world there are border crossings where one has to show ID to enter a country. In fact, I was required to show ID last June when I biked into the United States from Canada (below is an image of an American forced to show their ID to enter Canada, how humiliating!). Just as citizens of Egypt and Jordan must show their ID’s when entering Israel, citizens of the Palestinian Authority entering Israel are asked to do the same. Given that the majority of Palestinian Muslims support the use of suicide bombings, these checkpoints make a lot of sense from a security standpoint.
While Israel has over one million Arab citizens living in the country, all of which have equal rights, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has no interest in Jews living in their land. The Jewish population living in areas controlled by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority was completely driven out or massacred either prior to or during Israel’s War for Independence.
As Ariel Katz writes, “talk to someone who you respect but who you know disagrees with you. Read articles from media outlets you know have a different political leaning than you. Educate yourself, and educate others.” How many of these SJP students harassing those who want to enter the dining hall have read or know that the P.A. does not want Jews living as citizens of a Palestinian State? And if they know, is this not worthy of a protest?
By Gilad Skolnick
