The Conflict Over the Conflict by Kenneth S. Stern;

The Conflict Over the Conflict by Kenneth S. Stern;

Author:Kenneth S. Stern;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: University of Toronto Press


Williams’s president, Maud Mandel (one of the founding members of the Alliance for Academic Freedom), released a strong statement in support of WIFI’s place on campus, noting that “[d]ifferences over such views are legitimate grounds for debate, but not for exercising the power to approve or reject a student group.”94

Because each side of the campus debate on Israel and Palestine views itself as standing for simple justice, and the other as opposing it, each believing the other side’s speech should be silenced, we’ve seen disruption (Irvine), threats of legal action (Hastings), and refusal to allow students to form clubs to express their political point of view (Fordham and Williams).

But it gets worse.

If the other side is as detestable as if it were made up of Nazis, the logical conclusion is that you should have nothing to do with it. To have a conversation with a student who has a diametrically opposed point of view becomes impossible, because you are conceding, by merely having the conversation, that their point of view might have the slightest bit of merit.

The campus mission to shake up thinking is forgotten, as is the wisdom of John Stuart Mill – that testing your ideas against those who disagree helps you gain clarity. For many on the pro-Palestinian side, the idea of having a conversation with Jewish student groups that are pro-Israel has become impossible. To do so would be to “normalize” the conflict. The morality of purity has to be preserved, and the certainty that there’s only one simple single historical narrative underscored.95 Here’s one conversation that illustrates the thinking. In 2010 Malik Ali, who spoke from time to time for Students for Justice for Palestine at the University of California, Irvine, was interviewed by Roz Rothstein from StandWithUs:

ROTHSTEIN: Do you support Hamas?

MALIK ALI: Yes.

ROTHSTEIN: Do you support Hezbollah?

MALIK ALI: Yes.

ROTHSTEIN: Do you support Islamic Jihad?

MALIK ALI: Yes.

ROTHSTEIN: Do you support jihad on this campus?

MALIK ALI: Jihad on this campus …? As long as it’s in the form of speaking truth to power, yes. And the reason why I said it’s not a good idea to sit down with Zionists, is because when you sit down with Zionists, for cookies and cake, and talk about issues, that kind of thing, right, it gives the impression that Zionism is like, it’s okay, that it’s okay. Now, you Jews, in all due respect, you wouldn’t sit down with Nazis for tea and cake. No you wouldn’t!96



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