Right before Spring Break, Washington University Solidarity for Israel (WSI) stuffed mailboxes with a flyer featuring a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Dr. King, an essentially unquestionable source, said that “anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so,” and, in a later excerpt from the same speech: “The anti-Semite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the anti-Semite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just ‘anti-Zionist’!”
I am extremely critical of the Israeli government. While I inherently support the establishment of the state of Israel, I am angry that the Palestinians continue to languish without a homeland and am appalled that Jewish settlers continue to move into the West Bank and Gaza Strip in spite of the fact that these are traditionally Palestinian areas and subject to frequent terrorist attacks. I am not, however, an anti-Semite. In fact, I am a Jew.
I grew up in a very non-Jewish area and have been exposed to different views about the Middle East for my entire life. When I came to WU this past fall and for the first time attended school with a large number of other Jewish students, I was surprised by the homogeny of views I found here, at least among the Jewish students. In a university setting, I expected to find a wide variety of intellectual opinions but discovered that the Jewish population here is almost entirely and unquestioningly pro-Israel. Making a comment about a Palestinian civilian killed by Israeli troops is sure to get you disapproving looks and a flurry of comments.
As a Jew, I feel very strongly connected to Israel. I do not feel that the violence there is distant; just this past Friday my cousin, Debbie, was shot and killed by two Palestinian terrorists who, disguised as Jewish seminary students, knocked on her door during Shabbat dinner. When she answered the door, they opened fire, killing her and her husband, and wounding six of their guests. When Debbie announced a few years ago that she was moving to a new home in the Gaza Strip, I criticized her harshly for it. I am obviously devastated that my cousin is dead, but I have not changed my opinion.
At the beginning of the year, a girl in one of my classes who is heavily involved with WSI circulated a petition for Israel, which, not being a supporter of the current right-wing Israeli government, I did not sign. It was pointed out that I, a Jewish girl, was the only person in the class who did not sign the petition. I find fault with the assumption that a person should unquestioningly identify with an idea or principle simply because a visible part of their ethnic group does. We don’t assume that our Arab-American students support terrorists. Not all women support abortion rights. And not all Jews have the same political views.
As war with Iraq rapidly approaches, students are debating the issues and becoming more politically informed and active than we have seen all year, but people are still remarkably silent about Israel’s role in the coming war. Until Jewish WU students become more tolerant of dissent within their own community, we are not going to hear, learn about, or understand the other side of the issue. What kind of an intellectual environment is that?