As of today, the Amherst area is thrust into the "celebration" of Israeli Apartheid Week. In the past few years at Hampshire, this week has usually been concerned with raising awareness surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict, political activism, and debate. 2009's week -- my second year -- came immediately after Hampshire faux-divestment, also known as "the time when Alan Dershowitz wrote Pres. Hexter an angry letter."
This week's events occur in lieu of a "delightful" interruption at an IDF's soldiers' speech on February 3rd, which culminated in a campus-wide reaction that consisted of anger, apathy, frustration, general annoyance, and confusion. We had a breath of fresh air from the event that -- I must say -- reminded me more of Orwell's description of the fifteen minutes of hate in 1984 more than anything. I had personally attended out of a mix of curiosity and support for a friend who had helped organize it, which oddly turned into an experience of radical alienation and ideological polarization. Ruth Scott's lecture in the fall of 2009 on crisis resolution through story telling and the sharing of experiences would have been a good follow-up to Sgt. Benjamin's lecture, but, alas, it was perceived as a thing of the past.
A few things, then, are occurring now that are of interest/concern to myself.
1) The Sabra hummus boycott. While I would normally brush this off, the sheer absurdity of the whole event -- that is, boycotting mashed chickpeas for world change -- is worth some attention. There seems to be no product college students consume that is free from politicalization. Food consumption is political -- to some degree -- but people seem to be reaching for whatever scapegoat possible to propagate their cause. And believe me, I remember the Four Loco Crisis of 2010.
2) A widespread inability to determine what "Zionism" means. This was always a problem at Hampshire and in America in general. As someone who has been spending the past year or so mulling over religious nationalism, there's something disconcerting about supposedly well-informed college students being unable to distinguish racial hatred from self-determination. Granted, the two often go hand-in-hand; nationalism often relies upon a invisible "Other" to secure solidarity, but there is a certain level of complexity inherent in any nation's consciousness that is not expressed through these polemicists use of the term. There is an assumption that Zionism is synonymous with apartheid and racial segregation that does not stand in a historical study of the movement for Jewish self-determination. Even in a post-Holocaust world -- or, rather, especially a post-Holocaust world -- history is brushed aside in favor of mass-organizing. And despite the fact that Zionism -- as an ethno-religious form of nationalism -- is radically different from the ideology of the NSDAP, Gaza is still compared to a concentration camp and Zionism -- and Israel -- is continuously described as practically the Jewish form of Nazism. The Holocaust has become a tool for political and ideological aggression. To quote one student in response to Sgt. Benjamin's talk: "I had family who died in the Holocaust, and NEVER AGAIN." I must say, Israel's genocide does not compare with the death of millions conducted in a systematic manner over a fairly short period of time. Comparing Auschwitz to Gaza is more than a small leap in logic. But, hey, that's just me.
Jews must be out to get the Palestinian's by their control of the media, American government, and public opinion. That sounds familiar...
3) An increasing level of anxiety when it comes to dialogue. After the events of December 17th (n.b., for those who do not know, a student was harassed for his/her "pro-Israel" views), dialogue seems to be the most important issue. However, in an open letter from SJP, there was a blatant disregard of the views of Hampshire's "Other" on the grounds that being pro-Israel (whatever that means) is de facto racist. The activity at Sgt. Benjamin's talk further added to the list of concerns some students in the Five College's had surrounding the issue since the beginning: It showed an inability to conduct mature political organizing and demonstrated an unwillingness to speak about the issue in a controlled setting. No teach-ins, no boycotts -- just rage.
More later. Hopefully Division III stress with help me escape from the embarrassments at Hampshire.
No comments:
Post a Comment