
Oppose Policies that Promote the Occupation and Demean Palestinians and Israeli Critics
February 26, 2015
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Professor Steven M. Cohen — steve34nyc@aol.com
Professor Mira Sucharov — sucharov@hotmail.com
Professor Todd Gitlin — tg2058@columbia.edu
Professor Irwin Sandler — sandler.irwin@gmail.com
Professor Michael Walzer — walzer@ias.edu
Yesterday, 65 leading progressive academics and scholars from across North America wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticizing recent actions – including his scheduled March 3rd Speech to Congress – for making the U.S. Israel relationship into a politically and ideologically partisan issue.
The letter, which was developed out of discussions of the Scholars for Israel and Palestine (SIP) is part of the SIP’s campaign to promote a vision of peace, justice and empathy on North American campuses and in the broader dialog about Israel and Palestine.
“For members of the SIP, we see our efforts to combat the delegitimization of Israel — which is the primary goal of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — as being inextricably linked to our work to help Israel end its occupation of Palestinian territory, declared Professor Steven M. Cohen of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute for Religion and a co-chair of the SIP. “Our passionate support for Israel, for many of us based on life-times of Zionist activity, demands that we challenge the Israeli Prime Minister when we believe his actions are threatening to Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, as well as endangering Israel’s security as most retired IDF generals in effect have argued,” Cohen said.
“The SIP is currently working on a campaign to combat so-called “anti-normalization,” which will be initiated in the upcoming days. This SIP effort will fight a movement that strikes at the heart of the mission of universities and the type of collaborative work between Israelis, Palestinians and their friends abroad that is needed to promote peace and reconciliation. As academics and scholars we see first-hand the harm that “anti-normalization” is doing on campus and elsewhere. We challenge our fellow progressives – Palestinians, Jews and others – to completely reject this politics of division and to substitute academic, cultural and advocacy cooperation to jointly struggle for a peaceful and just future for Israel and Palestine,” Sucharov said.
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Below is the text of the letter from academics and scholars sent to Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,
We are university faculty and independent scholars in North America, mostly Jewish, who care deeply about the future of Israel and admire its highest traditions of democracy and justice. In the interest of justice, we have resisted the demonization and isolation of Israel, and toward that end, have consistently fought against the so-called BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. By contrast, we strongly support a vigorous, democratic, inclusive, and secure state of Israel within its 1967 borders, with agreed modifications.
It is in the name of that very objective that we take issue with your policies, whose harshness, arrogance, and myopia undermine our work in defense of an honorable and defensible Israel.
We respect both Israeli and Palestinian narratives of their intertwined history and urge all to empathize with the sufferings of the other side. We strongly support all efforts toward peaceful and collaborative relations between Israeli society and Palestinians who work to construct their own workable society. We strongly support the development of an independent Palestinian state living side by side, and in peace with, Israel. We strongly oppose and will not defend your policies of occupation and oppression on the West Bank. We renounce your policies that undermine the emergence of an independent Palestinian state. We renounce your rhetoric, which demeans and disrespects not only Palestinians but Israelis who oppose your policies.
We believe it was unwise to come to the United States in a partisan spirit, thereby undermining what was once bipartisan and near-universal support for Israel. We believe that, while you ask the United States to strengthen Israel against its external enemies, you weaken Israel with your own shortsightedness and rigidity.
Letter Endorsed By:
Eric Alterman, Brooklyn College
Ernst Benjamin, Independent Scholar
Jonathan Berger, Stanford University
Michael Berube, Penn State University
Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University
Rachel Brenner, University of Wisconsin Madison
David Brusin, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Steven M. Cohen, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute for Religion
Avner Cohen, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan
Morris Dickstein, CUNY
Hasia Diner, NYU
Peter Dreier, Occidental College
John M. Efron, University of California, Berkeley
Peter Eisenstadt, Independent Scholar
Shelly Fisher Fishkin, Stanford University
Sam Fleischacker, University of Illinois, Chicago
Charlotte Fronrobert, Stanford University
Todd Gitlin, Columbia University
Chad Alan Goldberg, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Judith Goldstein, Vassar College
Harry Hellenbrand, California State University, Northridge
Bethamie Horowitz, NYU-Steinhardt
Robert Jennings, University of Chicago
Robert Johnson, University of Illinois, Chicago
David Kader, Arizona State University
Charles Kadushin, Brandeis University
Samuel Kassow, Trinity College
Ira Katznelson, Columbia University
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University
Elaine Leeder, Sonoma State University
Rebecca Lesses, Ithica College
Jennifer Lewis, Wayne State University
Joe Lockard, Arizona State University
Steven Lubet, Northwestern University Law School
Steven Lukes, NYU
Fran Malino, Wellesley College
Jonathan Malino, Guilford College
Jeffry Mallow, Loyola University, Chicago
Barbara Mann, Jewish Theological Seminary
Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sharon Ann Musher, Stockton University
Cary Nelson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Sharrona Pearl, University of Pennsylvania
Derek Penslar,Oxford University/University of Toronto
Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota
Michelle Rivkin-Fish, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Irwin Sandler, Arizona State University
Daniel Schwartz, George Washington University
Gershon Shafir, University of California, San Diego
Jeffrey Shoulson, University of Connecticut
Daniel Soyer, Fordham University
Heidi Steinitz, St. Francis Xavier University
Michael Steinitz, St. Francis Xavier University
Mira Sucharov, Carelton University
Irene Tucker, University of California, Irvine
Elaine Tyler May, University of Minnesota
Roger Waldinger, UCLA
Kenneth Waltzer, Michigan State University
Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Studies
Beth Wegner, University of Pennsylvania
Jeff Weintraub, Independent Scholar
Alan Weisbard, University of Wisconsin Law School
Beth Weitzman, NYU
Alan Wolfe, Boston College
Jonathan Zasloff, UCLA School of Law
Steven Zipperstein, Stanford University