This Saturday, a “Students for a Free Palestine”-sponsored conference entitled “Activism 102: a day of skills workshops for Middle East activism” will take place at Wesleyan. We write this letter out of fear and concern that this event will promote hatred, ignorance, and anti-Semitism on a campus that greatly values tolerance and equality. While we fully support the right of free speech, there are a number of factors that lead us to believe that this event will not promote education and tolerance, but rather incite half-educated and hate-driven behavior.
For one, the sponsor organizations and speakers notoriously preach the destruction of the State of Israel. One sponsor, Al-Awda, bears the motto, “INTIFADA! Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” and carries a logo depicting a key over the state of Israel. The motto and logo, which mimic that of various Palestinian terror groups, imply that Israel is an illegitimate state and deny its right to exist. They are not interested in a peaceful or two-state solution. Mazin Qumsiyeh, one of the cofounders of Al-Awda and a facilitator of the conference, was charged last spring with committing Anti-Semitic acts at Yale. Qumsiyeh was accused of falsely implicating Yale’s “Friends of Israel” (a Jewish Activist group) as pro-war activists in an attempt to incite animosity towards them amongst the highly anti-war student body. Another featured speaker, Adam Shapiro, co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a movement that “unconditionally supports Palestinians’ human right to resist occupation and oppression by any means necessary.” Any means indeed: ISM has been directly linked to a recent terrorist bombing in a Tel Aviv bar that killed 3 and injured over 50!
Are these the kinds of speakers we want at our University? Wesleyan is an institution devoted to academics, education, thought-provocation, and scholarly pursuit. The sponsors and speakers of this conference directly contradict these aims by inciting hatred and violence, providing half-truths and misinformation. While we personally may not agree with the political views driving the conference, we respect every individual’s right to their own opinions. However, the motives of these groups are antithetical to the academic discourse required to come to sound political conclusions, whatever they may be. Although everyone has a right to their views, we are not obligated to provide anyone a forum to promote hatred.
Furthermore, the conference has been advertised throughout New England with Wesleyan’s name attached to it. It is not limited to one or two speakers and our student body, but is a full-day affair attracting participants from around the country. Other prestigious and liberal schools have refused the same speakers a forum for the very reasons we should. By refusing to associate ourselves with these promoters of ignorance, we would join the likes of Columbia and Harvard, who have chosen not to dirty their names and reputations. To quote our illustrious website “At Wesleyan we aim high…we work to free our students to make choices through their lives that will allow them to be effective leaders.” Freedom is achieved through education and dialogue. Let’s live up to this ideal and prevent the spreading of intolerance through one-sidedness.
P.S. Don’t take our word for it, look it up yourself:
– http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=2377,
– http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0nfo0,
– http://www.adl.org/Israel/Israel_protest_calendar_groups.asp
Leave a Reply