U. of St. Thomas Student: We Must Stand With Israel
University of St. Thomas student Vladimir Davidiuk is urging students to reject the anti-Israel activism pervading campuses today.
In December of 2013, the American Studies Association, an organization ostensibly devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history, resolved to call for an unjustified, immoral and hateful boycott of Israeli academic institutions and also resolved to support the racially motivated and bigoted boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against the state of Israel; actions which go against the spirit of academic freedom and which violate the ideal of the scholarly pursuit of truth.
Numerous prestigious institutions across America immediately responded, courageously rejecting the boycott and valiantly opposing such a morally bankrupt act. Universities like Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Rice, Stanford and Yale all took a stand against the effort to harm, marginalize, and ostracize Israeli academic institutions, running the risk of further stoking controversy and courting liability themselves in the process.
While many misguided and ill-informed proponents of the boycott have claimed that support for the effort benefits the Palestinians in the Middle East peace process, the reality is quite the opposite. The facts are these: since its creation in 1948, Israel has made one concession after another in an effort to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians. In the face of constant attack from forces seeking nothing less than their complete destruction, Israel has self-imposed restrictions on military and police actions. As they’ve agreed to the increasingly unreasonable demands, Israel’s territorial integrity and security have been placed at greater risk and been strained to the breaking point.
The Palestinian question is the result rather than the cause of the conflict, and stems from Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish State in the Middle East. …
…If peace in the region was the true goal, and not just demonization of an entire group of people, then the entire effort of the BDS movement is a waste of the valuable time and energy of every single person who believes that peace, justice, and freedom should be the goal we all pursue. Time and energy should be put into bringing a true partner for peace to the negotiation table. Not this backhanded blackmail.
…To boycott a country is an economic act of war. As such, the BDS movement is a war against Israel: a free, democratic and pluralistic society. To think of the BDS movement as anything other than Antisemitism is a lie and an insult to the intelligence of every single student and scholar. The BDS movement is, at its core, merely the most recent manifestation of age-old hatreds and the persecution of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.To willingly participate in this hatred and persecution debases both American institutions and their students, faculty, and alumni. It is time that every American college and university reject it publicly.
Comments
I agree wholeheartedly. I would like to have a one or two page piece of paper with some pictures of the green houses destroyed by the so-called palestinens in Gaza. Also the fancy hotels, food in the open markets and a bit of print for Israel’s contribution to the world. One or two pages and I would place them around towns and in Gyms,rec centers, in the magazine racks. Might wake people up. At the very least it would help.
Excellent! The same folks who are demanding we help them destroy Israel will then, when they have succeeded in their desired Jewish genocide, turn their destructive impulses on us.
We need to post pictures of Jerusalem’s the. grand mufti Amr Hussein in company with Himmler and Hitler to show the world the nihilistic intent that existed before Israel was even a state. It is not about “justice for ‘Palestinians’,” it is about the genocide of the Jews, and this kid gets it.