Tag Archives: israel-palestine

EVENT
Religion and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Eki Ramadhan ’16 writes in:

The Interfaith Council of Wesleyan University, in conjunction with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, invites everyone to a talk/luncheon titled “The Role of Religion in the Israel-Palestinian Conflict; Jew, Muslim, Christian — It Matters” with Ron Young ’65.

Young is the Co-founder and Consultant for the National Initiative for Peace (NILI) and the author of Crossing Boundaries in the Americas, Vietnam, and the Middle East. He is a former student at Wesleyan and a highly regarded lecturer and writer on the topic of interfaith cooperation and Middle East developments, particularly the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lunch will be provided by Bon Appetit.

The lecture and lunch are free and open to the public.

Facebook Event

Date: Thursday, November 6
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Place: PAC 107

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[UPDATED] Wes Drops Sabra: Stirring up the Hummus

Update (12/9/14 12:13PM): The WSA Dining Committee has released the following statement based on developments over the weekend:

As many people on and off campus are aware, Wesleyan recently switched from stocking Sabra hummus to a local brand, Cedar’s. Though we made this change in the interest of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint, it unfortunately has been misinterpreted in the media and elsewhere as a political statement in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. In order to clarify our continued political neutrality, and to give students a choice, we will be stocking both Sabra and Cedar’s hummus, starting in January.

Obviously, this is big news that counteracts the political/ethical implications of destocking Sabra hummus. Given that this is the first notice of these changes, we have no statement from those involved in the campaign to remove Sabra, as of yet. We will update this article again with any further developments.

Update (12/9/14 7:08PM): A statement has been released by Yael Horowitz ’17, Students for Justice in Palestine, and “another group of concerned students”:

We are extremely disappointed in the University’s decision to put Sabra Hummus back on the shelves. It is not an ethical response, but is instead motivated by public relations and the opinions of President Michael Roth. Student opinion is against Israeli apartheid and occupation, and we will continue to make this known. This is not the end of the conversation.

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EVENT
WTF is J Street U?

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WTF is J Street U at Wesleyan, you may ask? Why do they keep inviting me to fabulous lectures and movies and events? Great question!

Come find out this Tuesday, Sep 23!

We will be talking about things like
-Who is J Street U?
-Why two-states?
-How? What can we do?
-AND SO SO SO MUCH MORE

See you there!

Date: Tuesday, September 23rd
Time: 8:00 pm
Place: Outhouse (132 High Street)

Students Call on WSA to Not Divest from Israel

unnamed-7 We posted last week about a Students for Justice in Palestine petition that called on the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) to divest from companies that profit from or contribute to the occupation of Palestinian territories. Since then, there’s been a petition circulating by J Street U urging the WSA not to divest in order to facilitate the current round of negotiations between Israel and Palestine. You can read this petition below and sign here if interested:

Recently, a petition has circulated among students and alumni calling on the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) to divest its endowment from Israel as a response to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the undersigned agree with the urgent need to resolve the conflict and end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, we believe that a boycott of Israel is at best ineffective, and likely a counter-productive response to this conflict.

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Roth Denounces ASA, Alums Respond

roth toast

In case you missed it, Wesleyan’s own Great Helmsman, Michael Roth, was all over the headlines during winter break for his crushing denunciation of the American Studies Association (ASA) and their decision to join the global academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The controversial op-ed ran in several major papers, including the Hartford Courant and the LA Times, drawing mixed reactions. Alums have responded with a petition, calling Roth out on his participation in anti-apartheid organizing at Wes in the 1970’s and critiquing his position. Roth has called the ASA resolution (it’s short, I encourage folks to read it for themselves) a “repugnant attack on academic freedom.” The ASA says their resolution is an act of scholarly solidarity with longstanding calls from Palestinian civil society for a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign against the Israeli state and the apparatus of occupation.

Roth’s basic argument is that the resolution restricts the “academic freedom” of scholars inside Israel and unfairly singles out the country. His critics have said that such restrictions are exactly what the resolution seeks to address, pointing out that the resolution in fact stresses greater dialogue with Israeli academics, albeit free of their official institutional affiliations.

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EVENT
Experiencing Palestine II

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like? Yes, someone has. It’s Samantha Sikder ’14, actually!

Come join your peers and alum Dan Fischer ’11 in discussing their experiences in Palestine this past year. Learn more about the conflict from students’ personal stories.

Featuring Dan Fischer ’11, Natasha Phillips ’14, Carina Kurban ’14, Danny Blinderman ’14 and Samantha Sikder ’14.

Date: Monday, May 6
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: PAC002
Forcebrick: Yee

Click through the jump for more information on the panelists.

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EVENT
J Street U Open Meeting

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Come to the J Street U Open meeting! Officially J Street “is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans fighting for the future of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people. We believe that Israel’s Jewish and democratic character depend on a two-state solution, resulting in a Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace and security.”

Unofficially, we like to think of ourselves as an irreverent student movement that is shaking up the status quo in the hawkish American Jewish community. We also have a knack for making, mildly inappropriate, slighly offensive Two-State Solution Ryan Gosling Memes.

We have a lot of really exciting plans for this semester so whether you sing hatikvah in your sleep, think Zionism is an irredeemable racist project, or have never thought about these issues before, we hope you will join us.

Date: Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
Time: 8 PM
Place: 41 Wyllys Room 133

EVENT
Degrees of Incarceration: Documentary Screening and Q&A

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From Carina Kurban ’14:

The documentary will be followed by a question and answer with the directors (Amahl Bishara and Nidal Al-Azraq). Come early for some delicious HUMMUS and BABAGHANOUJ from my dad’s Lebanese restaurant!!!

Degrees of Incarceration documents the effects political imprisonment has on a community of Palestinians in the West Bank. As of August 2012, some 4,380 Palestinians were in Israeli prisons for political reasons, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. This included 30 children under the age of 16 and 164 between the ages of 16 and 18. Over 200 Palestinians were being held without charge, in administrative detention. Since 1967, over 600,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons. Yet this issue rarely receives the attention many Palestinians believe it deserves. The film introduces viewers to Palestinian mothers, teenagers, children, and community leaders as they strive to support each other through crises of arrest and detention.

Date: Thursday, Feb 28
Time: 5-6:30 p.m.
Place: Shanklin 107
Cost: none. FREE LEBANESE FOOD!!!
FB event.

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UC Irvine Student Government Divests from Israeli Occupation

Will our own WSA follow suit?

Last week, the student government of UC Irvine (the equivalent of Weslayan’s WSA) unanimously passed a resolution supporting divestment from all companies that support the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. The move came amidst the ongoing U.S.-backed bombardment of civilians in the Gaza Strip. According to news reports, the attacks have claimed the lives 95 Palestinians in the past week, including at least twelve children and a pregnant mother.

The UC Irvine resolution (which is fairly short; I encourage folks to read in full) is part of a growing international solidarity movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS for short) which seeks to withdraw support and legitimacy from the Israeli occupation, much like the divestment campaign that eventually led to the downfall of the apartheid government in South Africa in the 1990s, of which college campuses and the student movement were an integral part.

Similar resolutions have been passed or proposed on campuses across the U.S., and the campaign was even discussed at Wes during Thursday’s panel with leading independent Israeli journalists. Progressive blogger Noam Sheizaf threw in his support:

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EVENT
YallaWes Meeting, this Thursday

It’s a cold day out there, folks. And like most cold days, it’s a tough, tough day for Men With No Body Hair, like myself (but presumably not Zach, or A-Batte). Anyway, Miriam Buh-guh ’12 writes in:

This THURSDAY at 9 in Usdan 110 YALLAWES, a new group to increase campus awareness and dialogue about the Israel/Palestine conflict, is having a very important meeting! If you or your friends have wanted to get involved but haven’t yet had the chance this is the week because we are going to be planning out our schedule for the rest of the semester!

(For more info, check out the description after the jump)

Date: Oct. 13
Time: 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Place: Usdan 110

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