NY Times coverage of Rutgers controversy

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, Oct. 12, 2003
Mideast Divide Spawns Another Schism at Rutgers
By MARIA NEWMAN

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J, Oct. 10 ? Abe Greenhouse, a senior at Rutgers 
University, stood across the street from the Student Center Friday, facing 
a group of Jewish students and others playing host to a celebration this 
weekend called Israel Inspires. Behind him was a table of pro-Palestinian 
students who displayed a sign that said, "Israel Inspires Racism."

Mr. Greenhouse, who is a political science major, explained that it was not 
so easy to boil down the views of everyone here who is taking part in 
dueling conferences this weekend, one supporting Israel, the other the 
Palestinians. A clamorous rally on Thursday night for Israel Inspires drew 
more than 4,000 people, including almost 100 protesters, with the two sides 
separated by a heavy contingent of police officers with dogs.

"There's a perception being created that there are only two positions on 
this issue, that it's `kill all the Jews' or `kill all the Arabs," Mr. 
Greenhouse said. "There's a tremendous spectrum of opinion here that isn't 
getting represented."

But he conceded that the subtleties of the arguments about Israel and the 
Palestinians have been lost lately, as Rutgers has become embroiled during 
the last few months in a fierce debate about politics in the Middle East. 
And at times the debate has degenerated into incidents of incivility. Mr. 
Greenhouse himself has not been blameless.

When Hillel, the Jewish student organization on campus, brought Natan 
Sharansky, a former Israeli deputy prime minister, to speak on campus last 
month, Mr. Greenhouse threw a strawberry pie ? a kosher one at that ? in 
his face.

Mr. Greenhouse said his action was an act of political protest, and because 
Mr. Sharansky "has abandoned his commitment to human rights."

Throughout the campus, students, professors and administrators have jumped 
into the fray in the most contentious political debate that has played out 
in their college careers here.

The matter came to the fore this summer, when a pro-Palestinian group 
called New Jersey Solidarity asked the university for permission to sponsor 
a conference there. Hillel and Jewish organizations throughout the state 
complained to the university, saying that the pro-Palestinian group 
condoned terrorism and violence against Israelis and that university 
officials should not let it meet on campus. The university president 
decided that New Jersey Solidarity had a free-speech right to convene.

It was then that Hillel, with the help of outside Jewish organizations and 
politicians, decided to plan a yearlong celebration of Israel to begin this 
weekend. But in the meantime, a group of 61 professors signed a letter last 
month criticizing Hillel for its "extreme-right bias."

The rally on Thursday night included speakers like Gov. James E. McGreevey 
and Senator Jon Corzine, who talked about Israel's right to exist. But the 
professors said that most of the other speakers Hillel is showcasing in its 
conference represented extreme right-wing views about Israel, especially on 
issues like the country's right to expand into other settlements.

"It is wrong for Hillel to mislead the students by turning a celebration of 
Israel into the affirmation of far-right ideologies and policies, 
ideologies and policies that even most of the Israeli people themselves do 
not support," the professors wrote.

On Friday at the Israel Inspires block party in front of the student 
center, Stephanie Schwartz, president of Hillel, said she was disappointed 
by the professors' letter.

"I don't think any of these professors know anything about Israel," she 
said. "They're very left wing. They have very little education about Israel 
or they're misinformed." New Jersey Solidarity's conference is not being 
held on campus, as originally planned. Instead, it is meeting this weekend 
at the Ramada Inn nearby. But not all of those who were originally part of 
the planning committee are part of the conference, explained Mr. 
Greenhouse, who is a member of Central Jersey Jews Against the Occupation, 
which dropped out of the planning coalition that was organizing the 
original pro-Palestinian conference.

With the help of outside groups like the New Jersey Anti-Defamation League, 
Hillel persuaded schools, yeshivas and other Jewish organizations to send 
busloads of people from all over the region to attend the rally on Thursday 
night.

"This strikes a chord with everybody who's Jewish," said Justin Bocian, 21, 
a senior engineering major who attended the rally. "It has to do with the 
survival of the Jewish state. In my four years here, it's definitely the 
largest rally I've seen."

On College Avenue, across from the student center, a group called the Aware 
Movement was passing out pro-Palestinian literature. Summer Sharaf, a 
former Rutgers student who is a member of the group, said they did not 
endorse New Jersey Solidarity's "by all means necessary" approach to 
Palestinian rights. "We specifically condemn the killing of innocent people 
on both sides," she said.

But she said she was grateful that Rutgers had allowed a forum for the 
debate on Israel and the Palestinian question. "Rutgers has done a good job 
of upholding the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of debate here 
without taking sides," she said.

But Prof. Uri Eisenzweig, one of the organizers of the letter of protest 
from the faculty, said he wished the debate was more nuanced.

"I certainly would like a debate, but at the moment there are two 
monologues and no dialogue," said Professor Eisenzweig, who teaches French 
Literature and is from Israel. "It's just slogans: `Israel is racist' and 
`I love Israel.' "


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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