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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn open letter from Jewish students - The Brown Daily Herald
As of today, it has been a month since the Oct. 7 attacks that have dominated global political consciousness and discourse, not to mention our experiences as young Jewish people. Zionist institutions purport to be representative of all Jews, often using us as a rhetorical shield to support the unconscionable actions of the state of Israel. We feel a particular pain as Jews having to continuously justify our stance against genocide. We are here to make ourselves clear: We stand in solidarity with Brown Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Caucus in the pursuit of the liberation of Palestinian peoples. We know intimately that Jewish struggles are necessarily bound up in global struggles for freedom. We are a group of Jewish students who have coalesced around our shared vision of justice, anti-occupation, liberation and community. We ask you to listen to us now:
1. What do we mean when we say, “from the river to the sea”?
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not a call for the forced removal of Jews from Palestine or, as it is commonly misconstrued, a call to "throw Jews into the sea;” instead, it is a call for the end to the oppression of all Palestinians — in Gaza, the West Bank and within the Green Line. Liberating all of Palestine requires revolutionary change: not an eradication of Jews from the land, but a total dismantlement of the apartheid regime occupying it. The assumption that this phrase is inherently genocidal falsely conflates liberation with the annihilation of each citizen of the oppressive state and ignores its liberatory intent. Within this conflation, we hear a racist assumption that Palestinians are ruthless "animals” and an intentional obscuring of the violent intent of a neo-fascist government — a characterization shared even by writers in Israel’s newspaper of record. It is not only blatantly false but obscene to frame a call for liberation and justice as genocidal while Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza funded by billions of American tax dollars. If calling for a future in which Palestinians can live in their homeland unshackled implies an existential threat to the Zionist ideology, it is that ideology that must be called into question — not the call for liberation.
2. Are we saying that antisemitism doesn’t exist?
Of course not...
Link: https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/11/an-open-letter-from-jewish-students
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onecaliberal
(36,594 posts)Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...I personally believe it should be presented in full.
In keeping with DU's policy of limiting excerpts to 4 paragraphs per post, I am copying here the next 4 paragraphs after the first 2 copied in the OP, and I hope others will pick up where I leave off...
2. Are we saying that antisemitism doesn’t exist?
Of course not. Every single author of this piece has lost ancestors to state-sanctioned anti-Jewish violence. We have all grown up grappling with the intergenerational ripples of such atrocities. There is no question that antisemitism exists.
But we do not accept a Jewish ethnostate as the solution to our struggle. By using the Shoah and our collective traumas to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the Israeli military project insults the memory of our ancestors. We will not allow history to repeat itself; “never again” calls for the protection of everyone — Jews and non-Jews alike — from genocide.
If we cannot acknowledge and reject Israel’s indiscriminate killing of thousands and forced displacement of over 1.5 million Palestinians, then we have failed to learn from our history.
We want to illustrate a distinction that many Zionists attempt to obfuscate: First, there is the spiritual entity of Israel — as Jacob’s alias, as the Jewish people, as a word that features in many of our prayers. Then, there is the state of Israel, which was founded in 1948. Even the nomenclature of the state of “Israel'' serves to confuse political Zionism with Judaism and Jewishness. This conflation is dangerous and ignores a long and ongoing history of Jewish opposition to Zionist nation-state ideology. We hold our opposition to the state simultaneously with our connection to the amorphous spiritual entity.
-snip-
AloeVera
(4,056 posts)--snip--
3. Do we feel unsafe on campus in the midst of pro-Palestine activism?
We do not feel threatened by pro-Palestine advocacy on College Hill. Rather, we are compelled to stand alongside Brown’s Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestine Solidarity Caucus. Their objectives are clear: to demand a ceasefire, divestment and protections for students.
Demanding that Brown advocates for a ceasefire does not endanger Jewish students. Nor does demanding divestment from weapons manufacturers such as Textron and Raytheon, or protections for Palestinian students and their allies. In fact, in our experience, Brown SJP and PSC are the groups most forthrightly advocating for the safety and protection of Jewish students, staff and faculty who vocally oppose the actions of the Israeli state. Our relative safety on this campus is what allows us to write this statement in alignment with Brown SJP and PSC while publicizing our names. And, if we were to feel a shift in that safety, we would find solace and support in (this) community and diaspora, not in any Zionist institution.
4. How do we respond to the ADL and Brandeis Center Letter to Presidents of Colleges and Universities?
On Oct. 25, the Anti-Defamation League released a letter to hundreds of schools that makes the baseless and unsubstantiated claim that chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine may be “providing material support to Hamas.” As friends and members of Brown SJP, which operates autonomously from any national framework, we can confidently declare that the group does not provide support to Hamas. The ADL’s call for universities to “immediately investigate their campus SJP chapters” seeks to unjustly target, surveil and suppress Palestinian advocacy organizations for the sole crime of standing against Palestinian oppression. This ADL letter is one of many McCarthyite campaigns to silence pro-Palestine voices in the name of Jewish protection. Brandeis has since banned its chapter of SJP, revoking funding and permits for the group. We urge our institution and community to resist this narrative and invest our effort in protecting those most vulnerable on this campus: Palestinian students and their allies.
--snip--
So much wisdom and humanity in these students, they are a beacon in this moment of darkness.
Hope someone else can copy the next 4.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)36 out of 1839 Jewish students. (https://www.hillel.org/college/brown-university/)
1803 declined to sign. That's 98% of Brown's Jewish students.
Not that the opinions of the 2% of Brown's Jewish students don't count at all.
JackCoop
(119 posts)They put their names to the piece, and I admire them all.
And... I'm not sure what your link was supposed to inform me of, though Hillel International sounds like a fine organization.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)And I agree, the bravery of the 36 signatories makes up for their apparent lack of critical thinking.
JackCoop
(119 posts)There is no better thinking/calling than that.
Don't most religious texts tell us so?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)And I am not aware of any religious text that tells us to be useful idiots.
JackCoop
(119 posts)But I'd rather be standing with them, than those engaged in multi-generational hate and vengeance.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)They are posers, not doers. What have they done for peace anywhere?
JackCoop
(119 posts)
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 11, 2023, 11:35 PM - Edit history (1)
the signatories of the letters.
They can pick up their regalia at the Buckingham Palace at their earliest convenience. Just knock three times and say "Genocide" to one of the gentlemen in fur hats at the door. That's the password to get in.
Thinker Cats
(54 posts)Thanks for the good belly laugh. I needed it. Reminds me of mel brooks musical routine: all I want is piece.
Butterflylady
(4,584 posts)Isn't that what someone would say the pot calling the kettle black.
Those students have achieved more critical thinking in that article then most of us ever will including myself.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)You practice it, not achieve it. Certainly, a single letter cannot possibly "achieve" a skill rhat takes a long time to acquire and a certain discipline to practice.
With this in mind, which segments of the letter demonstrate application of critical thinking and how?
Hint: critical thinking has nothing to do with criticizing someone or something. A spoiled five year old brat can do that.
Igel
(37,430 posts)Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...this letter was 'declined' to be signed by any students.
It's clear that the 36 students who authored it obviously signed it, but where did you read that any other students even knew about it, let alone 'declined' to sign it? Or are you just making that up?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)they declined to attach their names to the open letter.
Unless you have evidence to argue that the 36 signatories kept the open letter not so open to the rest of the Brown Jewish students.
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...a letter being 'open' to the public as the recipient, and not that it is 'open' to be signed by anyone who wants to sign it, right?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)the reasons for the 98% of Brown's Jewish students to not sign the letter written on behalf of Brown's Jewish students. If they didn't decline to add their names to the letter, what would be a more appropriate word to describe what they didn't do?
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...the letter is attributed to "Brown's Jewish Students".
The letter itself is only signed by 36 of Brown's students, and the title of the opinion article in the Brown Daily Herald presenting the letter only attributes it to "Jewish students".
Where did you read that the letter was from 'Brown's Jewish students'?
Or are you just making that up?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)What I don't get is the reasons for the 98% of Brown's Jewish students to not sign the letter written by a group of Jewish students published in the Brown Daily Herald. This certainly doesn't indicate any support by the 98% for the content of the letter.
If they didn't decline to add their names to the letter, what would be a more appropriate word to describe what they didn't do?
-Better?
Nitpicking aside, please suggest a more appropriate substitute for "declined".
JackCoop
(119 posts)It does not say all Jews at Brown, or anything like that.
Link: https://www.browndailyherald.com/staff/a-collective-of-anti-occupation-jews
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)Once again:
What I don't get is the reasons for the 98% of Brown's Jewish students to not sign the letter written by a group of Jewish students published in the Brown Daily Herald. This certainly doesn't indicate any support by the 98% for the content of the letter.
If they didn't decline to add their names to the letter, what would be a more appropriate word to describe what they didn't do?
It is self-evident that the 36 Jewish students in question didn't speak for 10,425 Jewish students at Brown. That was my whole point, wasn't it?
-Better? No?
JackCoop
(119 posts)They are... a collective of anti-occupation Jews.
See ?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)That's why I wrote this:
It is self-evident that the 36 Jewish students in question didn't speak for 10,425 Jewish students at Brown. That was my whole point, wasn't it?
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...it would be more appropriate and better to assume that they weren't even aware of the letter since the letter is not attributed to them nor signed by them, and there is no indication anywhere that it was shared with anyone except those who authored it and signed it.
That's kind of how letters work.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)What I don't get is the significance of a letter written by a tiny group Brown University's Jewish students that 98% of Brown's Jewish students were not even aware of, a letter that doesn't speak for Brown University's Jewish students, let alone all of its students.
-Better now?
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...it is a letter written and signed by a number of people that speaks for those people.
Because it is their letter.
And they wrote it, and they signed it.
Glad we got that sorted out.
The significance is the letter itself, what it expresses, as is true with all letters.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)The significance of the letter, being the letter itself, is negligible, since the letter itself represents the views of less than one half of one percent of the student body of Brown University.
Thank you very much for your input in making this pellucidly clear.
JackCoop
(119 posts)If nothing else, it seems to have you bothered.
Plus, the editors of the paper give the title, usually.
And who knows... maybe in he next few days other Jewish students at Brown might pen a rebuttal.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)What bothered me is not the letter. I was delighted to see how tiny the number of Jews willing to put their names to it is.
What bothered me is how some DUers are willfully oblivious to its insignificance.
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...that we don't know how any of the other Jewish students, or ANY of the other students, feel about the letter, do you?
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)Regardless of how any of the 98% of Jewish students feel about the letter, the record shows that only 36 of them identified with that nonsense. Call the rest of them whatever you want: lazy, apathetic, outraged, sympathetic, whatever. You have no idea how many of each there are, if any. Only 36 people, less than one half of one percentage point of Brown students, took credit for the letter. These are cold hard facts, not feelings. You can't argue with that, no matter how hard you try to twist your arguments into a pretzel. As you astutely observed, the letter speaks for itself, and its impact, on the basis of observable and quantifiable facts, is minuscule and negligible, regardless of any speculations on your part, or mine.
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)..deliberately twisting the facts.
36 students wrote a letter, you or I have no idea what any other students "identify with" in regards to the Israeli/Palestinian situation...
Oh...wait... Maybe we do?....
From: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/10/headlines/students_at_brown_mit_columbia_and_other_colleges_risk_arrest_retaliation_to_protest_war_on_gaza
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)Hundreds who sang Jewish songs didn't participate in the sit in, let alone sign the letter. I would put them in the "sympathetic" category. Or, perhaps, the students who like singing Jewish songs category. Or both. That leaves roughly 10,000 students in the lazy, apathetic, outraged and otherwise unavailable for comment categories.
And guess what: there are still only 36 students who identified with the nonsense in the letter by signing it. Still less than one half of one percent. Amazing how math works, isn't it?
Quoting out of context much?
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)dependent on me demonstrating just how feeble they are?
Mmm... kay! We have reached our final destination. From here on I have full confidence in you continuing this nonsense without my participation.
Enjoy all the excitement of talking and listening to yourself.
ecstatic
(35,032 posts)don't want the attention that comes with their names being on the document? Not everyone is ready for that type of scrutiny and potential fallout. Signing on to a letter like that, in the climate that we're in, is a little risky.
Some companies have already banned / rescinded job offers of students who publicly disagreed with Israel's actions.
Beastly Boy
(13,283 posts)from expressing themselves. Antisemitic incidents in the US are up, I believe, 400% in recent weeks. And the conseqences of that go beyond just losing employment opportunities. Doxxing is rampant, and not just targeting the Jews.
ecstatic
(35,032 posts)discuss this issue without resorting to cruelty and violence. It's really unfortunate and sad that we cannot do that in this country.
Butterflylady
(4,584 posts)more didn't sign the letter. Risky is the word for it.
However, some here just can't understand why Jewish students wrote this letter.
There future is in front of them and they want to live it in peace.
David__77
(24,511 posts)
enid602
(9,620 posts)I’d say those Brown students were pretty brave, as they’ll probably be blackballed from the job market after graduation. Just as prominent Jewish law firms threatened a couple of weeks ago.
Think. Again.
(22,456 posts)...there are young people out there willing to hold on to their principles despite threats of discriminatory employers.
Behind the Aegis
(56,018 posts)"useful"
