"Israeli Apartheid Week"

Walking to class this morning, I noticed a display being set up in Jammie Plaza, the center of campus, about Israel. It projected informative facts about the history of the land of Israel as well as the history of the State of Israel. It shed all of the wars and conflicts in a positive light, accurately informing UCT students about the beauty and benefits of having a Jewish homeland. Seeing this flooded me with pride; it made me so happy to know that there is a Zionist community on campus setting out to peacefully and openly educate fellow UCT students. I took a few pictures of the boards and then darted off to my class called Religion, Conflict, and Violence.

An hour later, as I strolled from that class to my Hebrew course, I passed the Israeli presentation again and then about fifty feet later, came across an even bigger one. “Israeli Apartheid Week” yelled across the main sign in huge letters. As I soaked in what it meant, I watched students take turns taking pictures in front of it, holding the Palestinian flag with huge smiles across their faces. As I hesitantly stepped closer, I started reading the “facts” written across the display, comparing the way Israelis treat Palestinians to the South African Apartheid. Each statement was supported by quotes from anti-Zionist Palestinians, rather than facts or statistics, but portrayed each proclamation to be a historical fact rather than an opinion. It even referenced Nelson Mandela, who most South Africans worship every word he ever said, supposedly hating against Israel. This specifically caught my attention because at the local Jewish Museum that I went to last month, it had an entire exhibition about Mandela’s support for South African Jews specifically but also the Jewish nation as a whole. Another board listed several Israeli laws and projected a negative spin onto them. For example, it discussed how the Kinesset allows every Jew in the world to have access to Israeli citizenship and declared this as racist. They explained that myriad Palestinians are unable to gain citizenship in Israeli so why can so many Jews who have committed such terrible acts be citizens of the Jewish State. It neglected to address various aspects like how some Jews might not be able to gain access into any other country, or so much more.

While this Palestinian presentation was swamped with students, I looked back to the Israeli board and saw only a few people lingering over there. I quickly learned that the Palestine Solidarity Forum, a student-run organization on campus, annually hosts this “Israeli Apartheid Week” to promote anti-Zionist thought across campus. The University cannot do anything about it because it is supposedly politically based, rather than religiously, and they do not engage in any violent activities. In response, the organization for Jewish students on campus of course has no interest in starting a “Palestinian Apartheid Week” of any sort so instead they just set up a similar display that does not hate on Palestinians, it just provides accurate facts and statistics which inevitably rebut what the Palestinians promote.

As I continued to read the billboards out of curiosity, a student leader approached me, “are you interested in attending any of our Palestine Solidarity Forum events to learn more about the horrible Israeli Apartheid?” she asked. I looked at her and politely but sturdily replied, “no.” She immediately changed her expression and responded, “oh, are you Jewish?” I was stunned. She acted as if the only way I could possibly not be interested is if I was Jewish and that the rest of the world is “obviously” on her side. I did not react right away, not wanting to confirm her prejudiced inference, and she quickly escalated the heat of the discussion. She went into an aggressive rant, tearing apart the concept of a Jewish State and having “ignorant” people like me on campus. I could not believe how violent she instantly got. We easily could have had a peaceful discussion on the different perspectives of the conflict but she so quickly assumed beliefs of mine and forced a destructive argument on me. Knowing that whatever I said would not be heard, I excused myself to class, encouraging her to open-mindedly give the Israeli presentation a read before assuming anything of me. I scurried away overwhelmed with thoughts and disappointed with the way that went. All I could think of is how happy I was this morning when I thought that Jewish students were innocently advocating for Israel, not knowing that they were forced to do so in order to better educate students from what they were reading and hearing from the Palestine Solidarity Forum. When I got home from class I did extensive research on the organization before writing this and I encourage you to do so as well, if interested. I am not sure what else “Israeli Apartheid Week” will bring but I hope that my fellow UCT students remember that there is another perspective to all that is being said and take it under their responsibility to research facts rather than blindly agree with opinions.