An article in PAW, April 2024, reported on students who launched an Israel divestment campaign. It is noted that at the CPUC meeting Feb. 19, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 opposed this effort.
While we applaud President Eisgruber for opposing this unconscionable boycott, perhaps he should have used the opportunity to educate the students about the false claims in their petition (“ongoing massacre in Gaza and … Israel’s apartheid regime”). It is time for faculty and adults to teach our young people the truth and not just tolerate the false narratives and historical distortions they have learned on social media and in classrooms.
It’s also worth noting that 38 states have passed bills or executive orders designed to discourage boycotts of Israel, including New Jersey.
We have not seen articles about divestment of very troubling countries. Where is the petition to divest from Iran, which funds the radical terrorist groups throughout the Mideast (Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas, Palestine Islamic Jihad)? This tyrannical misogynistic regime that hangs gay people from cranes deserves ostracism from the international community. Meanwhile, China has put an estimated million Muslim Uyghurs in concentration/reeducation camps, where they reportedly face forced rape and sterilization.
Perhaps China, Russia, and Venezuela deserve University divestment. Israel, in contrast, is a democratic, multicultural state that respects both religious and LGBT rights.
Six months ago, Israel was attacked by Hamas. Jihadis massacred Israelis and non-Israelis in savage attacks, burning people alive, raping women, and kidnapping children and the elderly and holding them hostage.
Israel, where Arabs serve in parliament, the supreme court, and are doctors, pharmacists, and soldiers, is not an apartheid nation. Indeed, the 2 million Arabs who live in Israel, who have many more rights than their counterparts elsewhere in the Muslim world, would be among the first victims of such a discriminatory boycott.