An Israeli-Palestinian standoff Students for Justice in Palestine have set up a protest this week on College Walk as part of their annual Israel Apartheid Week. Conversely, Omar Abboud lamented in a CPR column that the word “apartheid” has been universally rejected as a basis for criticizing Israel. While legitimately highlighting how criticism of Israel can be rejected by some circles, Mr. Abboud fails to explore the actual meaning of aparthei...
This week, for the first time, Israel introduced Palestinian-only bus lines for its commuters from the West Bank that use public transportation. This measure, one of classic ethnic segregation, was drafted after settlers claimed that Palestinians posed a security threat on public bus routes. The bus lines are likely to be a big topic of showcase starting next Monday, when “Israeli Apartheid Week” begins in New York City. The use of the word “ap...
Illustrations by Amalia Rinehart Perhaps the most critical and least acknowledged impediment to the negotiation of a conflict is the manipulation of language. No peace process can come to fruition when representatives from conflicting parties are embroiled in debates on semantics, yet individuals in both government and media inevitably employ strategic language at various stages in the process. Even assuming a common language in diplomatic talk...
It is paradoxical that after the abolition of the apartheid regime, South Africa’s business environment is still marked by an obsession with race. This time, however, the motives are completely different than they were twenty years ago. Since the government passed Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Act 53 in late 2003, companies have transferred tens of millions of dollars worth of shares of stock to black investors and placed black employees in m...
...s only makes it more urgent that we understand “why,” “what,” and “how”: So we learn from and continue these struggles. It took thirteen years of protest to make Columbia divest from racist apartheid South Africa. From teach-ins, sit-ins and a brief 275-person strong occupation of the Business School in 1978, to University Senate votes, to Trustees refusing to comply with a democratic mandate, to a 1985 blockad...
...ing ideas of what liberation looks like. Palestinians too are fighting oppressive forces to determine the future that they collectively envision being a part of. Palestine faces more than mere dictatorship – it is opposing an apartheid regime actively interested in displacing its indigenous population for yet further settlement. Perhaps now that Americans and others have become more receptive to Arab dissent, Palestinian cries of “Kefaya” (enough...
...s also on the Steps yesterday protesting Israel’s airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, held signs in both Arabic and English with Pro-Palestinian slogans. Around twenty members chanted slogans like “5,6,7,8, Israel is an apartheid state.” LionPAC organized the counter-demonstration after SJP took to the Steps and held Israeli flags and anti-Hamas signs such as “Free Gaza from Hamas.”Around thirty members of LionPAC and the...
...ional law across the board. And that means no illegal occupations, illegal housing construction in occupied territories, the economic boycott of Gaza, and so on. And a civilian government in Israel that creates effectively an apartheid. All those things need to be fixed. Likewise we need to call for countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia across the board for the even handed application of human rights and we need to stop funding military dictato...
...he futility of self-indulgent activism. Soon after the onset of contentious Israeli retaliation against Hamas, Students for Justice in Palestine assembled in a line at the feet of Low Steps, holding posters and chanting about apartheid in Israel, human rights abuses, and Palestine’s right to sovereignty. Small leaflets about the conflict littered the ground. The chants turned into yells, and as the protestors seemed to run out of things to say, c...
...en often reach adulthood barely ever having engaged with their counterparts and fellow citizens. In October 2010, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson called the Northern Ireland education system a “benign form of apartheid,” asking, “Who among us would think it acceptable that a state or nation would educate its young people by the criteria of race with white schools or black schools? Yet we are prepared to operate a system which sep...
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