Pro-Israel; Anti-Occupation

By The Board of J Street U Princeton

In recent weeks, the controversial tactic of boycott, divestment, and sanctions has been thrust into the center of our community’s conversation on Israel and Palestine. A faculty-driven petition calling for the University to divest from companies directly profiting from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has surfaced.Even before the full text of this BDS petition was released, student leaders of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life (CJL) began circulating a counter-petition, categorizing the movement as aiming to “demonize or assign absolute blame” to Israel.

The statements above — and the order in which they were put out — strangled an honest conversation about the underlying challenges facing Israel and Palestine. Ultimately, they have put a false choice in front of students: you can either choose BDS, or you can choose silence on the occupation. As J Street U, we believe there’s a better way.

J Street U Princeton is an affiliate student group of the CJL, and we oppose the BDS movement. We are also opposed to the occupation and settlements.And we believe that if the CJL is willing to take a political stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by condemning BDS, it should denounce, with equal force, Israeli policies that perpetuate conflict and injustice.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to vastly expand the illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank, despite the opposition by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. According to the UN, Israeli settlements have doubled in the last four years alone, including 14,000 settlement homes approved during the American-led peace negotiations last year. These settlements are not only illegal under international law but are immoral and wholly antithetical to Israel’s stated desire to build peace with the Palestinian people. By entrenching the occupation further, a two-state solution, which is in Israel’s interest, becomes further and further away. As violence returns to the region in the form of terror attacks on Israeli civilians, it is all the more important to redouble our efforts toward peace. And as individuals who are deeply concerned for Israel’s Jewish, democratic future, we see it as our duty to speak out about this policy.

The CJL should as well. The CJL’s Israel Policy Statement declares its commitment to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.” The settlement institution directly undermines and will certainly preclude such a future for the State of Israel. Continued settlement expansion in the West Bank inevitably provides Israel with two choices: either allow Palestinians living in areas occupied by Israel the same democratic rights afforded by settlers, at the risk of eroding its Jewish character; or, maintain the status quo, whereby only Jewish residents of the West Bank have legal and political rights, a reality that is inherently undemocratic.

Some who oppose the divestment advocated by the faculty’s petition argue that the BDS movement aims to single out Israel as if it were able to change its own path unilaterally and without regard to external circumstances. In a sense, this argument is justifiable: A mutually agreed-upon solution to the conflict remains the best possible outcome for the region, and international ostracism of Israel is not conducive to that goal. However, we must also acknowledge Israel’s power and responsibility in ending the occupation itself. In kowtowing to the wishes of a powerful pro-settlement right wing, the Israeli government is acting like nothing if not a “unilateral actor,” choosing its path without heed of risks.

Our community’s deep ties to Israel are a great resource to the anti-occupation movement, and our values command us to use those ties to better the situation. The CJL is a place special to hundreds of Princetonians, and a critical voice in our campus dialogue on Israel and Palestine. Thus, it is all the more important that the CJL leads our community to fight against the occupation - not just disparage those with whom it disagrees. J Street U will continue to seek a political solution to the conflict. We challenge the rest of the CJL to join us.

Natasha Madorsky ’17 and Justin Vogel ’17 are the presidents of J Street U Princeton, and can be reached at natasham@princeton.edu and jhvogel@princeton.edu.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article erroneously mentioned an op-ed published in The Daily Princetonian by the president of Tigers for Israel. The article should have referred to an advertisement in the 'Prince' last week that opposed boycott, divestment and sanctions measures. The 'Prince' regrets the error.