Consulate of Israel attacks BC for slanted Palestine week
By Kristin Erekson
The Jewish Advocate
The Consulate General of Israel to New England is expressing concern over a series of "one-sided, anti-Israel events" at Boston College, according to the Consulate's Academic Affairs Officer Gerri R. Pozez.
The student and faculty-created group The Global Justice Project, a far-left organization formed in the 1990s, has been holding controversial political events for several years at the school in a manner some view as radical. The Palestinian Awareness Project, an offshoot of the Global Justice Project formed in the fall, is another club on campus that focuses on Palestinians.
Both organizations have decided to further their efforts by hosting a Palestinian Awareness Week, which kicked off Tuesday with a video titled "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land," Pozez said.
"What's most concerning is a majority of students that go to BC don't know about Israel beyond what they see in the news and in the paper and what they are hearing on campus," Pozez added. "There isn't a large Jewish population at the school, and students are mainly getting a one-sided view of Israel."
BC spokesman Jack Dunn said neither of these groups are registered student organizations at the school and therefore do not receive university endorsement or funding. In fact, he added, these groups run counter to school efforts to reach out to the Jewish community. In 2002, BC alumnus Yale Richmond donated a Torah to the college.
"There have been many on campus that view [these clubs] as an aberration of the university-wide commitment to improving Christian-Jewish relations, as evidenced through our Center for Christian Jewish Learning and in the recent establishment of a Jewish studies minor here at Boston College," he said.
Yet BC students Ben Fuller-Googins, 19, and Seif Ammus, 20, members of the Global Justice Project and co-founders of the Palestinian Awareness Project, said they are just trying to combat the media, which they said portrays Israel as the victim. They've had to co-sponsor events with registered student organizations on campus, such as UNICEF, in order to get their views across to the academic community.
"U.S. media and Western media inaccurately portray Israel's role in the occupation, and we hope to provide a new perspective for people who have been in the occupied territories," Fuller-Googins said. "But we also want to entertain discussions with peaceful resolutions to the conflict. All the speakers we invite are not dedicated to demonizing Israel."
As of press time Wednesday, Ben Scribner, co-founder of "BostontoPalestine," a group dedicated to ending the military occupation, was scheduled to speak.
BC sociology professor Charles Derber, who works closely with the Global Justice Project, said campus activism surrounding these issues is the key to any real progress in the rest of the world.
"A two-state solution should be pursued more aggressively," said Derber, who is Jewish. "Any effort to suppress the free flow of discussion on these issues is not in the interest of Israel."
Rabbi Ruth Langer, associate professor with the theology department and associate director of the Center for Christian Jewish Learning at BC, teamed up last summer with faculty, students and staff on campus to form the Boston College Coalition for Israel. Pozez has also been working closely with BCCI. On Oct. 30, the group brought Michael Yochay, head of the Film and News Production Division of the Israeli Defense Forces, to speak about a journalist's perspective of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
"I am personally committed to see that [these clubs] are not the only voices about Israel on campus," Langer said.
Fuller-Googins said he is surprised that the Consulate General of Israel to New England is concerned about his groups' actions.
"I thought that they would support an academic university and freedom of academic exchange," Fuller-Googins added. "It's frustrating to see people very dogmatic who don't want to open their minds."
The Jewish community's concerns over anti-Israel sentiments at BC comes at a time when the Northeastern University School of Law National Lawyers Guild Chapter and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights is scheduled to host the talk "Beyond Apartheid in Israel/Palestine" on Sunday. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston has been working hard with the university's academic community to provide balance to this event, according to Seth Brysk, director of the JCRC's Israel Action Center.
But Emily Spieler, dean of the School of Law at Northeastern, said it is crucial for institutions to promote a thoughtful dialogue on Israel. However, she noted that the school is not sponsoring the event this weekend.
"I think it is incredibly important for universities to support the right of free speech for students," Spieler said. "They have the right to have this conversation."
