Author: Thomas Schryver
On Feb. 5, the Occidental chapter of Hillel posted numerous signs around campus, all beginning with the words, “When I say that I am a Pro-Isreal, I mean that…” Soon after the signs were posted, a number of signs attributed to the group, “Libertarians of Occidental College,” were posted in response.
Although these responding signs were taken down shortly after they were posted, as they did not feature the required Office of Student Life and Housing Services stamps of approval, the signs made reference to the claim that Israel was not an independent and autonomous nation.
The Weekly was unable to contact the “Libertarians of Occidental College” or verify the group’s authenticity.
“The purpose of the ‘When I say I am Pro-Israel…’ program was to display the wide range of opinions and beliefs held by members of Hillel when it comes to supporting Israel,” Occidental Hillel President, Ellis Raskin (junior) said.
Members of the Hillel executive board noted that the intent of the program was not only to inform students of the diversity of opinions held by Occidental Jewish community, but also to serve as what Hillel members referred to as a “passive response” to a series of films sponsored by the Diplomacy and World Affairs department as well as the grassroots peace movement, One Voice.
“Some of us believed that these films were particularly one-sided and outdated,” Hillel member, Jennifer Berg (senior) said.”[We] did not want to simply show another biased film (i.e. one that is unapologetically pro-Israel and that also fails to accurately portray the extremely complex conflict) in response,” Hillel member, Ahuva Zaches (senior) said.
Although members of Hillel were unified in their support for Israel and the initiation of campus-wide dialogue on the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict, they emphasized that the different signs did not represent the collective opinion of Hillel. Rather, the signs represented the different opinions of each individual contributing member of Hillel.
“We all represent a diversity of opinions and beliefs held by members of Hillel on the topic of supporting Israel,” Berg said, “If one was to collect all of the signs, they would see they are each unique.”
“We wanted to convey that being pro-Israel is not a homogeneous thought process; rather, it is a wide spectrum of convictions,” Hillel member, Rachel Stoler (senior) said.
“It was a conscious and intentional decision on our parts to leave Hillel’s name off the signs, in order to emphasize that these were individual opinions, rather than those endorsed by Hillel,” Raskin said.
Rather than alienating groups and creating division, Raskin underscored that the greatest hope behind the creation of the signs was for the commencement of “spirited dialogue, rather than a rhetorical battle of political ideologies.”
Hope for discussion waned, however, after several acts of vandalism were committed, in which individuals either ripped down or defaced the signs, crossing out the word “Israel” and writing the word “Palestine” in its place.
Although members of Hillel empathized with the knowledge of the complexity and volatility of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, as well as the importance of equal discussion on all sides, they took offense to both the vandalizing of their program and the posting of unregulated signs in response.
“I understand that this is an issue about which many people feel strongly, and I support their right to express their viewpoints as well. However, I would encourage people to engage in an educated dialogue instead of defacing our signs so that we can all learn from each other’s viewpoints,” Stoler said.
The fact that so many signs have been torn down suggests to me that few people are interested in engaging in respectful, healthy dialogue, and would rather go out and destroy someone else’s program,” Raskin said.
Zaches and Berg spoke of the necessity of equally vocalizing and articulating both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives. “Hillel believes that people have the right, on the grounds of free speech, to put up Pro-Palestinian signs around campus. We would prefer if those who put up signs knew more about both sides of the conflict so that they do not misinterpret or misconstrue our view,” Zaches said.
“I believe it is the responsibility of any collegiate institute that is pluralistic and supports diversity, such as Occidental College, to look at different angles of the current situation. If a department is sponsoring an event solely focused [on] the Palestinian view [of] the controversy, the Israeli side should be examined as well,” Berg said. “The suffering of both Israeli and Palestinian people needs to be addressed with equal importance.”
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