{"id":83316,"date":"2020-09-30T17:35:37","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jcpa.org\/?p=83316"},"modified":"2020-09-30T19:29:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T16:29:02","slug":"anti-israel-claims-of-ethnic-cleansing-have-no-place-in-a-student-paper-or-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jcpa.org\/anti-israel-claims-of-ethnic-cleansing-have-no-place-in-a-student-paper-or-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Israel Claims of Ethnic Cleansing Have No Place in a Student Paper \u2013 or Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Jewish Argument for Divestment<\/a>,\u201d the recent opinion piece in the Columbia Spectator<\/em> (Sept. 23, 2020), is distressing on two counts. First, that it was penned by two Jewish Columbia University students, who take pride in their \u201cdramatic unlearning\u201d of \u201cdogma\u201d they received to support the State of Israel as youngsters. Along with glaring historical distortions, the two undergraduates unleash vile accusations against the Jewish state, including that of ethnic cleansing \u2013 an accusation as obscene as it is absurd to any educated ear.<\/p>\n

The second disturbing point is that their views appear, not on the website of a group whose documented<\/a> ties<\/a> to terror<\/a> and radical Islamist bodies leave no doubt as to their questionable accuracy (organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine or Jewish Voices for Peace come to mind), but in the Columbia Spectator<\/em>. The paper is the official student mouthpiece of an Ivy League university \u2013 the same Columbia University whose student body voted overwhelmingly yesterday<\/a> (61% to 27%, 11% abstaining) \u201cto recommend that the University should divest from companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli policy toward the Palestinian people.\u201d That a claim so outrageous, leading to such a vote, could be vetted and published in a respectable venue is indication of the traction and influence it has gained through rote repetition, which has not been effectively combatted.<\/p>\n

At this time of year, Jews the world over engage in soul-searching. Just as each of us examines where we have fallen short in our relationships with God and with one another, this article in the Spectator<\/em> and too many others like it call us to\u00a0improve our tactics and long-range strategy to combat a false charge as abhorrent as ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

This is not the first instance when Jewish and Israeli institutions have fallen short in attempts to defend Israel and the Jewish people from distorted and libelous charges, their failures leaving both Israel and Jews dangerously exposed. To mention only a few examples:<\/p>\n