As you have probably noticed this year, there has been a lot of activity on campus relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a student of public policy and politics, extremely engaged with the issue, I find it encouraging that this topic is being discussed at Carleton, because it is only by listening to the arguments and claims of the “other” that an equitable solution will ever be brokered. In this context, there is no better place than a university campus for the free flow of ideas on a topical and controversial subject such as this one.
However, if you, like me, have been following the situation closely this year, you will have realized that there have not been any real debates or dialogues about the topic. Instead, students and faculty have consistently been organizing one-sided events at which people have been talking past each other, rather than to each other.
Of even greater concern is that the exchange of ideas outside of the classroom has often been less than civil, as the actions of certain students and faculty have been unfitting for a university campus.
Since September, for example, various members of a Carleton student group have called me “brainwashed” and “racist.” It would be one thing if the individuals in question had accepted one of my many invitations to sit down and talk about the issues, and had thus based their personal attacks on my own views, but unfortunately, their attacks were, instead, based on the fact that I hold a position in a Jewish organization.
Unfortunately, the situation has only gotten worse over the year, as name calling has sometimes escalated to threats of violence. Indeed, some students have admitted to me that they are scared about what will happen next at Carleton.
To make matters worse, several activist faculty members have entered the melee, taking “sides” on the issue and thereby adding to the already fractured campus climate.
At first, when I began writing this article, I was planning on pointing fingers and attempting to explain all of my frustrations. I was planning on refuting the points that have been made by the aforementioned student group. I was planning on explaining why an academic boycott is irrational and how an inflammatory poster can incite hate. However, after considering the realities of the situation, I decided it would be more productive to offer my own thoughts about the best way forward. Because, after all, at a certain point, it does not really matter who is right and who is wrong. It matters how we, in Canada, at Carleton, can rectify the problematic situation before us.
To my mind, Carleton finds itself at a very important juncture. Either we as students, irrespective of our opinion, begin acting maturely and respectfully and start talking to each other, or we continue down the current path of demonizing our fellow students, calling each other names, and threatening one another.
We can either begin engaging in civil discussion about our differences, in accordance with the school’s policies, in an attempt to find common ground, or we can continue talking past each other.
I am, in other words, writing directly to you, the students, in an appeal to take back our campus. Carleton is not a campus of radicals, but the radicals are trying to claim it as their own.
Carleton deserves better and should expect better. It is time for some moderation on an increasingly divided campus.