After four years of studying at Carleton, I’ve grown accustomed to the usual campaign rituals of being stopped in the Atrium by overly-excited candidates looking to get my vote and knowing that no matter where I walked, I simply couldn’t avoid “campaign fever.”
What I wish I could have avoided, however, were the barrage of shameful posters put up by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) in what can only be described as a hateful smear campaign against any student who believes in a Jewish State. The posters in question were intentionally hung up in zones that were reserved only for Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) candidates, and showed pictures of Israeli government ministers with quotes that had been twisted or taken out of context for the purposes of rallying students against the one Jewish State in a way that indicates that Israel alone is responsible for the conflict.
I think it’s a pity that SAIA has no interest in engaging in meaningful dialogue with interested students about the long and complex peace process between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership. Rather they’ve chosen to paint one side as both malevolent and entirely responsible for the lack of peace in the region, and they even assert that Israel does not want peace at all.
The Israel Awareness Committee (IAC) could just as easily have launched a poster campaign involving members of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas with quotes of some of the many egregious statements they’ve made. Many of these aforementioned statements explicitly call for violence. However, stooping so low neither advances peace in the region, nor does it make campus a more welcoming and safe place for students.
The reality is that Zionism is a spectrum that encompasses a plurality of views, and the IAC is a welcoming, non-partisan, pro-peace organization that encompasses all of those views. I for one, as many of my colleagues know, am an outspoken critic of the current Israeli government and am a proud executive of the IAC.
There is plenty of room for criticism and disagreement when it comes to Israeli policies and the IAC welcomes the opportunity to engage in civil discussions with students of all backgrounds and ideologies. Unfortunately, SAIA doesn’t differ between the government and the state and seeks to quash all meaningful dialogue by launching hateful campaigns that push peace farther away and seek to delegitimize the State of Israel’s right to exist.
The reality is that you can’t sum up one of the most complex conflicts in history with a poster campaign. Furthermore, to engage in such divisive politics does a disservice to students who want to learn more about the conflict.
Just as Israel has extended an olive branch to so many who sought its destruction in the past, I would like to extend that same olive branch to SAIA. There’s no need to turn campus into the United Nations. Students deserve better.
