Last Tuesday, the Hopkins chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hosted the first event of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), an international series of events intended to raise awareness about Israel’s policies toward Palestinians, which they view as constituting apartheid. The week seeks to garner support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to use political and economic pressure on Israel to end Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Hopkins SJP, a group that began on campus last spring, works towards creating a space for Palestinian solidarity.
In an email to The News-Letter, Hopkins SJP, which wrote collectively, noted that until recently, various political factions of “Israel-first groups” have dominated the University’s array of student organizations. SJP defined these groups as those “whose main interest is supporting ‘what’s good for Israel.’”
Hopkins SJP views itself as one component in shifting this imbalance.
“SJP aims to create an alternative to this framework and organize actions and campaigns that challenge the status quo,” members wrote.
With this in mind, Hopkins SJP has decided to focus their semester on enhancing education and academic freedom. Through Israeli Apartheid Week events, SJP members hope to change the conversation on campus regarding Israeli-Palestinian relations.
“Our main goal is to shift campus discourse about Palestine and Israel away from discussions of ‘a conflict’ between two equal sides,” they wrote. “Instead, we want to challenge the Hopkins community to think critically about the realities of Israeli occupation and colonialism.”
The week consists of three main events, which started with Tuesday’s discussion of Palestinian solidarity and speakers from Jewish Voice for Peace and Hopkins Students for Justice.
On Wednesday, SJP organized a screening of a film titled Two Schools in Nablus, which follows students and teachers as they struggle to learn and teach in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A discussion on topics including the University’s disapproval of the recent American Studies Association’s decision to support the academic boycott followed the film. SJP members referred to the University’s position on the topic as “disappointing.”
Today at 6 p.m. in the Charles Commons Multipurpose Room, SJP will welcome Laila el-Haddad for a conversation on education under Israeli occupation. El-Haddad, who is originally from Gaza City, is a freelance journalist, activist and author.
Also on Tuesday night, the student groups Coalition of Hopkins Activists for Israel (CHAI), Hopkins American Partnership for Israel (HAPI) and J Street U co-hosted a conversation about the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
SJP members stated that they assumed this scheduling was “mere coincidence.”
“We engage in activism that challenges the injustice of occupation and apartheid,” they wrote. “Decades of ‘peace talks’ have not stopped Israel’s continuous theft of Palestinian land and the dispossession of its people. We are not interested in events or activism that fails to challenge this status quo.”
On the other hand, J Street U founder and member, senior Rachel Cohen, sees some good that could come out of Israeli Apartheid Week on campus.
“J Street U, while unequivocally opposed to the military occupation of the West Bank, rejects the argument that Israel is an apartheid state,” Cohen wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “That being said, I know students in J Street U, myself included, that have plans to attend some of the SJP events this week.”
J Street, which consists of campus chapters nationwide, defines itself as the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans.
“If anything, [Israeli Apartheid Week] offers an opportunity for us to discover more students on campus who are passionate about the issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Cohen wrote. “It could provide us an opportunity to identify and engage more students later on.”
Hopkins SJP is pleased to be among the schools hosting IAW on their campus.
“We are very excited that Israeli Apartheid Week is becoming so widespread on US campuses,” the group wrote, “as it signals a growing Palestinian solidarity movement.”
