It’s become something of a fad to attack Israel nowadays, as we’ve seen during events like the not-so-successful Kimmel occupation and the unnecessarily hateful Israeli Apartheid Week. But nothing has been more disturbing than a discussion entitled “NYU-Tel Aviv University: A Partnership in Occupation,” in which a panel of speakers blasted NYU for setting up a new program that would allow students to spend a semester in Tel Aviv. It disgusts and frightens me that anybody would deny students the opportunity to study abroad in the country of their choice, and I think it’s important to take a step back and look at what kind of message that sends.
Now it’s perfectly OK for anybody to criticize Israel’s actions — although it continues to amaze me how many people do so without even mentioning Palestinian terrorism — but to want to prevent students from studying there because you disagree with its political policies is absurd. As an educational institution, it is NYU’s prerogative to try to allow students to pursue their studies wherever or however they want, whether in Israel, Abu Dhabi or the North Pole. The discouragement of cultural education can never be a solution to political issues.
I studied at Hebrew University in the spring of 2008, and it was one of the best times of my life. Every day I would walk to campus on Mt. Scopus in East Jerusalem and say hello to not only other Jews, but Arab students, Christian students, and everybody else who went to school with me. Some weekends I would go to Tel Aviv with friends and hang out by the beach. Other times I’d go for a hike in the desert or pray at the Western Wall, where I felt a spiritual connection to my religion like I had never felt before. I would eat falafel, visit historical landmarks, and get drunk in downtown Jerusalem, where Jews, Arabs, Christians, Druze and every other member of any other ethnicity or religion roam the streets equally.
We all had drastically different political views and opinions, but it didn’t matter. We were all just having a good time together whether we were studying, drinking, or arguing loudly about how Israel and the Arabs could finally (maybe) find peace. How can anybody say that my experiences there supported “occupation”? How can anybody not want to let people learn in a place that has so much history and culture? How can anybody stand in a lecture hall in New York and criticize Israel while trying to prevent students from going there to learn at the same time?
At an event at NYU, former Bard professor Joel Kovel said that “Israel [is trying] to destroy everything that is not Jewish in the land of Palestine.” Yet 20 percent of Israel’s population is Arab citizens — about 1.4 million in total. They vote, they serve in the government; they live, work, and even go out drinking side-by-side with Israelis in relative peace. One Israeli-Arab I spoke to even said he would never join a Palestinian state if it were created because he loves his life in Israel. Don’t believe me? Go there for yourself. Learn about the conflict from primary sources instead of just what you read in the newspaper or hear from some lecturer. That’s what I did, and the education was incomparable.
Anybody who protests the NYU-Tel Aviv partnership is voicing the desire to strip students of the chance to have an unparalleled educational experience and learn about the Israeli-Arab conflict in ways that can’t be done from any other country. Even if you hate Israel and wish the Jewish state didn’t exist, trying to prevent people from studying there is the worst form of educational repression.
Maybe Israel’s haters should be the very ones going to learn there. Maybe some firsthand sources could teach them more about what’s actually happening in the region, and maybe they could learn a thing or two about what “apartheid” actually means.
Jason Schreier is a contributing columnist and former staff writer. E-mail responses to opinion@nyunews.com.
