Palestinian Supporters Set Tents In Swarthmore
By Bob Small
(Update: We have been told that the tents have been pulled)
We’ve put off for a long time discussing the “third rail” of American Politics, which is the Middle East.
As someone who maintains “we will always need an Israel, just not this one,” I’ll say that both sides have blood on their hands, going back to 1947.
Further back, we have the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Though not all Jews are Zionists, they hold sway, partly because neither Europe or North America were welcoming to the concept of a Jewish state.
Israel’s founding, unfortunately is another case of “the oppressed becoming the oppressor”.
To move on to today, Swarthmore College has it’s own Pro-Palestinian Tent City courtesy of Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine.
There email is SwarthmoreSJPgmail.com.
Among their demands, according to Spokesperson Ragad, are that Swarthmore College should divest from HP, Lockheed Martin, and Vanguard, because they support Israel.
Ragad compared this to the previous divestment campaign regarding South Africa.
The only outside group that had an easily visible tent was Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP) which describes itself as “ the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world” and to which I subscribe, although I don’t always agree with their sentiments.
When we brought up Joe Biden, whom we said, could easily tell Israel, that “we’re only sending you bows and arrows after Tuesday, but won’t”, Ragad responded with the Leahy Law which the current president has consistently ignored. This was last brought up concerning South Africa.
On the issue of what they wanted, they suggested a Palestinian state, where they thought Jews could also peacefully live, which I find to be a very naive answer.
Meanwhile, Gov. Josh Shapiro, who went to Georgetown and the University of Rochester, who said in Politico “If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law.”
Palestinian Supporters Set Tents In Swarthmore
