Commentary: Clearing the Air

President Nan Keohane has stated that she does not support the campaign to divest from Israel, as the crisis is "far too multifaceted to treat as a simple issue of Israeli responsibility and noncompliance." However, the situation in Palestine/Israel can be clearly assessed by individuals willing to read more than mainstream headlines.

Keohane and others maintain that the conditions in Palestine/Israel lack sufficient "moral clarity" to warrant a pointed criticism of one side. Of course, the advent of suicide bombings has significantly confounded liability issues. Suicide bombings targeting innocent Israelis present a major hurdle to peace and are deplorable to those genuinely seeking a resolution to this conflict. Civilian attacks are not a constructive response to the illegal occupation. Though unacceptable forms of retaliation, they are retaliation against the occupation and the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) systematic oppression of the Palestinians.

The devastating 36 year occupation that has divided and conquered an entire people with checkpoints, policies of collective punishment and the killing of innocent people amounts to nothing less than state-sponsored terrorism. This terror, just like that of the appalling suicide bombings carried out by small and independent Palestinian groups, must come to an end. The cycle can only be broken with real commitments to nonviolence.

In July 2002, militant Palestinian organizations including Hamas and the Palestinian political faction Fatah, worked with European diplomats to draft a preliminary settlement that would have suspended all attacks within Israel. Less than two hours before the accord was to be announced, Israeli leaders, aware of the pending settlement, sent a Lockheed Martin-made F-16 to bomb a civilian populated area in Gaza. The attack injured 140 people and killed 11 children and 6 adults. The proposal was annulled and Palestinian militants resumed their attacks. Ariel Sharon hailed the F-16 bombing as one of Israel's greatest successes.

There is no way to end the attacks without challenging Israel in a powerful, nonviolent manner. Divestment will pressure the Israeli government to end the illegal occupation and the state-sponsored terrorism without inflicting any more violence and death on either side. If our funds went to violent Palestinian groups, there would be a need to divest from companies with those investments as well. We have seen how divestment can effect change; influential institutions like Duke must take a stand and work towards peace.

It is helpful to remember that the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela's opposition group to Apartheid South Africa, was considered a terrorist organization by the United States until the mid-1980s. Despite many people's disagreement with the ANC's use of violence, the overall picture was never lost, enabling people to see the oppressive apartheid government as the root, not the sole, problem.

The parallels to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are clear. The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal, as the United Nations, including Secretary General Kofi Annan, has affirmed. In 2002, the U.N. General Assembly passed resolution 160-4 that affirmed Israel's right to "secure recognized borders' and Palestine's right to an "independent state" in the West Bank and Gaza. The illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT are slowly strangling any hope for a two-state solution. Numerous Israeli organizations, academics and a significant portion of the private civilian population are adamantly opposed to Israel's policies of repression in the OPT. B'Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has concluded, "Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of separation based on discrimination, applying two different systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality. This regime is the only one of its kind in the world."

The call for divestment from military ties to Israel is an integral part of an international movement demanding the cessation of the dead-end policy of systematic oppression. Divestment was the first step towards peace for all peoples in South Africa, and it is the first step that we must take in order to create a just and lasting peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.