An interview with Tallie Ben Daniel

28 July 2016, Alternative Information Center http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)

 

The problematic equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism hasn’t stifled student movements for Palestinian human rights at U.S. universities. 

Tallie Ben Daniel is the Academic Advisory Council Coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). She completed her PhD in Cultural Studies at UC Davis in June of 2014 and is currently working on a book manuscript titled "Gay Capital: San Francisco, Tel Aviv and the Politics of Settler Colonialism." Ben Daniel talked to Molly Dubrovsky, the editor of alternativenews.org, about student movements on U.S. campuses campaigning for justice in Palestine. 

MD: What sort of obstacles are activists against Israeli occupation facing on university campuses in the U.S. today?

TBD: Anti-occupation activists on university campuses – students and faculty – are facing quite a few obstacles, but notably, those haven't hampered the struggle for Palestinian human rights – the movement grows by the day. The largest obstacle is

the ignorance of university administrations, which often censors student activism around this issue, and the tendency of university administrators to listen to very anti-Palestinian voices. For example, there is a nation-wide pattern of falsely blaming groups like Students for Justice in Palestine for incidents of anti-Semitism, or assuming that advocating for Palestinians is somehow inherently anti-Jewish. Our anti-occupation work centers on justice and human rights for Palestinians, part of a more just world for all of us.

    

MD: What are the political implications posed by universities’ increasing association of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism – i.e. a type of discrimination? How have student solidarity movements responded to such claims? 

TBD: The political implications are decidedly mixed: on the one hand, equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is factually incorrect and ahistorical, so for a university to make this association is quite disturbing. Many universities do not have a clear understanding of what they mean by "anti-Zionism," so any criticism of Israeli policy can be condemned as anti-Semitic. On the other hand, this common equation has allowed us to have open discussions about Zionism, anti-Zionism, Israeli policy, Palestinian human rights, and anti-Semitism on college campuses. We see this as an opportunity to educate others about the realities on the ground in Israel/Palestine, and about the reasons why some might be politically and morally against ethno-nationalisms.

MD: Why organize as an explicitly Jewish group against Israeli occupation in the U.S., like in the case of JVP?

TBD: Many members of JVP, on campuses and beyond, feel called to advocate for justice for Palestinians because of a deep moral sense of the occupation's inhumanity. When universities associate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, they are doing so because pro-Israel advocacy groups are demanding that Israel speaks for and acts in behalf of all Jews. It becomes ever more important for Jewish people to then say that this not true, and that discriminatory and oppressive Israeli policy is not in our names.