ANOTHER ACRIMONIOUS DEBATE ABOUT ISRAEL?
Last month student senators listened attentively to two hours of public comment from UIUC students and faculty. The topic: should there be yet another referendum on this spring’s ballot about whether the university should divest from companies doing business in Israel? That issue was widely debated on campus last year, and the referendum was soundly defeated.
Although people spoke on both sides of the issue, on one point speakers from both sides agreed. Jewish and Palestinian students alike testified that they felt harassed and threatened by the hate speech the campus debate generated. Campus discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be civil, but contests to win a forthcoming vote often are not. Competition aimed at obtaining a victory involves passions of a different character.
At the student government meeting, referendum advocates made their strategy clear: they were going to reintroduce the referendum year after year. A clear expression of student opinion opposing it in a democratic vote didn’t matter. They were not giving up.
That strategy has already been followed on other campuses, sometimes with annual votes taking place for a decade. Arguing over a divestment resolution as a result crowds out every other topic — from tuition levels, to class size, to loan programs — that students care about and where their advocacy can make a difference.
On divestment, a campus vote amounts to empty symbolism. No Board of Trustees is going to let students, faculty, or staff decide investment policy. Investment policy is a Board fiduciary responsibility. A broad brush condemnation of a series of companies, moreover, simply invites Board dismissal.
Divestment is actually a complex subject that gets confused and falsified by the resulting tweets and posters and slogans. Some companies that do business on the West Bank actually make Palestinians’ lives easier, but they are nonetheless targeted for protests. A number of companies do not sell directly to Israel. They sell to the US Defense Department, where Israel makes approved purchases, drawing on funds appropriated by the US Congress. What would happen to a US company that told the Pentagon it would have to approve the Defense Department’s customer list? Many targeted US corporations have offices and headquarters in Illinois. They offer internships to UI students. They hire students’ parents and relatives. Such companies have reason to expect fair and specific engagement from UI groups, not uniformed condemnation.
Yet at the campus student government debate last month, companies in all these categories were basically accused of war crimes. That is not a carefully reasoned position. National BDS web sites target any company, among others, that sells to the Israeli army, including companies that sell shoes and binoculars, even when the same models are marketed to civilian consumers here and abroad.
The University has important research collaborations with Israeli faculty members and their institutions. It has study abroad programs for students. Academic freedom provides that students and faculty have the right to pursue those options. The same Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that promotes divestment urges universities to eliminate all those relationships. It even says faculty members should refuse to write letters of recommendation for students wanting to study in Israel. The local and national groups that endorse divestment endorse those demands as well.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the important topics that should be studied and discussed on campus. But a divestment debate is not a good way to do so. There are courses offered in our institution that encourage a critical approach to studying Israel and Palestine. These engage in nuance and context, providing students the opportunity to learn in detail. By contrast the rhetoric surrounding the divestment debate can be shallow, informed by simplistic slogans.
We do not need another acrimonious divestment debate at UIUC.
Faculty Signatories:
Brian F. Allan, Entomology
Ilana Redstone Akresh, Sociology
Richard S. Akresh, Economics
May Berenbaum, Entomology
Jeffrey R. Brown, Dean, College of Business
Nigel D. Goldenfeld, Physics
Diane Gottheil, Medicine
Rachel S. Harris, Comparative Literature
Richard Herman, Chancellor emeritus
Richard L. Kaplan, Law
Deborah Katz-Downie, Plant Biology
Michael H. Leroy, Labor & Industrial Relations
Cary Nelson, English
Gene E. Robinson, Entomology
Jacqueline Ross, Law
Richard J. Ross, Law
Paula A. Treichler, Media & Cinema
Paul M. Weichsel, Mathematics
Reprinted from The Daily Illini, with additional names added.