The muted reaction on our campus to the political unrest now engulfing Arab and Muslim countries and the ensuing slaughter of approximately 1,000 civilians by their own leaders, has been very enlightening. It has confirmed the strong suspicions of many students and faculty that the highly vituperative activism directed continuously by the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the Arab Student Union (ASU) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) against a single Mideast country, Israel, is in fact driven less by positive impulses of fraternity toward fellow Arabs and Muslims than by hateful impulses to destroy the world’s only sovereign Jewish nation.
The current maelstrom in the Mideast has laid bare for all to see the Arab world’s dirty little secret: the fact that, by any objective measure, the greatest human rights abuses suffered by the greatest number of Muslims and Arabs have been inflicted by the unsavory regimes of the Mideast’s 23 Arab countries, and not, as the MSA, ASU and SJP would have us believe, by Israel, the only country in the entire region consistently rated by Freedom House International as bestowing full civil and political liberties upon its Jewish and Arab citizens.
So why then, if hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims have suffered severe, long-standing repression in countries like Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia, Iran, and the like, have those UCSD students who relentlessly pounce on every action and policy of Israel- a country which constitutes 0.04% of the Mideast- been deafeningly silent all these years regarding the injustices occurring in the other 99.96% of the Mideast? Why aren’t the websites and Facebook pages of the MSA, ASU and SJP abuzz with plans for social activism and moral outrage over the murder of civilians who are fighting to gain liberty in Arab countries? Are those students simply less moved by injustices carried out by Arabs and Muslims against their own kind? Or is it possible that human rights and social justice have been hijacked by these groups for use as intellectual weapons in the service of a culturally driven agenda – to bludgeon the Jewish state?
Critical debate is a cherished mainstay of universities and Israel should not be above reproach. As a democratic nation in a highly complex geopolitical environment, some of its actions and policies will surely be considered misguided by citizens of other nations as they are by many Israeli citizens-a fact reflected in Israel’s vibrant free press. However, as pointed out by Natan Sharansky, the respected Israeli human rights activist and former Soviet political prisoner, one test of malevolently motivated criticism of Israel is the “double standards” test – criticism of Israel that is applied selectively.
In a few months our campus will, once again, witness the flagship event in the Israel-bashing calendar: the week-long hate-fest whose centerpiece is a wall on library walk promulgating one-sided and selective information aimed at convincing students that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be simply reduced to egregious Israeli misdeeds visited upon totally innocent Palestinians. Nearby expect the usual mock cemetery to provide emotive reinforcement of that message. But this year the student organizers of that acrimonious event have a golden opportunity to show that they are genuinely interested in the rights and dignity of all the people of the Mideast by expanding their focus beyond the tiny Jewish state. Will they rise to the occasion? Should we expect to see candlelight vigils and mock cemeteries also for the Arabs who have been recently massacred by their own leaders? Perhaps, dare I dream it, even for the Israelis who have been murdered by Palestinian rockets and suicide bombers? Will these student organizations sponsor an A.S. resolution calling for UCSD to divest from Arab countries stained by egregious human rights practices such as Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to vote or to drive, or will they again selectively sponsor initiatives against democratic Israel (where, ironically, Arab women sit as elected members in parliament)? Will the SJP fully embrace its mission statement, “to promote justice, human rights, and the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people” by also raising awareness of how Palestinians in Gaza are denied political freedom by the ruling Hamas government which suspended democratic elections indefinitely after consolidated power through force of arms? Or will SJP continue to apologize for Hamas while relentlessly hammering Israel?
Absent these changes, students of good will should ask themselves if this event and the others like it are sincerely designed to educate and raise their awareness or are they being subjected to a cynical exploitation of human rights for a political agenda. Advocacy that deliberately distorts and omits information to convince others of a partisan viewpoint should be scorned by fair minded students of this university as a form of intellectual abuse.
David Feifel is Professor of Psychiatry and a member of UCSD Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME)
