BU SJP Responds to Threats from Campus Zionists

In the past few years groups supporting an end to the occupation of Palestine have risen on campuses across the United States. Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine has sought to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people this year with its second annual
Israel Apartheid Week. As a result of its activities and the success it has had in showing the true face of the structural violence, BU Students for Israel has committed itself to sending threatening emails and trying to shut down SJP's activites. Below is a threatening email that BU SJP received and its response:



To Whom It May Concern,
It has come to the attention of the Boston University Students for
Israel (BUSI) that next week is Israeli Apartheid Week and that in
recognition of this Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will be
constructing a mock "wall" on campus.

It is our concern that such a demonstration will only serve to sensationalize and simplify a most complex, nuanced, and profoundly serious situation. This will only inflame emotions, and incite hatred. Ultimately, the mock up will be counterproductive to promoting objective and intellectual analysis of the realities of the region and of the histories of both Arabs and Jews.

It is our suggestion that SJP refrain from constructing such a structure
and from sensationalizing the Arab-Israeli conflict. In place of this mock wall BUSI suggests that members of SJP and BUSI stand side-by-side next week to promote an organized forum for
discourse between all parties!

We would like to emphasize that we are not demanding that SJP refrain from expressing the substance of your opinions. In fact, we are demanding nothing! We recognize your right to freedom of speech, and to express your beliefs by any peaceful means that you determine to be
appropriate. However, we ask that you consider whether sensationalism, politicized slogans, and other forms of negative and grandiose propaganda are fitting for the academic integrity of Boston University. Moreover, we ask, do such spectacles do justice to the level of education and intelligence of the Boston University student body?

We eagerly await your response, and a representative of BUSI will be
ready to meet you at your convenience!

With Hopes of Peace,
Boston University Students for Israel


Boston University SJP responded with the following:


To BU Students For Israel

Our original plan for Israel Apartheid Week did not include building a replica of the Apartheid Wall. But after receiving an email threat and hearing that members of BUSI complained to SAO about a wall we had not discussed, we decided to construct one.

We understand that you are embarrassed about the wall, because the wall is an embarrassment. Rather than sending people to complain to SAO about it, you should be condemning the Israeli government for its extensive confiscation of land, the expanse of checkpoints, the illegal settlements, and system of closures involved in imprisoning the Palestinian population. You should be incensed that the Israeli government ignored the International Court of Justice's ruling condemning it or its utilization to divide Palestinians into ghettos. Instead of standing up for justice and peace, you are on the side of the oppressors over the oppressed.

We refuse to take part in whitewashing Israel's public image, and therefore reject any Israeli-Palestinian meetings that do not recognize Palestinian inalienable rights, and and do not explicitly aim to resist Israel's occupation, colonization and apartheid. Israeli-Palestinian
meetings that are not committed to such principles give a false picture of equality between the two parties by ignoring and legitimizing Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people. We will not contribute to any event that undermines Palestinian rights, or portrays Israel as anything but
what it really is: an apartheid state.


You talk about co-existence, but there can be no co-existence until the Israelis allow the Palestinians to exist.

In Defense Of Justice,

BU SJP

Palestine on the Precipice: w/ Diana Buttu, former legal advisor to the PLO

Thursday, March 3 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm Boston University: Photonics Room 206 8 St. Mary’s Street Boston, MA

Diana Buttu was born to Palestinian citizens of Israel who moved to

Canada to protect their daughter from the discrimination they faced
in their homeland.After earning a law degree from Queen's University in Canada and a Masters of Law from Stanford University in the U.S., Ms. Buttu moved to Palestine in 2000. She says that this move was motivated by the fact that she "loved Palestine, yet hadn't really contributed." Shortly after her arrival, the second Intifada began and she took a position with the Negotiations Support Unit of the PLO.


In addition to her work with the Negotiations Support Unit, Diana has
labored extensively to influence the way the situation in Palestine and
Israel is depicted by the media. Ms. Buttu was also involved in litigation at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, which
resulted in their landmark opinion against Israel’s wall, which cuts through swaths of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, dividing people from their schools, places of employment, and families.

While Diana Buttu is no longer employed by the PLO, she continues to work for justice for Palestinians. Ms. Buttu’s media work continues through collaboration with the Institute for Middle East Understanding. She also works with PalTel on sustainable agricultural development issues and teaches at Birzeit University in Ramallah.

Anarchists Against the Wall Fundraiser

Saturday, March 5 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Boston University College Of Arts And Sciences Rm 522

725 Commonwealth Ave.

Boston, MA

Featuring:

Noam Lekach and Elinor Amit from Anarchists Against the Wall (http://www.awalls.org/)

Photographs by Activestills (http://www.activestills.org/)

and more!.......



we are asking for a donation of $10 but will accept any amount.
AATW t-shirts will be available for purchase too

Co-Sponsored by: American Jews for a Just Peace (Boston), Boston College SJP, Brown University SJP, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, BU Anti-Authoritarians, BU Antiwar Coalition, Code Pink (Boston), Emerson Anti-Authoritarians, Itisapartheid.org collective, Jewish Voice for Peace (Boston), Northeastern University SJP, Palestine@MIT, Tufts SJP, and UMass Boston SJP


Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) is a direct action group that was established in 2003 in response to the construction of the wall Israel is building on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank. The group works in cooperation with Palestinians in a joint popular struggle against the occupation.

Since its formation, the group has participated in hundreds of demonstrations and direct actions against the wall specifically, and the occupation generally, all over the West Bank. All of AATW's work in Palestine is coordinated through villages' local popular committees and is essentially Palestinian led.

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The Activestills collective was established in 2005 by a group of Israeli and international documentary photo-graphers, out of a strong conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change. We believe in the power of images to shape public attitudes and to raise awareness on issues that are generally absent from public discourse. We view ourselves as part of the struggle against all forms of oppression, racism, and violations of the basic right to freedom. We do work on various topics, including the grassroots movement and the popular struggle against the Israeli occupation, women’s rights, immigration, asylum-seekers, social justice, the siege on Gaza, and housing rights inside Israel.

Elinor Amit is a research fellow at the psychology department at Harvard University