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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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April 2, 2019
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Pitzer
College President's Principled Boycott Rejection
by Ariel Behar
IPT News
April 2, 2019
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first of your friends to like this.
 Haifa is
known as a city of coexistence in northern Israel with a substantial
Arab minority. But some faculty and students at Pitzer College in
Claremont, Calif. are blind to this fact.
The Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) praised the Pitzer College faculty last November for
passing a resolution calling for the school to suspend its study abroad
program at the University of Haifa. The university hasn't done anything
wrong, SJP explained. It wants a boycott to isolate and protest Israel.
Pitzer "has been consciously supporting these discriminatory
practices" by allowing its students to study in Haifa.
The Pitzer College Council – a body that includes students, faculty, and
staff – approved a resolution on March 14 that would end the study abroad
program in Haifa. That's a decision for Pitzer College President Melvin L.
Oliver, however, and he rejected the idea that same day.
Boycotting the Haifa exchange program would be prejudicial and
"will only harm the College," Oliver explained, offering several examples to show how. It
would violate the academic freedom of would-be participants. It "sets
us on a path away from the free exchange of ideas, a direction which
ultimately destroys the academy's ability to fulfill our educational
mission. I categorically oppose any form of academic boycott of any
country."
It's also a bad idea for colleges to take political positions, Oliver
wrote. A college's role, "through its educational process, [is] to
help its students determine their own positions and understand what actions
each can then take to effect the change they seek."
For defending what he sees as the traditional role for higher education,
those pushing for the boycott demanded Oliver's resignation.
The student senate is drafting a resolution arguing the president
breached "the democratic spirit of shared governance of this
College" and will be a less effective fundraiser as a result.
The Claremont chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which
represents the seven Claremont area college campuses including Pitzer
College, sent out a petition and launched a two week event
in response. "Palestine Freedom Week" includes everything from programs which "tie
Israeli domestic policy to white supremacy" to a "food
appropriation workshop" called "The Theft of Hummus."
Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of
about 1,000 students.
An event held last Wednesday, "Open Air Cages: Prison
Abolition from Attica to Gaza," claimed to work in solidarity with the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and with the Black
Panther Party in "rejection of Zionism in order to unmask the
white supremacist and settler colonial projects that have worked to
maintain Black and Brown bodies in bondage both domestically and
internationally."
"Students, faculty, and staff alike should be outraged at this
flagrant disregard for Pitzer's values and democratic process," SJP wrote in a petition. "We will continue to organize
to suspend Haifa and demand that President Oliver reverse his
decision."
SJP also cited "gravely discriminatory policies towards
Palestinians and in a settler-colonial state that continues its egregious
violations of human rights."
But a quick glance at the Pitzer College-approved programs and exchanges
for students lists
study abroad opportunities in countries like Cuba where there is no freedom of expression, a study abroad program in
Turkey where Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds the trophy for most jailed journalists, and a
study abroad program in China where Uighur Muslims are being held in concentration camps. The list goes on.
Still, it's not surprising for SJP to single out, demonize, and try to
delegitimize the only Jewish state.
Its Northwestern University chapter hosted convicted terrorist Rasmieh Odeh in May 2017. Odeh was
convicted and spent 10 years in an Israeli prison for killing two students in the 1969 Jerusalem
supermarket bombing.
After a terror attack left an Israeli officer dead in June
2017, the Stanford University SJP chapter shared a Facebook post
criticizing Israeli officers for killing the terrorist.
SJP and its allies have had success persuading a few dozen student governments and other
groups to embrace BDS against Israel, but thus far, they've been thwarted by people with the power to actually enact the
policy. People like university trustees and administrators. People like
Pitzer President Melvin L. Oliver.
That's because their obligation is to their institution's wellbeing –
both in their endowments and in the principles higher education is supposed
to represent.
A student newspaper, the Claremont Independent, took notice. "[W]e believe that an appreciation
for all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian is essential to the intercultural
understanding Pitzer holds as one of its core values, an editorial Friday
said. "... He has made a bold stand in defense of intellectual
diversity today."
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