Here’s an interesting article on Muslim-Jewish relations on a Californian university campus by my friend Ashraf Khalil, now sorely missed in Cairo. It’s a shame these activists go for comparisons between Palestine and the Holocaust when there really is no need for comparison — what’s happening in Palestine is bad enough as it is, and it’s happening now.
Good article, Ashraf! It’s sad to see these students use their youthful fervour/radicalism to repeat old mistakes in their criticism of Israel. This quote made me wince:
“The apartheid state of Israel is on the way down. They are living in fear … and it is about time they live in fear,” said Amir Abdel Malik Ali, an Oakland-based Islamic activist, during a May 15 speech on the campus quad. “The truth of the matter is: Your days are numbered. We will fight you until we are martyred or until we are victorious.”
If these were actual Palestinians suffering under the occupation, one could perhaps understand the anger and bravado. From American youth, it just sounds like they need to go play some violent video games or vent in some other way.
And burning each other’s memorial monuments is supposed to be activism?
As you say, this has nothing to do with the occupation, which, in any case, will end soon. There are many reasons why the Palestinans are suffering, largely to do with the history of Arab attacks and their own mismanagement under selfrule.
SP: there is a difference between the two monuments that were targeted. One is to commemorte millions of murdered people. The other was “antizionist”. Had the former memorial been antimuslim, it would have been a fair comparison.