The dramatic pro-Palestinian demonstration that took place on Nov. 15 gave witness that Columbia University continues to be a battlefield and a tinderbox of Palestinian Protest, colored by a distortion (intentional or not) of the Palestinian cause.

Since 2008, I have seen the slow progress of Apartheid Week on the Columbia campus, developing from a small booth to an army. Even after two pro-Palestinian organizations —  Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — were suspended from campus because of their violent rhetoric in a demonstration on Monday, Oct. 23, they arranged another demonstration of 200 people outside the gates, carrying signs that said, “By any means necessary.” Following the barbaric events in Israel on Oct. 7, things progressed quickly. My professor, who heads the Institute for Israel Jewish Studies at Columbia, thought we should organize an interfaith event on campus. The matter became more urgent after the Oct. 23 demonstration.

The demonstration prompted a discussion in class. Everyone was shaken. The professor asked me to share with the class my own family history, which I had detailed in my mid-term paper. It centered on my parents’ immigration to Israel in 1951 via Operation Wings of Eagles, and stated the case that virtually half of the Jews in Israel are indigenous to the region. Indeed, 1948 saw thousands of Arabs displaced from Palestine, but thousands of Jews were displaced from surrounding Arab countries as well. None of the students knew that. My subsequent conversations with our own congregants, community residents (including members of GEM, our local ecumenical group) again revealed no awareness of the makeup of the Jewish population in Israel.

This past week, I spoke at the Bayit — the oldest Jewish food co-op. The students there were thirsty for a conversation. A couple of them even said they wouldn’t care if Israel lost the land, as long as they stopped the bombing in Gaza. That many Israeli Jews are indigenous to the land, and that there was always a Jewish presence there, albeit small, was startling to them, yet it resonated. They agreed that we need to think differently, take a new approach.

The essential (and false) argument of anti-Israel rhetoric is that the country was colonized by white Europeans. The essence of all the demonstrations against Israel boils down to this distortion: Jews are white Europeans who colonized the brown indigenous man. Anti-Israel rhetoric found a button that is pushed over and over and over again.

Incorrect. In Europe, Jews were not white enough. In America, Jews gradually became white and assimilated. Moreover, the current American public perception is firmly set that Jews are white. On that basis, Black Lives Matter connects itself to the Palestinian cause, considering Jews white European colonizers.

Since this has become the main argument — that we are all white colonizers — it means that to free Palestine, all measures become acceptable and legitimate. Therefore, we need to create an impactful event with the sole purpose to flip this argument. Considering my personal history, I am in a unique position to state the following premises:

Jews are indigenous to the Middle East and the region. World and regional wars caused a similar number of Jews and Arabs to be displaced in the Middle East in the years surrounding 1948. We are not giving up on interfaith dialogue; on the contrary, we will continue to speak to all who denounce the savagery in the attack on Oct. 7. We continue to believe that the Middle East must focus on religion and interfaith relations to promote a sustainable peace.

The parallel to the challenges of the 1930s is striking. For many years, I sat behind Eli Wiesel in synagogue and joined him in washing the hands of the Kohanim on the High Holidays. We didn’t speak much. We didn’t need to. His message to not remain silent in the face of adversity resonated loudly enough. Even though we seem to be Me’atim mul rabim — a few against the many, let us not despair. We must respond to the time and place in which we find ourselves. This is our moment. We must counter that which is a blood libel and yell this message from every rooftop.

May God bless Israel and keep it, and shine His face upon her, and give her peace.

 

—Rabbi Gadi Capela