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July 11, 2003/Tamuz 11 5763, Vol. 55, No.46
Confrontation looms on Rutgers campus
JOANNE PALMER
Jewish Standard
TEANECK, N.J. - Posted on www.njsolidarity.org: "Any organizations that believe divestment from Israeli apartheid is a necessary and worthwhile strategy, that stand for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes and homeland, and full equality under law and the abolition of Israeli apartheid; and that reject racism and all forms of oppression are welcome to be part of the organizing process for the Third Conference!"
That's the Web site of New Jersey Solidarity, which plans to host the National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement on Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus in October.
As a start, the group would like the university to divest from all investments in Israel.
About 600 Jewish students from Bergen County are enrolled at Rutgers, according to Andrew Getraer, executive director of Hillel there.
New Jersey Solidarity "is located in New Brunswick, but it's not, strictly speaking, a student organization," said Getraer. "Last March, they founded a student organization, and I'm guessing they have about 15 members." Its leader, Charlotte Kates, a Douglass College graduate, is now a student at Rutgers' law school in Newark.
The group may not be large, but it is active. "They haven't had any success in their larger agenda, having the university divest from Israel, but they're very good at creating an atmosphere of intimidation on campus," said Getraer.
New Jersey Solidarity's tactics were on display on a Thursday night during the spring semester, according to Getraer. On Thursdays, Hillel invites a guest teacher. "We had a rabbi, Yehosha Kahan, coming in from Bat Ayim, which is just outside Jerusalem in the disputed territories. ... It was a philosophical lecture," billed as "Kafka and Kabbalah," said Getraer.
"One of the members of New Jersey Solidarity, who is Jewish, heard that the speaker was coming from Bat Ayim, looked him up, got his picture off a Web site, and put hundreds of fliers up all over campus, saying he is a terrorist."
In upper-case letters, the flier demands that readers "Say no to racism!" by rallying outside Hillel's building during the teaching session.
"Within a day, we organized 50 to 100 students," said Getraer. "We had to work very quickly. We got non-Jewish students and clergy to come; there were students from the Catholic center, the Methodist minister, people from some of the more evangelical Protestant groups, and from the Hindu student group.
"Because we had this big crowd, the New Jersey Solidarity people drove by and didn't do anything until later."
Anti-Israel groups have been using mock checkpoints on campuses across the country. Getraer said that they are dramatizations meant to show Palestinian suffering.
"They're smart and they're strategic," said Getraer of New Jersey Solidarity.
They are also extreme. Charlotte Kates was quoted in New York Post, July 9, in response to a question about whether Israel has a right to exist, as saying, "Israel is an apartheid colonial settler state. I do not believe apartheid colonial settler states have a right to exist." When asked if she supports homicide bombers, she said, "I personally support Palestinian resistance in all its forms, from armed struggle to mass protest."
"The university is in all likelihood compelled under the first amendment to allow the conference to occur," said Shai Goldstein, New Jersey regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. He's not asking the school not to allow the meeting. But, he said, his group is asking "that the university condemn any anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist statements that are made by any group on campus as a manifestation of racism and bigotry."
So far, the university is reporting that it has received more than 230 letters asking it not to allow the conference.
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