Letter to the Editor: Israel Divestment
April 21, 2015
A few weeks ago, the coalition of students and faculty NYU Out of Occupied Palestine sent an email to the NYU community containing a 14-page petition. The petition is titled, “Should NYU Divest? Labor, Fossil Fuels and Palestine.”
The petition bundles a radical proposal to boycott Israel with commonly shared concerns about fair labor and fossil fuels. This is as if to say if you support a cleaner world, you should also support a boycott of Israel, never mind that Israel is at the forefront of alternative energy technology.
The Students for Justice in Palestine describe the petition as “an advancement of the international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel” — a movement that even Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, firmly opposes. In fact, the Palestinian Authority arrested four BDS activists in Ramallah last year.
Divesting from Israel does not serve the interests of the Palestinian people. There are currently 14 Israeli industrial parks in the West Bank. These include 758 factories and businesses, which employ 11,000 Palestinian workers. These workers are paid twice to three times as much as the average Palestinian salary, and they receive all the benefits given to Israeli workers.
Moreover, according to research conducted by Al Quds University, the volume of Palestinian investment into Israel is twice the amount that is invested into the Palestinian economy. This makes sense, considering Israel has more companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange than any country outside of the United States, save China. Approximately 16,000 Palestinians with entry visas to Israel choose to invest their money in Israel. If the divestment movement succeeds, Palestinians will suffer economically.
Page three of the petition demands that Israel comply with U.N. Resolution 194 with respect to compensating Palestinian refugees for their losses. In fact, Israel has already offered to do so multiple times. At both Camp David and Taba, Israel offered a $35 billion compensation package to Palestinian refugees, in addition to 97 percent of the West Bank, the entire Gaza strip and a capital in Jerusalem. No Arab nation has yet offered to compensate the 820,000 Jews who were forced to flee from their homes in Arab lands after the Arabs declared war on Israel in 1948. In fact, had the Arabs accepted the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan instead of going to war against Israel, there would now be an independent Palestinian state beside Israel, no refugees and no presumed need to divest from anybody.
Unlike what the petition will have you believe, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not the main obstacles to peace. After all, the Arabs waged two major wars against Israel before a single settlement was even built, not to mention constant Fedayeen incursions during which Arab guerillas from Syria, Egypt and Jordan infiltrated Israel to attack civilians and soldiers. Moreover, settlements can be evacuated. As previously demonstrated, Israel returned every inch of land that it captured from Egypt during the Six-Day War as soon as Egypt renounced belligerency. Fifteen years later, it did the same with Jordan as soon as it made peace with Israel, and Israel has yet to reach a similar deal with the Palestinian Authority.
There are difficult issues to be resolved between Israel and the Palestinians, including the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian democracy and the recognition of a Jewish state. Boycotting Israeli companies, however, implies that Israel is solely to blame for the continuation of the occupation, and will defeat whatever coexistence there is between Israel and the Palestinians.
Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.
Email David Zonshayn at [email protected].
NYC81 • Nov 9, 2015 at 6:13 pm
Who exactly gave the Arabs any right to claim the Levant as their exclusive territory in the first place? Do the Jews not have any historical claim whatsoever? I think the real reason so many lash out against the Israelis is because it is easy to do so.
Arafat • Apr 22, 2015 at 4:50 pm
The “Palestinians” are illegal colonist-settlers from Arabia illegally occupying the Jewish homeland of Judea.
William Devillis • Apr 21, 2015 at 9:46 pm
The Palestinians have been offered far more than they deserve on multiple occasions. Israel has offered East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestininan state despite no historical ties to Jerusalem. The Old Testament of the Jews mentions Jerusalem hundreds of times. It’s mentioned in the New Testament . It is mentioned ZERO times in the Koran. Jews have lived in what is now Israel for more than 5000 years. Palestinians will admit thatbJews lived there for 3000 years but then the Romans forced all Jews out until the late 1940s. Palestinians are taught that the Jews made up the holocaust so that they could come back to what is now Israel and steal Arab land. Despite absolutely no evidence, the Palestinians bought it, hook, line and sinker.
In exchange for Israel recognizing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, $35 billion to the Palestinian people despite the fact as Abbas said in 2013, the Palestinians were forced to leave their homes by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and as Abbas stated, his village was forced out by a Jordanian general, all to clear the way for their armies to drive the Jews into the sea and get your land and the Jews land. Those “refugees” lost their homes. Not really Israels responsibility. Those Palestinians who stayed in the new state of Israel are now, as are their descendants, citizens of Israel with the same rights as any Israeli citizen. The Israelis have offered to give the Palestinians full control of Gaza and 97% of the West Bank plus 3% of adjoining land to make up for the 3% that are presently settlement lands. During other talks, they did offer to pull the settlers out, just as they did in Gaza.
All the Palestinians were asked to do was remove the section in their Charter calling for the destruction of Israel and to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. A Jewish state where ALL religions are free to practice their religion. The Palestinians have refused saying they have never heard of a country based on a religion. I guess Palestinian maps not only don’t show Israel but also don’t show Saudi Arabia where it is a jailable offense to practice or even discuss any religion but Islam.
Hamas and the PA gave refused any peace deal because once they accept peace, they’ll actually have to begin governing their people and that is something they’re not willing to do. For example, the AP reported last week that Hamas has received tens of millions of dollars, thousands of tons of cement and tens of thousands of concrete blocks since the August war with Israel these were to rebuild homes and try to normalize Gazans life. The AP report stated that virtually ALL of that money has gone to rebuild tunnels, replace the many thousands of rockets and rocket launchers. Basically none has gone to govern their own people. The Palestinans have received over $1 trillion dollars over the years from he UN, US, Israel and others. How come many many people have never been moved out of their refugee camps? Where’s the money gone?
At some point, the Palestinians need to take responsibility for the position their people are in and do something constructive to help them. Change your charter, recognize Israel and maybe we can see the the first Palestinians who are as productive as the Palestinian citizens of Israel
Arafat • Apr 21, 2015 at 10:29 am
Leave it up to the hateful, hate-filled SJP to do this.
And leave it up to NYU’s dogmatic, left-wing professors to enable this.