Martyr Culture Exchange?

"Palestinian Campus Looks to East Bank (of Hudson)"
A14, Sunday 2/15/09,
By Ethan Bronner

There's an asymmetry in the way Bronner states the concerns of the joint degree program. Jews are concerned extremism could be part of the cultural exchange. Bronner touches on this, writing that Al Quds is "no stranger to radical Palestinian politics". Yet he goes no further.

Meanwhile, Palestinians are concerned that American educational values will be construed as “vaguely colonialist”. False equivalence again rears its ugly head.

Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds, and perhaps one of the most prominently advertised Palestinian moderates, is once again spared even the slightest scrutiny.

Nusseibeh is a scion, a philosopher, an academic and also someone who speaks Hebrew, enjoys the company of Israelis, and even confirms the Jewish connection to Jerusalem as "existential and umbilical". So what on earth would drive Israeli authorities to arrest and imprison such a man? Bronner states that his relationship with Israeli authorities is "complex," but doesn't go into it.

Giving his impressions of Al Quds, Bronner writes that "it is hard to walk the campus without being reminded of the conflict and the occupation". Ending the sentence on "the conflict" would've sufficed, since the conflict is the reason for the occupation, which also might aptly be labeled "the war against Israel".

Why is a degree from Al Quds not recognized in Israel? Again, there’s a charge against Israel, left without explanation or reply by Israelis. This charge serves to foment anger at Israel. Also, there’s not one line noting that higher education among Palestinians was non-existent before the “occupation”.

Nevertheless, there are positive elements. “In Palestinian schools, students are taught the so-called right answer to every question,” which may speak to way Israel is viewed. There is an expressed need to teach Palestinian students to think "critically" and "challenge professors intellectually".

Finally, there is a central theme here -- laying the groundwork for a "democratic State of Palestine". Leon Botstein, President of Bard, gets the final word, stating that "being a Zionist and favoring the security and healthy future for the State of Israel is absolutely compatible with creating a Palestinian state. That’s why we’re very proud of what we’re doing.”

Adding the qualifer "peaceful" ahead of "Palestinian state" would've shifted this statement from loaded to informed.

Overall, the balance struck in the first few paragraphs – one with both hope and concern – was absent throughout the piece. How could the concerns with the school’s being “no stranger” to radicalism have an adverse effect on peace, on the “compatibility” of Israel’s security and the creation of a Palestinian state?

Will the Palestinian exchange students explain to their American counterparts the martyrs depicted in the article’s picture of Al Quds’ wall of “Martyrs of Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement”? Will they be challenged critically on the morality of martyrdom used this way? Probably not, and this is what has led to concerns, which were unfortunately not spelled out.

Unwittingly, the picture of the Al Quds photo exhibit explains the unrelated caption. The caption speaks of the picture vaguely as “Students at Al Quds University of Jerusalem.” The caption’s next sentence reads” Sari Nusseibeh, the president of the Palestinian university, said, “The radius of movement of most of our students does not exceed 40 miles.”

Perhaps that’s due to all those martyrs.