Having heard about Diana Salazar, Evan Shenkin and Students Against Empire and Imperialism writing a letter asking President Gottfredson to oppose the U.S.-Israel Resolution that the ASUO Senate passed, I felt compelled to write this letter. First, to correct the obvious misinformation of the group name, Israel is neither an empire nor imperialist. To say otherwise completely ignores the historical roots that Jews have to that land, and suggests that the Jews came to that land as agents of a foreign power. They didn’t; they returned from countries around the world to seek national self-determination. Never, in the history of the world, has an autonomous Arab or Muslim state been where Israel is; the only autonomous states there, ever, have been Jewish states, three total. Now to modern times…

Let me ask you all which of these principles you agree with:

1. Equal rights for people regardless of sexual orientation?
2. Women are as entitled to every choice and opportunity as a man has?
3. Artists have a right to offend the sensibilities of their audience?
4. Politicians who have committed crimes should be prosecuted by the law?
5. Those accused of a crime have a right to an impartial judge, jury, and appeal?

If you’re like me, you support all those. I then do not understand how others can claim to support all those and be a supporter of social justice, yet speak against the one country in the Middle East that has applied those principles, consistently and ever more broadly: Israel. Now, Israel is not perfect, but I don’t judge a country by its supposed perfection, but by how it deals with its imperfections. If you look at Freedom House’s Freedom of the World Index, the ONLY free country in the Middle East is Israel; Israel is the only country there that respects political rights and civil liberties. Based on the rhetoric people like Evan Shenkin, Diana Salazar, and the rest of Students against Empire and Imperialism use, I’d never guess that.

I don’t get why people like them have complained exclusively, or even primarily, about Israel’s imperfections, and not the plethora of human rights violations that happen EVERYDAY in all the other Middle Eastern countries that are EXPONENTIALLY worse than everything happening in Israel? In Gaza, under Hamas, non-heterosexuals flee for their lives and end up safe in Tel Aviv. Hamas permits no dissent, no free speech, and no freedom of religion. What about the honor killings of women across the Middle East, especially in Egypt and Jordan? What about the prohibition in Jordan on Jews becoming citizens or owning land? What about Iran, where they hang non-heterosexuals? Or Pakistan, where Sikhs have been executed for not converting to Islam?

How can someone support an “apartheid education week” against Israel, without first having one for all the other Middle Eastern countries, starting with Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, women are relegated far below men, and people who advocate women working alongside men are subject to execution. Never mind how Saudi Arabia imprisons non-heterosexuals, and has special roads for “Muslims only.” It doesn’t even allow Jews to live there, own property, or even enter the country in most cases. The silence on all the other Middle Eastern countries by people like Salazar and Shenkin, and their constant attacking of Israel, is deafening. Their omission is deceptive.

They like to say that Israel is engaging in apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, but that is simply ridiculous. First, building a security barrier is not “apartheid”, unless you think separating terrorists from their targeted victims is apartheid. The barrier has greatly reduced terrorist attacks against Israel. Second, Israel doesn’t engage in apartheid against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, because they have no desire to be Israeli citizens. Israel recognizes the right of Palestinians to have a state of their own, all they’ve had to do is make peace with Israel. Whenever Israel has offered land for peace with the Palestinians, it’s received rocket attacks, in attempt to wipe out the Jewish population in the Middle East. You tell me who sounds apartheid.

The only explanations I can think of for their manic obsession to undermine Israel are (1) ignorance, (2) anti-Semitism, or (3) a belief that the only oppression that matters, no matter how small, is that by whites, and any oppression by non-whites, no matter how large, doesn’t matter. The one thing they all have in common: they make for terrible policy.

Ben Rudin, Esq.
Graduate of University of Oregon, and UO Law
Former ASUO Senator

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