Palestine Solidarity Movement to meet at Ohio State in November

COLUMBUS — It’s fall, and in Columbus that usually means only one thing: football. While the Buckeyes continue to dominate conversations and news stories, another story is brewing in Columbus: the national student conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, originally planned to be held in October at Rutgers University, has been moved to November at Ohio State University for unclear reasons.

Some say it’s because New Jersey Solidarity, the original host of the conference, is too militant, even for the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

In a July 9 interview with the New York Post, New Jersey Solidarity leader Charlotte Kates responded to a question about whether Israel has a right to exist by saying, “I personally support Palestinian resistance in all its forms, from armed struggle to mass protest.”

Kates is a second-year law student at Rutgers.

Others, including Nahla Saleh, an OSU graduate student active in the Committee for Justice in Palestine and spokesperson for the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, say the conference was moved because New Jersey Solidarity violated “democratic procedures” in planning the conference.

“They branched off (from Palestine Solidarity Movement). They will still have their October meeting but it is not the official PSM conference,” Saleh said. However, on Sept. 15, Rutgers University officials cancelled that conference, claiming organizers missed a paperwork deadline.

Editorials on the New Jersey Solidarity Web site denounced the decision, stating the meetings would still be held as planned Oct. 10-12, with or without the Rutgers’ approval.

Whether the New Jersey Solidarity conference will actually convene that weekend remains to be seen.

But it is certain that the Rutgers University Hillel will host its Israel Inspires Initiative starting with a pro-Israel kickoff rally on Oct. 9.

According to Rabbi Esther Reed, assistant director of the Rutgers Hillel, last February, when that Hillel heard the New Jersey Solidarity was going to host the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, “It was the impetus we needed to do something we’ve been wanting to do for years.”

In addition to the rally, the weekend’s events will include pro-Israeli speakers, discussions, live music and free food.

Rutgers University President Dr. Richard L. McCormick has pledged his support for Hillel’s pro-Israel initiative, asking to be personally involved in the program.

After the New Jersey Solidarity group split from the Palestine Solidarity Movement, the Committee for Justice in Palestine sought to host the conference by applying for space with Ohio State officials.

Their request was approved since the Committee for Justice in Palestine is “an organization in good standing that has paid its dues, has a good reputation and has no problems on campus,” said Elizabeth Conlisk, OSU director of media relations.

She also noted that OSU was slated to host the fourth annual conference in 2004, but she isn’t sure if that will still happen.

Jewish groups such as Brooklyn-based Amcha - The Coalition for Jewish Concerns applauded the Rutgers ruling while vowing to increase pressure on Ohio political leaders and OSU in the hopes of preventing the Palestine Solidarity Movement from holding its conference at OSU, set for Nov. 7-9.

“Amcha will go wherever they go to stop their hate fest,” said Scott Chait, the organization’s event coordinator. “Amcha’s mission is to defend Jewish causes, and the Palestine Solidarity Movement is a big threat,” he said.

“We don’t claim to have an answer (to the political crisis in Israel) but we think Israel is in violation of international law because they are running their country under an apartheid system,” Saleh said. “The apartheid that is a part of Zionism is inherently racist, and everyone in Committee for Justice in Palestine and Palestine Solidarity Movement is in agreement on that,” she said.

Saleh made it clear that her comments only reflected the ideals of the Committee for Justice in Palestine, not the Palestine Solidarity Movement, although she is the spokesperson for their upcoming conference at OSU.

According to Saleh, “Both the conference and the Palestine Solidarity Movement focus their energies on divestment and other collection strategies. We are a nonviolent movement focused on divestment from Israel because that would help both the Palestinians and the Israelis in the long run.”

Amcha’s Chait disagreed. “Comparing Israel to South Africa is ridiculous. Israel is a democratic country where one million Israeli Arabs have the right to vote. Those rights are even unheard of anywhere in the Arab World,” he said.

Moreover, Chait added, “Israel has never been labeled an apartheid state” in any international arenas.

Rabbi Howard Zack, spiritual leader of the Main Street Synagogue in Columbus and president of the Columbus Board of Rabbis, agrees with Chait.

“Using the term apartheid is a lot of propaganda and plays off people’s emotions,” he said. “It is not factually true to say that Israel is an apartheid state and using that language is a way to distort the fact.”

On its Web site, Amcha has been circulating a petition to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft to prevent OSU from hosting the conference. As of press time, Amcha’s petition has collected more than 5,000 signatures.

The petition claims that at last year’s Palestine Solidarity Movement Conference, held at the University of Michigan, delegates chanted “Kill the Jews.”

Amcha also states in a press release that the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s past conferences have featured Sami Al-Arian, allegedly a central figure in an operation targeting Israel and the United States with terrorist attacks.

Al-Arian, a Palestinian and a tenured college professor at the University of South Florida, has previously been accused of having ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

As reported recently in the Columbus Dispatch, Orest Holubec, Taft’s spokesperson, said, “The governor has some concerns about some of their (Palestine Solidarity Movement) positions. For example, they won’t denounce terrorism and they support divestiture.” However, Holubec said the governor recognizes their right to free speech.

Educating community
According to Zack, Jewish leaders from throughout Ohio have been and will continue to meet to discuss potential responses to the November conference.

One option is to seek the cancellation of the conference altogether. Another idea includes “the preparation of OSU students and the community in general with tools to respond to the Palestine Solidarity Movement, both educationally and proactively,” he said.

Discussions have also focused on the possible options for Jewish activists after the conference, should it take place.

A major concern for Jewish leaders, said Zack, is that “We have to empower our students and community with information while not giving too much attention to this group.”

Stopping the conference is not on the agenda of the Anti-Defamation League, according to Regional Director Bettysue Feuer.

“They have First Amendment rights, and even if we don’t agree with what they’re saying, they have the right to say it,” said Feuer. Instead, ADL encourages Jewish organizations to plan proactive, pro-Israel programming.

That’s not to say, however, that the ADL is not monitoring the situation. In cooperation with the OSU Hillel, “we are focusing on security issues and studying their speakers to be sure they don’t cross the line to anti-Zionism or antisemitism.”

That might be a tall order, considering Saleh’s emphatic statements that Zionism should be distinguished from Judaism.

“We are against Zionism, and we’re offended when people call us antisemitic,” she said, adding, “Zionism is a policy and is the basis for Israel’s policies of humiliation and exploitation” of the Palestinians.

Security issues
Security is on the mind of OSU officials too, but they won’t specify what measures they will take to ensure that conference attendees and anti-conference protestors will be safe.

According to Conlisk, “We never go into any kind of public discussion of security plans for anything, but I can assure you that the university has been meeting with conference organizers. We will do our best to ensure that specified guidelines are followed to provide for the safety of conference attendees and anyone opposed to the conference.”

The same weekend as the conference, OSU will host a home football game.
Conlisk said Ohio State is concerned that the public may conclude that by allowing the Committee for Justice in Palestine to host the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s conference, the university will be seen as endorsing the views of either organization. Such is not the case, she said.

“The views of the conference are not the views of The Ohio State University and are solely their own,” she said. “OSU is not hosting the event but only renting space to a recognized student organization. We will work with student organizers who focus on an agenda that does not include disturbing the atmosphere at OSU.”

As for whether OSU intends to consider the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s demands of divestment from Israel, Conlisk said, “The university has no plans to divest from Israel.”