Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

In his Dec. 5 op-ed, “Ask and ye shall not receive,” Eric Schorr praises his efforts “to advance peace, dialogue, and discussion” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His self-serving rhetoric, however, collapses under the weight of its own hypocrisy a mere two sentences later. Supporters of Palestinian rights at Columbia, he insists, “promote a culture of hatred.” Is it any wonder then that Mr. Schorr is unable to find partners for dialogue?

The evidence he cites for this “culture of hatred” is especially revealing. CSJP, he complains, “preaches occupation, oppression, and apartheid.” This sentence almost makes sense, but only if “preaches” is replaced with “seeks to generate awareness of and combat.” How can speaking out against injustice constitute hatred? Again, one needs to make explicit the unspoken (and false) assumption underlying Mr. Schorr’s argument: not only is Israel not guilty of perpetuating occupation, oppression and apartheid, but to even suggest that this is the case is to “promote a culture of hatred.”

Why is Mr. Schorr afraid to engage the substantive issues? Do Palestinians “face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools and access to roads,” as Human Rights Watch reported last year? Is “Israel’s apartheid worse than South Africa’s,” as argued by Israeli journalist Yitzhak Laor? Is a boycott of institutions “that support and facilitate the occupation” a moral imperative, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu insists it is?

At a campus with as rich a tradition of intellectual rigor as ours, Mr. Schorr’s pathetic assertion that asking such questions “promotes a culture of hatred” should be exposed for the attempt to silence free inquiry that it is—and rejected.

Hamdan Azhar
Research Assistant
Columbia Business School