Three University of Chicago departments teamed up with the Jewish United Fund to bring a former Israeli military officer to campus to define the criteria necessary to make drone warfare and targeted killings more ‘moral’. Protestors demonstrated outside and students walked out in the middle of the event.
Amos Guiora, Professor of Law at the University of Utah and 19-year veteran who advised Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip, spoke today about how targeted killings can and should be legitimized. Guiora made the point that he approached the issue of drone warfare from an academic point of view as well as from the perspective of his long career in the Israeli military fighting “for peace”. This is when some audience members chuckled. At the front row, a dozen students and community members turned their chairs the other way and faced the audience, commenting briefly on the absurdity of his statements.
Guiora continued his speech but after alleging that Israel had historically committed itself to peace, the dozen demonstrators walked out while reminding the remaining audience of Israel’s previous commitments, including its invasion of Gaza last November, its invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009, and its occupation of Palestine for six and a half decades. [Read more...]
What I hope to see in Israel’s housing protests
In the last post on the housing protests sweeping Israel, I discussed the major reason why I find the movement in its current state to be flawed: the only housing policies the protesters seem to be openly demonstrating against are the ones that affect the Jewish Israeli sector of the population rather than the discriminatory governmental policies and procedures that target the minority Arab population. Any alternative or progressive stands that champion Palestinian rights just as staunchly appear to be marginalized and have yet to be recognized as a foundational pillar of the protests.
Plus, people contend that the movement is still young and that it hasn’t yet had time to centralize every possible housing issue, but I do not think this excuses the one-sidedness of the liberals protesting in the street. It has been over two weeks of protesting and the issue of the occupation has yet to be grazed.
So what do I hope to see in Israel’s housing protests? I do not object to Israelis demanding reforms that would lower housing and living expenses but I do object to the fact that the following list of demands are being ignored or set aside to the periphery. The way many demonstrators are pitching it to me, these protests are an opportunity for coalition building, an opportunity to bring down the government’s current “security first, people second” policy and subsequently elevate the minority voices. But I have yet to see any of that happen on a concrete basis, and until I hear these demands making headlines as well, the protests will remain fundamentally flawed, at least in my eyes.
A non-comprehensive list of demands: [Read more...]