During Professor Joel Beinin’s visit to the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois in March of 2000, I was introduced to the seemingly esoteric topic of the plight of Jews in Arab societies subsequent to the establishment of Israel--specifically regarding his research specialty, the Jews of Egypt. In Beinin’s outstanding book on this subject, The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry, he explores the ultimately unsuccessful attempt of 75,000 Egyptian Jews to “maintain their multiple identities and to resist the monism of increasingly obdurate Zionist and Egyptian national discourses.”

The Israel on Campus Coalition’s (ICC) document “Countering Divestment and Encouraging Investment in Israel” is a Zionist effort to justify the existence of the state of Israel and its actions at a time when student activists all over the U.S. are taking up divestment campaigns as a result of the situation in Israel/Palestine.

The toddler divestment campaign, desperately trying to take its first steps, has found itself unable to muster the motor skills needed to make mom and dad proud. In its despair the divestment campaign has thrown a costly temper-tantrum over the last six months. Some reflection is required into why this movement has had such difficulties over the years. This paper only covers a sliver of the problems, specifically the ones that I have experienced, and the ones that seem the most important to address at this time in history.

Palestine solidarity activists face intimidation. If we are talented at what we do, organizing and educating about the nature of Israel’s white supremacy and colonialism, it is a real risk that we may lose our jobs or get thrown out of school. That the media, the twin managers of corporate capital and trade union bureaucracy, and even so-called defenders of intellectual freedom are liable to turn against us is an occupational hazard. John Watson, member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, and student editor of the South End, the campus newspaper of Wayne State University in Detroit, confronted these obstacles in 1968.The paper published an article/editorial favorable toward Palestinian guerrilla operations against Israel. The reaction far outstripped anything before thrown at the South End and set off a series of events that would lead to Watson being pushed out as editor.