CornellWatch

Most of Cornell’s class-attending pedestrians have encountered the earnest appeals of various student groups’ clunky quad displays. I, for one, have calmly settled into the habit of taking their message to heart, and then promptly forgetting it sometime during my requisite mid-lecture nap. After all, it’s a little unrealistic to envision a talking fetus named Elena, especially one giving you facts about her developing organs that she wouldn’t learn until at least ninth grade biology class.

When the encounter involves some 1,300 black flags commemorating the deaths of those killed in the most recent flare-up of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it did this Monday morning when they were installed, it’s a little harder to criticize the reality of the message or to exorcise it with a nap. Adding fuel to the fire, the flags’ accompanying signs — statements from the UN and Amnesty International about casualties and humanitarian aid — were vandalized by three seemingly “pro-Israel” students later that day. While that situation was quickly rectified and the signs restored, the worst was to come Wednesday night, when the flags were transfigured into a Star of David under cover of darkness, finally garnering the attention of President David Skorton. Here’s an excerpt of the statement he released this afternoon, which neglected to mention the whole, um, Star of David thing:

When legitimate forms of expression in our public spaces are vandalized or desecrated, respect for political and intellectual diversity is damaged and all other forms of expression are put in jeopardy. So, while we support the strong expression of opinion, we condemn the vandalism that recently occurred on the Arts Quad. The legitimate forum for expression provided on the quad and in other campus fora is equally available to all.

The statement also neglected to mention the fact that, by around noon today, the display had been rearranged into a peace sign by what might be called a coalition of the willing.

Khullat Munir ‘09, outgoing president of the Islamic Alliance for Justice, said that she and fellow organizers of the display learned of the reconfiguration around 8am and assembled after that to decide between taking the flags down altogether, putting them back in their original place, or repositioning them in the form of a peace sign.

“We didn’t want to see the Star of David exploited like that in an act of aggression,” said Munir. “Today was the last day of our display, so we knew we had to do something that would bring resolution. The peace sign is inclusive of many people. It’s a good way to show the perpetrators that we’re still resilient and that they haven’t intimidated us.”

Alexandra Perrotti ‘10, co-president of United for Peace and Justice in Palestine, was not involved with the original planning and installation of the display, but was in the text message loop. While she was happy with the number of “random people passing by” who helped out just out of concern, she said that she didn’t “think anybody expected this kind of vandalism from such an intelligent community.”

Perrotti and Munir both commented that Wednesday’s editorial in the Daily Sun mischaracterized the IAJ as the sole sponsor of the display: out of 12 people involved with the planning, less than half were involved with the IAJ. In addition to the student leadership, various administrators and professors supported and funded the display, namely Dean of Students Kent Hubbell ’67, Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Michelle Moody-Adams, and the Alice Cook House, which makes the editorialist in me wonder whether funding such displays implies a certain stance on the topic — especially after D-Skortz has stated that the University will not take a position and accordingly neither divest from Gaza nor Israel. (Somehow, I feel Cornell’s investment is slightly shifted toward the latter, but I have no way to spy on their closely guarded balance sheets.)

An additional issue at hand is whether the display could’ve been handled in a better way; namely, that the display was presented as one of “humanitarian awareness” of the Gaza Conflict, but in reality neglected to show the greater picture — Israel’s side. While he didn’t feel that the display was pro-Palestinian, Hillel president Jacob Shapiro ‘10 said, “We felt that it was pretty anti-Israeli. It was certainly a one-sided presentation of the facts.”

Munir, on the other hand, openly admitted that the display was “pro-Palestinian” and that invitation to help plan the display was extended neither to the Cornell Israel Public Affairs Com­mittee nor Hillel because “we did not expect a pro-Israeli group to have sympathy toward the disproportionate losses on the Palestinian side.” She said, however, that the biweekly meetings between the groups intended to foster dialogue about these issues, however, have been ongoing since the beginning of the semester.

The primary problem seemed to be not with the black flags but with the accompanying posters, which quoted statements from the BBC, the UN, and Amnesty International on the number of casualties and other related facts. In response to the feeling that the posters were one-sided, Munir said that “we did not point a finger at any country. We took internationally recognized sources and put them on these stakes. The purpose of this was to encourage awareness of the issue. spark interest, get people talking.”

The above sign quoted the BBC on the number of casualties, which agree with what UN Under-Secretary-General Holmes has reported. While he didn’t specifically doubt the overall number, Shapiro confesses that “it’s all so confusing and gray. The UN defines a kid as anyone who’s under 17. Certainly there’s kids that are firing rockets into Israeli territory. Even if it’s a Hamas militant, my heart breaks that he or she had to go down that route.”

Others who are uninvolved with the IAJ or Hillel have commented that the credibility of the casualty number is solid. Wasif Syed, a member of the Cornell International Affairs Review and the Muslim Educational and Cultural Association, stated that “the United Nations and Amnesty International are reporting from the ground. It’s a sour pill to swallow, but whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, whatever affiliation you are, we need to facilitate a discussion on campus of these issues.”

Another sign reported that the UN has denied humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Shapiro said is true insofar as they have done so because they have defined Hamas as a terrorist group.

In light of this controversy, Syed is planning a faculty panel on Wednesday, February 18th at 6pm in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall to address these issues. While he was not involved with the display, he envisions the panel as less of a debate regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and more as a way “to bring to light the humanitarian element of the situation.”

Both the IAJ and Hillel have declined to participate in the panel. Munir believes that the CIAR panel will not alleviate the situation or speak to the more complex issues surrounding the conflict. “As far as I know, the panel is planned to pit Muslims versus Jews. I don’t think the debate should be as simple as that.”

Shapiro felt that “next week just wasn’t the right time. People are really on edge and I don’t think we can thoughtfully prepare a productive event in only five days.” When asked about the peace sign, Shapiro saw the reconfiguration as an “appropriate response to the vandalization. I love peace and I’m not going to have problems with any symbol of peace. I think it would’ve been cool if that had been the original idea and we had worked together, but oh well.”

So, that’s about as much reporting as you’re going to get from me on a Thursday night and probably in a long while. Enjoy it! Also, the same exact story will probably appear in the Daily Sun tomorrow… but, don’t forget, you heard it here first.

Tags: alexandra perrotti, david skorton, gaza, Hillel, IAJ, israeli-palestinian conflict, jacob shapiro, khullat munir

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 7:01 pm by D. Evan Mulvihill and is filed under Ruh Roh!, news, opinion, serious shit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.