An Open Letter to Anti-Israel Student Activists

As an Israeli peace activist, I say: If you from abroad want to demand something, demand a resolution to the conflict, not the annihilation of one side.

Anti-Israel protestors disregarded a notice from Columbia University administrators to remove their campus encampment. (photo: Layan J/X)

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This is a guest essay written by Rabbi Haviva Ner-David.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Share this essay using the link: https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/open-letter-to-anti-israel-students

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Dear Student Activists,

As a graduate of Columbia College (Class of 1991) and a peace activist who lives in Israel, I am watching videos and reports from my alma mater’s campus and wondering what I would have done if I was a student there now.

I am an activist and have been all my life. I believe strongly in the ability of grassroots movements and peaceful protest to change the world.

Since well before the current extremist right-wing Israeli government was elected, I have been demonstrating for peace. My debut novel, “Hope Valley,” is about the friendship between a Palestinian Israeli woman and a Jewish Israeli woman in the Galilee.

I am a very active member of Standing Together, a movement of Palestinian-Israelis and Jewish-Israelis working in complete partnership towards peace; Palestinian self-determination; and a more equal, just, and peaceful society within Israel. I am involved in a variety of groups and organizations committed to a vision of peace, justice, and equality for all people on the land “from the River to the Sea.”

I remain active in these groups even after Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7th. I am even out on the streets now calling for a mutual ceasefire and a return of all the hostages (many of whom it seems are tragically no longer alive), as well as for the resignation of government officials and early elections.

And so, if I was studying at Columbia University or another Western campus today, I would ask myself: Should I join your protests? After all, I, too, am pro-Palestinian.

But I am also pro-Jew.

When you chant, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!” and “From the Sea to the River, Palestine will live forever!” you are not calling — as I and my Palestinian-Israeli friends are — for peace, justice, and equality for all humans within those borders.

You are calling for the violent destruction of the country where we live, and the murder of its citizens — including the Palestinian ones. As we saw on October 7th, Hamas has no more sympathy for other-than-Jewish Israelis — not even for Muslim ones — than it does for Jewish Israelis.

When you proudly declare, “I am Hamas!” you are showing no sympathy or compassion for innocent civilians, including children, women, and seniors who were massacred and kidnapped by Hamas, nor for the women who are being raped in captivity (according to eyewitness accounts from hostages who were freed).

Even my Palestinian Israeli activist friends strongly condemned Hamas’ attack on October 7th and say Hamas is terrible for the Palestinian people.

And when you call out, “Say it loud and say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here!” you are fomenting violence against and silencing other students. You may disagree with them, but does that mean they have no right to inhabit your shared campus. Do you think I, an activist in the struggle for peace and equality for all in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, have a right to live?

Make no mistake; I have no problem with the keffiyehs you wear or the Palestinian flags you wave. But why is nationalist self-determination good for Palestinians and not Jews? Why is living in the Diaspora good for Jews and not Palestinians? And why do Palestinians have a right to live in security, but Jews do not?

At our local “Standing Together – Women Wage Peace” demonstration

Unlike you, I do not even consider myself a nationalist. But I do believe in people’s right to live in safety, and I do not believe in double standards.

While I am an activist advocating for Palestinian rights, I also advocate for Jewish rights. While I march for a ceasefire, I also march with the families of the hostages and am volunteering to translate into English testimony from the October 7th massacre — which is absolutely horrifying, even if there are those who deny it happened.

While you in the West demand that we be sacrificial lambs, you inhabit and benefit from a country unequivocally acquired through colonialism and grown through slavery. This is not the case with Jews in Israel (although the British may have had colonialist aspirations by being here), even if agenda-driven pseudo-historians try to convince ignorant students that it is.

Israel is far from perfect. I am outraged at the Jewish-supremacist, messianic, theocratic, anti-democratic direction in which the country is currently headed. But the answer is to try and change that direction, not to call for the country’s destruction.

I understand and relate to your show of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. The situation there is heartbreaking and devastating. But so too is the situation here in Israel, with:

• 133 hostages still in Gaza

• Missiles and drones being launched at us from three fronts

• More than 100,000 displaced families

• An entire country still in mourning and traumatized by the Hamas-led atrocious massacre on October 7th

• A huge portion of the population on reserve duty

• Tourism dead

• The economy a mess, and

• Terrible unemployment (especially in the Arab sector)

The scale is just different, for a variety of reasons that are as much the fault of Palestinian leadership as Israeli.

Our political leadership on both sides are using us all as pawns in this bloody conflict. It must end. They must agree on a political solution, and we, the grassroots from both nations, must demand this.

If you from abroad want to demand something, demand a resolution of the conflict and peace in the region, not the annihilation of one side. Neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian leadership are showing a desire for either of these goals at the moment, but this is what the people must demand if we are to achieve long-lasting peace.

The situation here is so much more complex than you care to understand. There is a bloody conflict going on, with people suffering and dying on both sides in brutal ways, not just in the past months but for the past century. One who studies the history and present will know that both sides are culpable and responsible for the conflict and its resolution.

Student activists, I too question the Zionist project. I grew up on the Zionist narrative. But when I discovered I had been told only part of the story, my answer was not to believe the Palestinian narrative over the Zionist one — because it, too, is only part of the story. The answer is to acknowledge both stories and both people’s suffering and try to find a way to hold it all and everyone’s humanity.

My ideal is for us to all live in peace and dignity on this land “from the River to the Sea.” That means two states, with perhaps down the line more open borders and cooperation — if we do the work to reconcile and heal. That is what my Zionism is about, not Jewish supremacy or theocracy; it is about having a safe place for Jews to live.

But not at the expense of another nation. And so, my vision for this place would have to be safe for everyone.

Thus if I was at a Western university today today, I would not join your protests. Because now I know I do not have to choose sides. I do not even have to buy into the idea of “sides.” This is a battle between those who support violence and an all-or-nothing approach to this conflict, and those who want to find a way for us to all win out by sharing this land.

It saddens me deeply that you are choosing — perhaps out of latent Jew-hatred — the way of violence and hate instead of cooperation and mutual understanding.

There are people living here in this very real place. We are not a theoretical idea. And some of us are Palestinians and Jews who are working together tirelessly to make our vision of peace and equality a reality. If you want to promote peace on this land, please support our work. What you are doing now undermines it.

With deep concern,

Rabbi Haviva Ner-David

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A version of this essay also appeared in The Times of Israel.