Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel (SCAI) will have us believe that they are really only interested in peace. In fact, in the introduction to their divestment campaign, they state, “While peace can sometimes feel elusive, divestment represents a practical step we, here at Stanford, can take to end apartheid and bring peace to Israel and Palestine.” Either SCAI is deeply misinformed regarding the situation in the Middle East, or they are trying to implement a scheme that will demonize Israel and impede the peace process.

Proposing divestment as a tool for peace is unreasonable. Divestment places all of the blame on Israel rather than recognizing wrongs and injustice on both sides. It incites anger and resentment and hinders the peace process. Furthermore, it prolongs the suffering of the Palestinians because their economy is deeply interwoven with the Israeli economy.

Many international observers of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict view it as a dispute over land. Many Israelis, however, see their very existence at stake. After all, SCAI’s website as of Jan. 27, 2007 has a myths and facts section containing the line “Myth #4: Israel has a right to exist free from terror.”

SCAI’s use of “apartheid” is another sign that they are not really interested in peace. If, as they claim, Israel is an apartheid state, why would the Palestinians negotiate with it? Why would America spend time and money working toward a peace process? Why would people all over the world who support democracy and human rights support Israel? They wouldn’t. Perhaps this is the true aim of SCAI’s rhetoric.

SCAI is not interested in peace, because you don’t make peace with “apartheid.” When SCAI is ready to have an intellectually honest conversation about the conflict and its many nuances, only then will they be working toward peace.

Thomas Friedman once said, “Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest.”

With this quotation in mind, let’s examine some of the recent events on campus. According to their website, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) is “dedicated to promoting awareness of current events and instances of human rights violations and injustice in the region.” Yet last quarter their five events were: Ending Apartheid in the Holy Land..., Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel: What really happened?, Breaking the Silence: An Evening with Former Israeli Soldiers, The Other Side of Israel..., and ...South Asian-Arab Solidarity against Israeli Apartheid. It doesn’t appear that the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East is interested in human rights violations in the “region.” It seems they are interested in singling out Israel. If they were truly interested in the region why wouldn’t they have events about the disgraceful way women are treated in many Arab countries, about honor killings, or about the horrific way members of the LGBT community are harassed and often killed in many countries in the Middle East? If, as Tala Al-Ramahi claims in her Jan. 26 Op-Ed, CJME’s “plea and struggle for seeking justice is color-blind, race-blind, religion-blind...” then why is their programming so Israel-centric?

This quarter we’ve seen the birth of SCAI, a group with largely the same membership as CJME, and so far they’ve brought us the launch of their divestment campaign followed by an event about the Jewish people’s exploitation of the Holocaust and misuse of the term anti-Semitism. I guess now that they’ve brought a Jew to campus to explain to us that cries of anti-Semitism are often unfounded, I should shy away from the topic and become reluctant to raise my voice at discrimination when I see it. Well, I won’t. If they don’t want me to use the term “anti-Semitism,” perhaps SCAI and CJME can come up with another word for their practice of singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East. Maybe they will find a word that makes their actions sound less vile. But, if this pattern of behavior continues, Stanford is headed in a very dangerous and hateful direction.

Mishan is a junior majoring in Public Policy and can be reached at mishan.araujo@gmail.com.