ד״ר עינת וילף Dr. Einat Wilf
Always a good time for a reminder that the “Justice” in the name of “Students for Justice in Palestine” is about undoing the injustice in their minds of Israel’s very existence as a sovereign state of the Jewish people. If they were ever “Students for an Arab state in Palestine”, an actual, constructive goal that is not predicated on negating Jewish sovereignty in the land, they would have achieved it long ago. But that has never been the goal, has it?
Dalia Ziada - داليا زيادة
Tomorrow, at the University of Maryland, I (an Egyptian scholar) will speak with the great Israeli author @EinatWilf and the great Palestinian human rights activist @realbassemeid about our very own region, the Middle East. Yet, the notorious Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are very offended to see three genuine Middle East thinkers coming together to conversate rather than fight. The mere optics of the three of us together on the same flyer was a threat to the SJP, who have been justifying anti-semitism and Hamas's jihadism over the past fifteen months by hiding behind the deceiving banner of supporting Gazans. Thus, the SJP led a letter-signing campaign to pressure the university administration to cancel the event. About 950 letters have been sent so far. They claim that our symposium is biased and controversial! Just imagine a symposium that has Palestinian, Israeli, and Egyptian speakers together is biased! What is neutral or balanced, then? The protests waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags at American universities and streets? When the university administration refused to cave in to the SJP's unjustified pressures and insisted the event would take place, the SJP took it to the media. Not surprisingly, they attacked Einat and me in particular. Could it be because we are women? The funniest part was accusing me (a devout Muslim myself) of being "dehumanizing to Palestinian and Muslim students." Well, let me tell you something. Since May 2023, I have spoken at more than 30 American campuses about the geopolitics of the Middle East. Many of my lectures were attended by students from Arab and Muslim backgrounds who did not mind sitting in the same room with Israeli and Jewish students. We had great discussions that were respectful and civilized. Meanwhile, the SJP members and their likes only showed up at some of my lectures to harass me and the students and prevent us from having a real discussion. I understand why SJP and similar organizations see me and similar credible and genuine Middle Eastern speakers as a threat. They want to monopolize the narrative about the Israel-Palestinian conflict and about Muslim and Arab issues in general so they can promote their twisted narratives as much as they want without anyone challenging their purposeful misinformation. As expected, the SJP may show up tomorrow with banners, yell, and shout. Meanwhile, we will hold our symposium and keep spreading our message about peace and hope in the Middle East, and we will continue to work hard to make peace happen despite the evilness of Hamas, Iran, and their supporters worldwide.
