From Armond Cohen
It is certainly legitimate to criticize Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas and its failure to curb settler violence. But the Cambridge City Council, if indeed it is intent on acting, should focus on those specific matters. (“After six hours of public comment, Cambridge divestment orders are delayed to a special meeting,” Oct. 20.)
The proposed resolution’s language is not restricted to protesting specific actions of Israel. It instead can be interpreted to oppose Israel’s very existence by failing to define “genocide, occupation and apartheid” in respect to specific policies. The council should understand that in the fashionable anti-Israel discourse of today, these terms are a dog whistle signaling that the very existence of the state (which was brought into being with the support of the United Nations and recognized by the vast majority of other nations) is in its very essence an illegitimate “occupation” of formerly Ottoman and British Mandate lands. The vague wording of the order is likely not an accident and echoes the annihilationist rhetoric urging the current land of Israel to be liberated “from the river to the sea.”
That said, if the council wants to wade into the conflict, let’s also specifically name the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, and not cloak them in a generalized throat-clearing paragraph about abhorring violence across the board; if Israel is singled out as a bad actor by name, so should Hamas. And as long as we are looking to divest from violence enablers in the region, let’s examine whether Cambridge invests in Qatari-owned or -financed companies, since Qatar has been a major financial enabler of Hamas.
The council should have some humility about its knowledge of foreign dynamics and not be blind to unintended consequences. Cambridge’s enthusiastic support of the Sandinistas in the 1980s as liberation heroes has not aged well. I am not aware that the council has since passed any resolutions condemning ongoing human rights violations by Daniel Ortega and his thugs (nor, of course, by Hamas’ lethal internal repressive apparatus).
Finally, before voting on a complicated foreign policy matter, I would suggest that the council consider undertaking an educational tour of Israel/Palestine and availing itself of the firsthand views of the full range of protagonists.
Armond Cohen is a resident of Fenno Street in Cambridge.
