“Blue Pill or Red Pill?: The Neo-Liberal Institution and its Reaction to Pro-Zionist & Pro-Palestinian Activism on Campus”
Presented this at the Association for Asian American Studies held in Evanston, Illinois on April 23, 2015.
This is draft 2, a work in progress - a historiographical account on how fouryear institutions navigate Israeli and Palestinian activism and how administration sees it as a Jewish and Muslim inter-faith dialogue issue. I rewrite this presentation for the Association for Asian American Studies, originally presented as a “How To” and a “What To Do” for a Student Affairs presentation for Southern California universities in preparation for the week of May 11th. I focus on the role of campus community centers in their unique and violent space within the institution and how activism, in its many manifestations, create a campus climate where identities are regulated, funded, defunded, and cause havoc among the higher administration of the university.
I am a Student Affairs staff, an administrator with a lowercase “a,” as well as an academic; I am situated in a nexus between student life and academia where I know my political and intellectual grounding, but have to create an inclusive campus environment. This paper is not a mere rant about my positionality, but a glimpse of how Student Life/Student Affairs navigate, pathetically if I may add, campus climate around Israel, Palestine, Jewish, Muslim, and students of color activism. The university, in its goals to create an inclusive and “safe” campus environment, does not see that it causes more problems for the students, aggravates faculty, and entice non-university community members to take up arms against students and student activism. There are little academic references here, but will address student development and institutional policies (and funding) to give light to how the divide between academia and Student Affairs around these issues continue to grow and create a hostile environment for student activism.
The creation and formation of many multicultural, cross cultural, women’s and LGBT or Pride centers stems from liberal and 1960s-1970s progressive Jewish activism in the need to address inter-cultural, gender, and sexual issues on various campuses throughout the nation. Ethnic specific centers, though fought by the communities that they serve, received institutional support from Jewish staff and administration to assist and empower various marginalized communities in their navigation around the academic institution. Multiculturalism within Student Affairs have a deep tie to Jewish staff and faculty activism and many of these centers in the pre-1990s, supported Jewish and even Israeli activism – seeing Islam and the Middle East not compatible with American style of liberalism and progressivism. Even within Asian American Studies, the dialogue continues on where to place “Arab American Studies” and does Arab American Studies encompass the overall Middle Eastern diasporic communities that don’t identify with the term “Arab.” If this is still happening in academia, at least the conversation is happening in an intellectual and historical context, while in Student Affairs, it is grounded on spirituality alone – a Jewish vs (literally versus) Islam type of dialogue.
It was only after 9/11 did many institutions begin a to see a change in dialogue between Islam and Middle Eastern students’ needs and identities with that of overall marginalized students needs. It was during this time, that campus images of Islam and the visibility of Muslim student activism became a campus initiative, only to be questioned when (hyper)visibility of pro-Palestinian activism began to be make it to local and national news.
Prior to 9/11, campus community centers rarely had a connection with their campus’ Muslim student organizations. Often called either Muslim Student Association (MSA), Muslim Student Union (MSU), or Muslim Student Organization (MSO), this student organization only used their campus multi/inter/cross cultural centers to host prayer services and/or find resources to have their on-campus Islamic Studies usually done by a sheikh (Muslim teacher) or imam (Muslim cleric) from a local masjid/mosque. The Cross Cultural Centers of UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, San Diego State University, and San Jose State University were such campuses. The Muslim students rarely connected with other marginalized student communities especially when addressing gender, gender identity, and sexuality. Within the California State University and the University of California systems, no MSA, MSO, or MSU have a direct connection with their campus women or gender equity center and especially refuse to have a connection with their campus LGBT or Pride center. These centers were seen as “too liberal” and contradict foundational teachings of Islam. Even within multi/inter/cross cultural centers, interaction were minimal and remained as a space for religious programming. It was critiqued that these cultural centers were too close to Judiasm and Jewish students who many connected to Israel and Zionism. Peace seders was a program that many cultural centers coordinated with their institution’s Hillel (the non-profit, on-campus Jewish support organization), but rarely were supported by their Muslim students as it was seen as makrooh (disapproved practices). Within the CSU, UC, and University of Washington systems, it was only after 9/11 did Muslim students begin to take an integral part in these Peace seders.
This fragile relationship with cultural centers, Jews, and Muslims drastically changed as the 2nd intifada continued. Silenced within the Jewish and pro-Palestinian communities on campus pre-9/11 campus life, student organizations began to change in 2002-2004. The national coalition of Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan (MEChA) took up a resolution to endorse and support Palestinian right to exist and support their campus’ pro-Palestinian students in 2012 and ratified the clause for divestment in 2013. Many Asian American student organizations also began to organize around pro-Palestinian activism and began to ally themselves with their campus Muslim student organization if there was no Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Though various Asian & Pacific Islander student unions or umbrella organizations began supporting pro-Palestinian activism, it also created the internal divide among various API communities. Within the west coast public institutions, umbrella API organizations supported this stance as well as the Filipina/o, Nikkei/Japanese American, and Pacific Islander student organizations. Vietnamese, South Asian, Hmong, and Korean student organizations, who saw themselves as more politically conservative, separated themselves from these unions and some even aligned themselves with their campus’ Republican Party organization. It was also around this time when Jewish students began to distance themselves from cultural centers, align themselves with conservative political values, and began to be hypervisible in their pro-Israel and Zionist activism. At UCSD, the Jewish student organizations disaffiliated with the center because of the overwhelming student organizations that supported pro-Palestinian activism and were also connected to the community structure of these campus centers. Whereas only few Jewish students connected with women and LGBT or Pride Centers prior to this shift, they began to use these spaces to address the political and social conditions of women and LGBT-identified individuals in the greater Middle East and the exceptionalism of Israel. Hillel, and various Jewish student organizations, began to connect with these centers as they began to distance or severe their ties to their campus’ cultural center.
From 2006-2010, the visibility of pro-Palestinian activism hit national news. Conservatives call it Anti-Semitism Week, while many student activists call it Justice in Palestine Week. This falls on the week of May 15, commemorating the Nakba (the Great Catastrophe), the day after the declaration of the birth of Israel of 1948. Common to this week is the raising of a mock-wall that portrays the separation wall between Israel and Gaza or West Bank. On these walls are pictures, statistics, and histories that address the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, independence, as well as Israel’s policies towards Palestinians and religious minorities. Various speakers are invited to campus ranging from historians, religious leaders, poets, and academics. Cross-communities programming also are present that address the intersectionality between Palestinian and other marginalized identities. This, however, is where the divide among the community members also begin. Many campuses have both a Muslim student organization and a Students for Justice in Palestine. As both organizations fundamentally believe in a sovereign Palestinian state, both have different values around its existence.
In California, MSA has called upon a Muslim Palestinian state while SJP calls for a multi-cultural, pluralist nation-state with a Westernized form of democracy and where women’s rights as well as LGBT rights are recognized and secured. This divide in activism can be seen on various campuses as well. SJP partners with Queer students of color groups as well as radical feminists of color to address settler-colonialism and Israeli exceptionalism. On the other hand, Muslim student organizations rely on funding from their student body government and would only do programming around Palestinian rights rather than the intersectionality of Palestinian identities. For pro-Israel and Zionist organizations, their funding source tends to come from local Jewish communities and ironically, local Republican Party organizations. Funneled through Hillel, these cosponsored events also have speakers and presentations on the importance of having a Jewish state and the relationship of the United States with Israel for national interests. Hillel, in 2010, also began erecting their own version of the wall, calling it the “Peace Wall.” This wall includes histories, data, and statements of the need for Israel as well as pictures of Palestinian terrorists killing Israeli and non-Muslim minorities both in Israel and in Palestine. Israel Solidarity Week culminates with a Solidarity March done by Jewish students, staff, faculty, community members, and the local Republican (or at times, Tea Party) members. New to many campuses is a student organization funded by evangelical churches called Christian United For Israel (CUFI). It is during this week, that campuses throughout the nation, prepare new mission statements, prepare for news coverage, and ask Student Affairs personnel to be extra visible on campus as to mediate any situations that may arise. This is where I step into this histographical narrative.
The Cross-Cultural Center at UC San Diego is one of the few cultural centers that works with both pro-Palestinian and Zionist groups as well as advises Jewish and Muslim students. I came to this institutional administrative role without any training or education in student developmental outcomes or higher education studies. I guess I considered myself a “by-chance administrator.” I became the advisor for both organizations and communities, assisting in their programming and mentoring their board. A queer, intersex, indigenous Asian American working with Jewish, Zionist, Muslim, and pro-Palestinian students. The university saw it fit that my connection with both communities would allow them to navigate the various non-campus entities as they make their way into the university during this aforementioned week. The university deploys me to talk to community members, student leaders, and to be hypervisible during this week as they see that I am, but a few staff members that “can navigate between walls.” (as stated by former UCSD Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs in 2012)
Fearing external organizations’ reaction and the press, institutions regulate student activism during this week, yet there is an extreme bias on what type of programming are regulated. Pro-Palestinian programs are under more scrutiny than Zionist programs especially when students have to defend in front of their student body where there funds are going. The university is also in fear of any external organizations monitoring the various pro-Palestinian events as well as requesting the funds requests, email correspondences, and student information under the guise of Freedom of Information Act. I, along with my staff, have been the scrutiny of this Act for over 5 years. Yet under the Privacy Clause, we will never really know who asked for this information.
As many campus begin to vote and adopt divestment resolutions ranging from ending contracts with companies that benefit from Israeli presence in Gaza and the West Bank to defunding Israeli-based academic programming, administration cannot regulate on student body politics and student activism that are voted democratically. Campus administrators, in their effort to solve an international issues, demands student centers and campus entities to host inter-faith dialogues between Jewish and Muslim students, but would regulate the staff coordinating the event to limit the use of “Israel” and “Palestine” in the conversations. Often though, these staff members are White women as seen in many of the UCs and CSUs. At some of the colleges, who doesn’t have a cultural center, the staffs of the student office/center were asked to partner with their campus’ Hillel and Center for the Study of Religion to have an inter-faith dialogue. These efforts were very unsuccessful as many students felt pressured to be part of a dialogue that was closed from the rest of campus and were literally in a small room where Jewish students sat on one side and Muslim students sat on the other. In UCSD, the 2010 dialogue ended horrifically as the director of the Center for Student Involvement hosted a closed lunch dialogue with Jewish and Muslim students serving them pepperoni and sausage pizza. The only other options were croissants and as much as the coordinators were upset that no one ate the pizza, they were excited that the students “broke bread with each other” (a Christian analogy that I was confident enough that the students did not know the reference to). It was only in our debrief that I explained that Jews and Muslim students could not eat pork and only ate the croissants because it fit their dietary laws. The organizer was hurt that what they thought was a successful start to an inter-faith dialogue, was actually a failed attempt of the neo-liberal institution to address Jewish and Muslim campus life. The university began to look for “experts” in Jewish and Muslim culture and, because of my positionality, I was frequently asked for consultation before any events around Jewish and Muslim identities were initiated.
As I share these campus accounts on Jewish and Muslim campus life and how student activism around Israel and Palestine trigger a campus-wide reaction, there is no real answer to how to address both situations. Many of you have come to this presentation hoping to hear a resolution to the situation, but in reality, there is none. Campus life around Israel and Palestine will always be complicated, but institutions should never try to regulate both communities nor bend to the will of external organizations in their demand to end one communities’ activism. Jewish and Muslim life should never be seen as part of the Israel and Palestine discussion. The university doesn’t understand that there are Christian and Jewish Palestinians who don’t identify with Israel and that there are Jews who don’t support or acknowledge the state of Israel’s right to exist. When bringing this up, many administrations are shock that these sub-communities exist. This presentation’s goal is not to give resources on how to address their campus climate, but to share a brief history of campus issues around Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, and Palestinian activism.
This draft is still a draft. I can always try to put Puar or Abdulhadi in this, but this presentation was meant for Student Affairs personnel. Something you will hear in NASPA or NCORE and never really in AAAS. The fault in this research is exactly that – there is no resource for me to quote or reference to, as there is neither research done on Jewish and Muslim student life nor any articles outside of inter-faith dialogue programs around Israeli and Palestinian activism. In the various Student Affairs presentations and conferences I have attended and done, all the intersectional identities and complex personhoods are addressed and spirituality is regulated to Christian privileges on campus. This queer, intersex, indigenous Asian American who doesn’t identify as Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, or Palestinian is the only one willing to bring this up at a national level as audience members sit quietly and not raise their hands after as they feel embarrassed to admit that their institution has served ham sandwiches or made man and women sit beside each other at inter-faith dialogues in hope to address pro-Palestinian and Zionist activism in their university.
Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez is an activist, scholar, educator, comedian, and social justice advocate. He received his BA in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego and his MA in Sociological Practice from CSU San Marcos. His various works looks at indigenous identities and politics, cultural studies, race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, and sexuality. A Katutubo American, his father is part Igorot from the Tuwales people of the Ifugao tribe and his mother is both Lipi from the Tina people of the Hambali tribe and Moro from the Laya people of the Iranun tribe. His projects look at the role of Igorot and Moro American identities fit within a national project called ʺPhilippine-Americaʺ and ʺPilipin@ Americaʺ coming from an actual indigenous perspective. He is very critical of folk dances and has been commended by various scholars for being the first Katutubo American scholar that can be critical of diasporic Philippine identities and cultures from an indigenous point-of-view. Though a scholar, he is also very involved in Student Affairs and works at UC San Diego's Cross-Cultural Center and coordinates various Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Desi American programs on campus ranging from the heritage month, to access and outreach programs, yield and retention, and scholarly lectures.
