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Brown University Graduates  Dangerously Uneducated Students

by KAREN HURVITZ

Sunday marked Brown’s 257^th commencement.  Although Brown claims to promote rigorous scholarship… and service to the public good…” many graduates displayed an ignorance – and indoctrination – that was as shocking as it was passionate.  They wore stoles saying “Free Palestine!”  One student displayed a huge QR code people could use to donate to 3 organizations. She proclaimed: “After 18 months of genocide, after 7 decades of occupation – it’s abhorrent.”

It is her ignorance of history and facts that is abhorrent. Israel – including Judea and Samaria – constituted the biblical kingdom of Israel, predating even the use of the term “Palestine” by 1,000 years.  The Romans changed “Israel “to “Palestine” after they destroyed the Jews’ Second Temple, leveled Jerusalem, and exiled the Jews, insultingly using “Palaestina,” a Latinized version of the name Philistine, ancient enemies of the Jews. Ever since, Jews have maintained a continuous presence in Israel/Palestine.  After the Holocaust, in 1948, the UN adopted Resolution 181, dividing Britain’s Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states when the mandate expired. The Jews accepted the Resolution; the Arabs didn’t.  Immediately after Israel declared statehood, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon attacked, their goal the extermination of the Jews.  They were unsuccessful. Since then, Israel has had to defend itself against similar genocidal wars: in 1967 (when Egypt’s President Nasser declared the object of the war was destruction of Israel), in 1973 ( when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur), and in 1978, 1982, and 2006 with Lebanon in response to Palestinian attacks and abduction of Israeli soldiers.  The Gaza war was started by Hamas, whose charter states “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it….”  In furtherance of this goal, on October 7^th, Hamas slaughtered over 1200 Israelis, and kidnapped 225, 82 of whom were murdered, with the 146 freed or rescued tortured and starved.  The only correct label of the term “genocidal” applies to Israel’s neighbors.

So: first, Israel is a legitimate country.  There have not been 70 years of occupation, other than of their ancient homeland. Second, the only genocidal goals and actions have been those of Israel’s enemies.  Israel has surrendered land for peace (withdrawing completely from Gaza in 2005 and uprooting Jewish communities there). In wars, Israel warns the civilian population to evacuate areas it intends to target to avoid civilian casualties.

It is abhorrent that Hamas uses human shields, using hospitals, schools, and mosques for military operations and missile launchers, which increase their own civilian casualties and constitute war crimes under Protocol I of the Geneva Convention.

It is abhorrent that students are being misled into funding terrorism.  One of the organizations the student is fundraising for is MECA for Peace, which claims to provide aid and education to Middle Eastern children.  Its website includes multiple articles on a year of genocide and massacres by the “occupation army”.   Where do donations go?  Among others, to MECA’s Teach Palestine Project, which provides free materials for K-12 and universities and has been used in Canadian, US, and international schools.  It is a virulently anti-Israel curriculum, teaching that Israel is a brutal, occupier entity with no historical connection to Palestine (all maps in the curriculum and on the MECA website label Israel as Palestine).  Teach Palestine links to websites which enumerate Israel’s “crimes” and exhorts “Free Palestine” – shorthand for destroying Israel.  “Free Palestine!” was Elias Rodriguez’ cry when he murdered the Israeli embassy staffers. Freeing Palestine predictably leads to violence against Jews and Israelis.

Brown is graduating students who have been indoctrinated, not educated.