Sincerely,

The LionPAC Board

Sustained Security

• Since construction of the security barrier began in 2003, the number of terrorist attacks in Israel has declined by 97%.
• The purpose of the barrier is to establish security, not to create a social divide. It is not the permanent solution.

Economic Progress

• The Palestine Investment Conference is actively working on new and innovative ideas to advance the Palestinian economy. One project is the planned city of Rawabi, which is in its early stages, and once it is fully built, it will be the first planned Palestinian city.¹
• Ramallah, the largest city in the West Bank, has been undergoing a construction boom, and the large increases in property development are indicators of strong economic growth.²
• There have also been positive joint economic ventures, such as the burgeoning relationship between the Palestinian city of Jenin and the Israeli area of Gilboa. The two cities have worked to create joint business enterprises and are planning an industrial zone to connect the two cities.³

Working Towards Democracy

• Since the Oslo Peace Accords, 96% of Palestinians live under full Palestinian civil administration, of which 55% live under Palestinian security control as well.
• The Palestinian Authority has instituted its own criminal justice system and court structure to try Palestinian people according to their own legal system.
• The prospect of a viable Palestinian state is moving towards becoming a reality. This state will govern its own people by passing and enforcing its own laws. Israel, judged by its repeated offers to the Palestinians to create a Palestinian state, wants such a state to be created; Israel does not want Palestinians to continue to live under its authority.

Civil Equality

• All Israelis, including Arabs, have equal rights.
• Arabs have been elected to every Knesset (Israeli Parliament) since Israel’s founding. At present Arabs hold 14 of 120 seats.
• Palestinians living in the West Bank can bring cases to the Israeli Supreme Court if they feel that the security barrier causes them excessive harm. In the past, the Court has ruled in favor of Palestinians and ordered the route of the barrier to be moved.⁴

¹http://huff.to/89gSkd

²http://reut.rs/g1j213

³http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/Article.aspx?id=157631

⁴http://www.jpost.com/topic/Alfei_Menashe

As pro-Israel, pro-peace campus and community leaders from across the Ivy League, we join together to condemn the BDS movement and its conference at the University of Pennsylvania the weekend of February 3, 2012. We salute the pro-Israel organizations and the many Penn students who are spreading awareness about Israel’s religious, political and cultural diversity. Boycotts are an obstacle to peace.  They constrain dialogue by placing all the blame on one side. The BDS Movement fails to recognize Israel’s prior offerings of peace that have been categorically rejected by Palestinian leadership and therefore seeks to vilify Israel.

If the PennBDS organizers were truly interested in a lasting peace, they would have chosen a different path. Boycotting Israel does nothing to help Palestinians improve their own lives, or to help build democratic institutions where few exist.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be resolved through bilateral negotiations and mutual recognition. To create a strong foundation for peace we must support both economies by buying Israeli and Palestinian products alike. We should be supporting organizations like Hand in Hand, which builds integrated schools for Israeli and Arab children so that they can grow and learn together in the same classroom. If those behind the BDS movement truly believe in a two-state solution, they will support measures to bring the two sides together, not draw them further apart.

We, the undersigned, therefore reaffirm our solidarity with the students of University of Pennsylvania and the greater Philadelphia community. We applaud their efforts to tackle the challenges presented by the BDS movement and other anti-Israel campaigns. Finally, we pledge our continued support in defense of the State of Israel, a democratic state and stalwart ally of the United States, on our college campuses and in our communities across the country.

This week Columbia students will once again be subjected to the uninvited—yet ever-present and monotonous—propaganda of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This week, the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine will promote its Right to Education Week, the focus of which will not be education, but the distortion and mischaracterization of Israeli security against terrorism as a system of oppression against Palestinians. Those of you familiar with the back-and-forth swinging of the pendulum between the two sides on campus may be surprised to find that, this time, one of the sides will be taking a different approach to the debate.

The discussion on campus has fundamentally shifted in the last two years—in that it simply no longer exists. The two sides cannot be aptly described as pro-Israel vis-à-vis pro-Palestine. Rather, the dichotomy has become pro-Israel versus anti-Israel. When one side promotes dialogue, conversation, and mutual recognition, and the other side preaches occupation, oppression, and apartheid, there is a clear disparity of issues and a break in the direction of the discussion. The two sides are no longer parallel in path. I could bore you with a lengthy diatribe of facts and figures, but I propose a different way of determining this new dichotomy: Ask members of C-SJP a series of questions.

Ask them if they support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with two states for two peoples, living in peace and security and full mutual recognition. Ask them if they support the establishment of a Palestinian state, a Palestine as an independent, democratic state side-by-side with Israel. Ask them if they accept the legitimacy of systematic historic resolutions and declarations calling for the creation of two states for two peoples, such as the 1937 British Peel Commission, the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan, and the 1993 Oslo Accords. Ask them if the majority of Palestinians living in Israel, some who identify as Israeli-Arab, would prefer to live in a State of Palestine over the State of Israel. Ask them if Jews would be permitted to live in a State of Palestine. Ask them if they are referring to 1948 or 1967 when they say “occupation.” Ask them if they denounce Hamas and Hezbollah, two internationally recognized terrorist organizations—both have American, Israeli, and even Palestinian blood on their hands, both have stated unequivocally their wish to obliterate Israel, and both have threatened Jews around the world. Ask them if they will recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, as the land where Jews the world over have a shared history, language, culture, and religion. Ask them why the Palestinian Authority continuously rejects engaging in direct negotiations with Israel to reach peace. Ask them.

As a pro-Israel student leader on campus, I have tried to advance peace, dialogue, and discussion on issues relating to the conflict in the Middle East. I have tried to engage those involved in C-SJP during their “mock checkpoints” or “Apartheid Weeks” even in the face of growing cynicism. But what can you do when the people you are supposed to be in dialogue with refuse to recognize your legitimacy? Instead they promote a culture of hatred, and they speak not about a world with a Palestine, but about a world without an Israel. In contrast, LionPAC and the greater pro-Israel community seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict that recognizes the humanity of both sides, and the legitimacy of the two sides’ narratives. I want to believe that there are level-headed and open-minded individuals who will take an objective look at the issues when presented with contrary opinions. I seek partners who share my vision of a campus free of internal division and strife, and who, like me, long to see both peoples live in peace and dignity. Therefore, this is an open call to anyone who no longer wishes to hear the hostile rhetoric of the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine. If you want to have a conversation about the tough issues, about truth and facts, about narratives, about anything relating to this conflict, I invite you to come forward. Ask.

To sign up for dinner on Friday night, find any LionPAC board member or pay on PayPal. The $5 is definitely worth it for this amazing dinner!

If you have any questions about the weekend, please email lionpac@hillel.columbia.edu