The Hillel Jewish Student Organization will host its first “Israel Week,” a series of events this week celebrating Israeli culture.
“Israel Week” will include a panel discussion entitled “Prospects for Peace in the Age of Obama,” a film showing, a block party, a memorial and live music, said Isaac Freeman, vice president of Israel programs for Hillel.
Alpha Epsilon Pi, JEWLS, Christians United for Israel, Sooners for Peace in Palestine and Sooners for Israel are among other I-Week contributors.
Hillel hosted an Israeli-themed block party in previous years around April 29, Israel’s independence day, but decided to follow the example of other universities that offered week-long celebrations, said Freeman, international security studies and political science junior.
He said there are many misconceptions about the country.
“There’s this preconceived image of war, but that’s only a small fraction,” Freeman said. “I’ve seen Israel. It’s beautiful and incredible.”
Shayna Daitch, Hillel president, said the Israeli people do not want to see violence.
“They just want to live in harmony,” said Daitch, Judaic and international security studies sophomore.
She said the focus of the week isn’t about the conflict or violence in Israel, but about Israel’s culture.
“We’re not doing anything political this week,” Daitch said. “We are having a discussion panel but it’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s about what we’re going to do next for peace.”
Daitch said she hopes students learn more about Israeli culture and are openminded. She said she believes Israel is more of a cultural melting pot than the United States.
“Most people think Israel is this war-torn or religious Mecca,” she said. “In reality, it’s so much more. It’s an ethnic and religious mix.”
Israel Week Events
Monday: “A night to honor Israel” at 7 p.m. in the Henderson-Tolson Cultural Center
Tuesday: “Prospects for Peace in the Age of Obama” discussion panel featuring David Ray, political science professor; Ariel Ahram, international and area studies professor, and Houssan Muhammad, a political science professor from the University of Central Oklahoma, at 8 p.m. in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Beaird Lounge
Wednesday: Israel Block Party featuring free food, coffee and T-shirt sales from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the South Oval
Thursday: Interfaith Memorial Victims of Middle Eastern Violence at 10 p.m. at Hillel
Friday: Israel Café featuring food and live Israeli music performed by students and faculty at 7:30 p.m. at Hillel
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jewsaac 3 years ago
To reply to the fact that Israel is an "apartheid state", it is the only state in the entire Middle East where arabs, no matter their background or gender, are given full enfranchisement as long as they are israeli citizens. Israeli Arabs have all the same rights and privileges of Jews in Israel. They can vote, they can serve in public office, they have the right to free speech, they have the right to marry whoever they wish, they have the right to live free of honor killings, etc. Israel is the only country in the entire Middle East that has universal suffrage for Arabs and the only real democracy that gives them a seat at the table with little to no preconditions, even putting Arab parties in the position of being able to break or make coalitions within the Israeli government.
As far as impressions not being based on reality and Israel being a police state: As someone who has been there, I can tell you that it is most certainly not a police state. There are parts of Israel that do have intensive security, and when there is a terrorist attack or a bombing, of course security is heightened, but for the most part Israel is a free and liberal society on par with most European cities. That's the point of this week: to help people realize that there is so much more to Israel than what happens on the fringes in conflict areas like Sderot or Ramallah.
jewsaac 3 years ago
Also: a correction- the discussion panel on Tuesday is at 4:30 in Meacham. At 8pm on Tuesday is a film screening of "The Band's Visit" in Beaird Lounge.
JJanowiak 3 years ago
The idea of a week celebrating Israel makes me a little uneasy because quite honestly I don't see much about Israel today that deserves celebrating since it's basically an apartheid state and not something most people would call a melting pot unless you're talking about a melting pot of different Jews.
Hillel's idea that people's impressions of Israel aren't based in reality is interesting but a dangerous kind of play to make around American people right now since that's basically what the Bush administration, through official statements and its paid network of military analysts on TV (see this year's Pulitzer for investigative reporting for more about that) told the American people and boy, were they wrong. This isn't to say that Israel is a bad place, indeed I bet it can be pretty awesome as long as you're not an Arab. Given that the country is in such a mixed state of affairs, it just feels inappropriate for this goy to be trumpeting what is and basically has been a police state.
Not to say that the Palestinian sympathizers on campus are much better: one keffiyeh-wearing member of Sooners For Peace told me he would like to see some dead Zionists and, without sounding like Daniel Pipes, I wonder how many of the people proudly sporting their symbols of solidarity really understand the breadth and ambiguity of the conflict. Oh well, if the falafel is free...
JJanowiak 3 years ago
Just to clarify, I'm not really invested in one side or the other on this, but when you have articles like this: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22611 being published in the New York Review it makes it hard to draw out those tears of sympathy. But then when you have Abdul Kabani, who's someone like the president of Sooners for Peace in Palestine telling me he would either like to kill Zionists or see Zionists killed (can't remember which one I was so horrified) in the tone of some ignorant petulant rat I wonder if this is how the Palestinians feel. And the whole Israeli citizenship thing. woo-wee.
The whole thing is just so complicated, you know? You can try to come to some grip with what the actual reality of Israel and Palestine but it's so hard when everything is so contradictory. This is why I feel it's worth abstaining from celebrating Israel in the absence of conclusions that will take many years to form.
jssooner4 3 years ago
Jjanowiak, I wonder what you would say if a student group were to hold an Iran awareness week. A country led by a denier of the Holocaust, where woman have few rights, and where the government rules through fear. Would you be up in arms against these wrongdoings as well? I would hope you would see past these human rights violations and accept the rich culture that Iran has. This would go for any other nation. To say that the Hillel organization should not celebrate Israel because of your personal views is ridiculous. How bout we look at our own country, a country that we now know broke numerous international laws by torturing combatants and by holding thousands of people in jail without a trial. The fact is, every country has political issues it should deal with, but they also have great cultures that we should exalt in hopes of igniting passion in citizens to bring peace. Like jewsaac said, there is a rich diversity in Israel that many people are unaware of. There are Christians, Jews, Arabs, and people of many different elasticities and racial backgrounds. You cannot deny this for I have seen it with my own eyes.
JJanowiak 3 years ago
jssooner4, I never said Hillel shouldn't have an Israel week because of my personal views - that would just be stupid. I said that I'm uncomfortable celebrating a country whose legacy I feel ambivalent about, which is something you'll hopefully agree is a reasonable response. If they retitled it "Israeli Culture Awareness Week" then maybe that would be a little different. Same deal with Iran - I sure as hell won't celebrate anything about the country, but they do make some good films (even though they're not as good as they could be if they weren't censored).
But I think it's a little unfair for you to compare Israel to the U.S. - the mechanisms of oppression in Israel are far more immediate simply because the country is smaller. I don't see a separation wall when I go driving around. Whatever. If you think it's unreasonable to abstain from celebrating a country that you believe is extensively involved in bad things, including the U.S., you're unreasonable.