Concerned faculty, alumni, and students have signed an open letter in opposition to California State University’s resumption of its study abroad program in Israel. The letter expressed concern for the safety of American students in Israel, a country that is on the State Department’s travel warning list. In addition, signatories shared the sentiment that establishing a study abroad program in Israel, but not in Palestine, would be unfair:
Reinstating a CSU Study Abroad Program in conjunction with Israeli universities without similar programs in cooperation with Palestinian universities would be one-sided.
The letter also takes issue with Israel treatment of Palestinians:
To restart the CSU International program in Israel at this time would not reflect well on the CSU’s commitment to the universal right to education. Israel has consistently violated its obligation under Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires the Occupying Power to facilitate the proper functioning of educational institutions in occupied territories. Israel remains the Occupying Power because it retains effective control in all these areas, and exercises this control by making education difficult or impossible for Palestinians in a variety of ways: blockading, besieging and bombing schools and universities; suspending delivery of books and educational supplies; restricting or barring the movement of students, teachers and researchers to their institutions of learning, as well as to travel abroad for educational purposes. Because of these actions, Israel has deprived hundreds of thousands of Palestinians of their right to education.
With regard to an Israel study abroad programing being “one-sided,” Inside Higher Ed pointed out that such a standard has never existed in the past for the hostile neighbors of other study abroad destinations, like China (Taiwan) and India (Pakistan). David Klein, a professor of mathematics at CSU Northridge and the letter’s primary author, had this to say:
“Israel is the largest recipient of foreign aid from the United States, it has the most powerful lobby of any country, and the control over academic discourse critical of Israel is extreme in the United States. So I feel that somebody needs to stand up to this, and many other people do too,” Klein said.
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.