Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:My name is Dina Jacir and I was the student from Hampshire's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) interviewed for the Sophian. I wanted to make some clarifications regarding misinformation in the story, made explicit in the title "Controversy surrounds Hampshire's recent divestment from Israel." Hampshire never divested from Israel, but more importantly, SJP never asked or campaigned for divestment from Israel. What we asked for, and what we were successful in achieving, was a specific divestment from corporations that profit from the military aspect of Israel's occupation of Palestine. These companies produce machinery or infrastructure that are used by the Israeli military in occupying the West Bank and terrorizing Gaza. The companies we targeted were Caterpillar, Motorola, Terex, United Technologies, General Electric and ITT Corporation. So it is misleading to say that Hampshire has divested from "Israel," and to suggest that SJP asked for this, as it differs from a targeted divestment of war-profiteering corporations. Unfortunately, this is a mistake echoed in much of the press surrounding the divestment story at Hampshire. Also, there is no need to put quotation marks around "occupation." There is nothing controversial about calling Israel's military occupation of the West Bank an occupation; it is the legal term the U.N. uses to define the situation, and that occupation is illegal under international law. To put quotations around it seems to question the validity of that fact, negating the legitimacy of the Palestinian voice and those who advocate for a just end to the occupation. However, I appreciate your attention to the issue, and as a journalism student myself, I understand the pressure of deadlines and the difficulty of covering difficult and confusing topics.

Thanks for your time,

Dina Jacir




To the Editor:

This week's Sophian has a lead article titled "Controversy surrounds Hampshire's recent divestment from Israel." The front page article continues on page two, and in the fourth paragraph down, the article says that an online letter by the President of the College Ralph Hexter and Chair of the Board Sigmund Roos "strongly emphasized that the school had no intention of targeting Israel in the movement of the fund." It goes on to quote the letter, "Sadly, though, there have been students and some members of our faculty who have mischaracterized what happened here, claiming that the board did something it did not."

Clearly, the headline of the Sophian article is misleading, in the extreme.

There is great propaganda value for forces supporting divestment in this kind of headline slant. Its impact is strong, for all its misstatement of facts. The damage this campaign does to the peace process; the damage it does in attempting to delegitimize the state of
Israel; the damage to Jews who feel that a strong connection to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, is incalculable; abetting the campaign by reporting as true what is merely asserted by one group, and absolutely refuted by the parties involved, is unfair, deeply hurtful to dialogue and process - in fact, destructive.

It is fine to report that a group of students who condemn Israel have initiated a movement for divestment, but to say that Hampshire's action is a result of, or in support of, that group, when representatives of Hampshire explicitly deny that, is to misstate, and distort.

As a faculty member here at Smith, (featured in the same issue - in a very positive article about my play, actually, which I deeply appreciate) I must register my concern.

Thank you,

Ellen Kaplan
Professor of Theatre