By: Skylar Ribotsky
While I have shared my name at the beginning or end of many articles, I realize that I have been writing for The Ribotsky Institute for six years, and yet many of our readers know nothing about me. You see, part of this has been out of my own doing to ensure I can share my views freely, being honest with our readers while also ensuring that I don’t invite people to attack or harass me for said views in my day-to-day life (both in person and virtually). Though Since October 7th, a lot has changed, and today, that includes the level of anonymity I have had on this platform for so long.
I am a 20-year-old Jewish American, and more importantly, I am a Jewish American college student at Binghamton University which is part of the SUNY system. I have referenced antisemitic incidents that have occurred on my campus (along with many others) in previous articles though I never pointed for fear of sharing this information, but more recent events at Binghamton University have left me no choice.
Last Tuesday the Student Association at Binghamton University’s congress held a meeting and a vote on a resolution (S2324-R11) drafted by one of the students currently attending the university. Resolution S2324-R11, is titled, Resolution Calling for Binghamton University Divestment. The resolution calls for the university to cut all financial ties with weapons manufacturing companies such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Blackrock, whom they claim, support Israel via the U.S. support to Israel. It goes on to explain that this extends to the university not being allowed to have these companies at events such as career fairs. Further, the resolution calls for the university to dissolve partnerships that they have in Israel and that the university student association (not including subsidiaries, separate clubs, etc., which is how these students thought they could get around the fact that implementing BDS violates NYS law) “will not partner with, sponsor, or endorse organizations that support Israel’s gross violations of human rights…((Brechner et al., n.d.). ” The resolution proclaims that the Student Association at Binghamton University will recognize, “the military offensive in the Gaza Strip as an act of genocide…and that they [Binghamton SA] deem Israel an apartheid state.”
They go on to demand that the university administration recognize said ‘military offensive’ as an act of genocide. The author of this resolution also went on to demand that SUNY chancellor John B King sever his relationship with the Universities United Against Terrorism Coalition calling this group, “a pro-Israel coalition of universities.” Because a group of universities who have banned together to announce they are against terrorism is somehow a negative thing? Does no one find that rather bizarre from a group claiming they want peace, considering terrorism is the antithesis of said goal?
Following hours of questioning, speakers from both sides and following a motion not to vote on the resolution that night, which was seemingly approved, the ‘pro-Palestinian’ group found a way, making subsequent motions, which ended up in a vote, in which this resolution was passed through the Student Association. Now, we all know this does not mean much for the entirety of the school, for the administration would have to vote on it and enact it too, which we doubt that they will. However that is not the point.
These pro-Palestine students who supported this resolution spoke one by one about doing this for humanity, though, incredibly early on in the night when SA voting representative and president of Binghamton University’s Zionist Organization, Saul Hakim, made a motion to amend the resolution and add to its call for a ceasefire, a call to release all the hostages being held in Gaza, to which they needed about a fifteen-minute recess to discuss amongst the members of their group. If you need any amount of time to discuss if you are comfortable calling for the release of hostages that were taken into tunnels in Gaza by terrorists over two hundred days ago now, you clearly do not care about humanity. Whether you are Israeli, Palestinian, European, or American, we are all humans, hence the word ‘humanity’.
You see, I transferred to Binghamton University in the Spring of my Freshman year following one semester at American University, where I experienced a type of antisemitism that quite frankly, I didn’t know still existed. I chose Binghamton University because of its Jewish community, I’m not alone in that Jewish students who attend Binghamton would tell you the same, and while the Jewish community at Binghamton University is something I do not take for granted; it deeply saddens me to see what has happened in recent months.
I have watched as students on my campus likened the IDF’s response to an unprovoked terror attack by Hamas, whose stated goal is to get rid of every Jew, murdered and raped innocent civilians, took hostages whom they are still holding, beheaded babies, and burned entire families alive. I watched as my peers ripped down posters of hostages, on numerous occasions.
My Jewish friends were spat on after a pro-Palestine rally, and when they went to report it, they were met with no real action taken by the university. Our own attempts at speaking with the administration for allowing behavior that not only endangers Jewish students but violates the University’s own code of conduct have gone unanswered. I watched a Jewish student wearing a kippah in the University Union turn around and run in fear, as protestors stormed through the Union after the end of their protest outside (many of the attendees at this protest have no affiliation with Binghamton University). I watched as a fellow female student at the university published a piece in the school paper diminishing the brutal rape of Israeli women. It’s important to note that this student did put out a notice where she corrected mistakes she made in the original piece, and tried to explain what her actual intent was, you know since there was some confusion after she published it. She said she was merely trying to respond to how The New York Times covers these stories claiming that at The Times they are making this story bigger than it really was as a means of perpetuating hate against Palestinian people(s). As if the rape or mutilation of countless women as a tactic of war (which is a war crime by the way) is not a big deal period. I can assure you all, that no one who read this piece and was rightly outraged by it was confused about her stance, she stated it clearly herself, “…now the victimization of Israeli women, whether or not sexual abuse occurred on Oct. 7, is an instance of white women’s tears that will result in real, material consequences for the Palestinian people (Ha, 2024).”
As a Jewish woman who attends this school the dehumanization of my people, of Jewish women, as no more than ‘white women’s tears’ is not just hurtful but quite disappointing in 2024. If women cannot support other women, where there is evidence of their rape, then the rest of this is a worthless conversation. Binghamton’s Student Association, voting to pass the resolution to enact BDS on our campus, is a culmination of six months of unchecked antisemitic tension boiling under the surface at Binghamton University.
We here at The Ribotsky Institute want to be very clear with you, there are things that
are indisputable, no matter what all these seemingly ‘woke’ college students want you to believe, BDS is a hate-filled movement with reported close ties to Hamas itself. The main umbrella of BDS was not private about their support of Hamas’ actions on October 7th. Further, data has proven that on college campuses that have enacted or had similar BDS votes antisemitic incidents are up. The most critical point to take into account is that if enacted, BDS policies do not help the Palestinian people, it hurts them, for, many of them rely on their jobs………………………………………………………………………………………………….. in
ISRAEL. If they care about the plight of the Palestinian people, why are they pushing an agenda that only hurts those very people?
You see, BDS is not a new thing, though my peers did do a decent job in their attempt to put a nice spin on what this organization and movement truly stands for. Claiming that their desire to adopt their previously outlined policies has nothing to do with Jewish students and that they are against antisemitism. However, these are the same people whose supporters and friends could not find it in themselves to be respectful when a peer of ours spoke about his
brother-in-law who was brutally murdered on October 7th while serving in the IDF. These are the same people who poured water on pro-Israel chalking on campus and took to the student social media platform Yik Yak before and after the vote to express their disdain and disgust not for the war in the Middle East, but for Jewish students on campus.
As I stated earlier, this is just the student association, not the university passing this resolution but the idea that any group or representative body on Binghamton’s campus was allowed to push their antisemitic rhetoric this far is reprehensible. The fact that Binghamton University has become a place where these hate filled beliefs make it a hostile environment for Jewish students is unacceptable, and as one of those Jewish students, I refuse to be silent about the antisemitism that is becoming normalized at my school and every other.
Since this is an institution of higher education we should all be forced to learn what genocide and apartheid actually mean and look like. Words actually carry meaning behind them. These students should also learn that Zionism does not mean unequivocal support for the government of Israel, rather, it’s the belief that Israel has a right to exist, and that the Jewish people have a right to return to their ancestral homeland.
I want it to be known that it is not my belief or my agenda to claim that Israel has never been wrong in actions they have taken, but we are no longer talking about the actions of a government overseas, these students are just using these terms to perpetuate hate towards their Jewish peers.
Furthermore, it is not my desire to cause hate for any other group of people on my campus or in my classes, where we are all supposed to be free to have our beliefs, but I urge everyone reading this to wake up and take a look around at what is happening at all these college campuses in America, these are modern day pogroms. Jewish students across the country have been sounding the alarm bells for the last six months. There is nothing progressive or humane about masquerading antisemitism with issues against the state of Israel.
Citations:
Ha, J. (2024b, February 11). Sexual trauma does not justify further violence in Palestine. Pipe Dream.
https://www.bupipedream.com/opinions/sexual-trauma-does-not-justify-further-violence- in-Palestine/147460/
Brechner, T., Acosta-Nuñez, O., Almawaldi, R., Young Democratic Socialists of America at Binghamton University, Binghamton University Students for Justice in Palestine, Binghamton University Feminist Collective, The Yiddish Bund of Binghamton, Binghamton Graduate Student Employee Union, Latin American Student Union at Binghamton University, Dissenters at SUNY Binghamton, Binghamton Arab Student Association, Binghamton Muslim Student Association, University Tenants Union of Binghamton, Binghamton Sikh & Punjabi Student Association, Binghamton Pakistani Student Association, The Binghamton Henna Club, Revolutionary Student Study Group, Binghamton Disabled Student Union, Binghamton Policy Project, . . . Rainbow Pride Union. (n.d.). S2324-R11: Resolution calling for Binghamton University divestment.
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