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Anti-Israel Claims of Ethnic Cleansing Have No Place in the Columbia Spectator
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Jennifer Roskies - In "A Jewish Argument for Divestment" in the Columbia Spectator (Sept. 23, 2020), two Columbia University undergraduates unleash vile accusations against the Jewish state, including that of ethnic cleansing. Subsequently, the student body voted 61% to 27% "to recommend that the University should divest from companies profiting from or otherwise supporting Israeli policy toward the Palestinian people." With regard to ethnic cleansing, we recall the photographs documenting the Jews driven from the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, their home for centuries, by the Arab Legion in 1948, with Jews forbidden to even set foot in Jewish holy sites until the city's reunification in 1967. Consider the irony: The article appeared just as the UAE and more and more voices in the Sunni Arab world formally and publicly recognize the Jews as a people with a historical connection and indigenous presence in the Land of Israel. The writer is Director-General of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.