SFP and Jewish students sponsor awareness weeks

Students for a Free Palestine and members of Oberlin's Jewish community both tried to educate Oberlin about their ideas this week.

The groups sponsored Palestine Awareness Week and Israeli Independence and Memorial Day. Events included a number of films, speakers and tablings in Wilder Bowl.

The event held during the week that sparked the most conversation was a Students for a Free Palestine-sponsored speech by Kaukab Siddique, a professor at Lincoln College in Pennsylvania and the editor of a newsletter called New Trend. His topic Sunday evening was "Zionism and the Current `Peace Process.'"

The speech came just a month after former Black Panther leader Kwame Ture's speech sparked campus debate about Israel.

At his speech, Siddique also made literature available that advocated a boycott of businesses that support Israel and also express a Holocaust revisionist stance.

Students for a Free Palestine released a statement separating the organization from the literature Siddique distributed, as well as from the content of his speech dealing with topics other than the Middle East peace process.

One part of the statement reads, "We do not feel that by bringing a speaker to campus we should necessarily support all of his or her views."

Senior Arwen Kutner, a Jewish student, said that if the group did not agree with their speaker's literature, they should not have allowed it to be handed out.

The statement by Students for a Free Palestine said that their organization is not Holocaust revisionist. "We acknowledge and decry the atrocities of the Holocaust; however, our organization does not focus on this event."

"The reason we brought him here was to talk about Zionism," one member of Students for a Free Palestine said.

Kutner said she prefers to stay out of political debates about Israel. "I think both sides have good arguments politically about Israel, but when anything comes up that is straight anti-Jewish, it really upsets me," she said.

Wednesday afternoon, both organizations set up informational tables in Wilder Bowl. Jewish students also played music, handed out chocolate cake and danced in honor of Israelii Independence Day.

Conflicting ideas: Both Students for a Free Plaestine and Jewish students spent the week educating about their beliefs, which led to some debate between the two groups. (photo by Alex Warnow)