by Janani Balasubramanian, ’12
Dear Palestine,
On behalf of the student body of Stanford University, I am so sorry.
Four days ago, our undergraduate student government voted to support the continued invesment of our university’s money in corporations that profit from your suffering.
Palestine,
you have to understand this is the Obama age of politics.
the Obama age of hope and change and Haas Center fellowships.
Every day in our classrooms we invent new words for violence
call it ‘human rights’
call it ‘conflict’
call it ‘democracy’.
Every day we invent new loopholes to owning our privilege.
We are too young.
We are not the decision makers.
This is not our fight.
Stanford would never profit from colonization.
Stanford would never.
Palestine,
we are scared children
in a waking nightmare.
And we are expert at keeping our eyes closed.
Our institution does not teach us
about allyship,
how to listen to a struggling people,
how to heed their ask.
Our education has robbed us of humility, of strength, of patience,
made us forget that revolution does not happen in a 10-week quarter,
that it is like the earth itself revolves:
slow, immense.
We do not understand the huge sense of time
you hold in your struggle,
your decades of suffering,
your decades of resistance.
Palestine,
one of our senators suggested a Bing trip to your land
as an alternative to divestment,
We are trying to take field trips to regard
the bulldozers we are funding destroying people’s homes.
Palestine,
we will take the profits from our investments
and write grants to research you,
we will service learn at your borders,
we will cultural theory you.
But Palestine,
we will not divest from your suffering because this
this challenge you are posing
is probably too difficult.
By divesting
we are admitting our own smallness.
When my Zionist peers joke about being oppressors,
I understand they are making light
of what is a heavy position.
For people in power
divestment is like looking
in the mirror and cutting off an arm,
like looking in a mirror
and confronting the harshness of our success,
the way our stomachs are filled on violent histories,
the way our university shines bright red in the sun,
the way our Mausoleum has but one body inside but thousands of spirits.
The way Israel is built on occupied Palestinian land
the way Stanford is built on occupied Ohlone land,
the way Israel is built on white supremacy,
the way Stanford is built on white supremacy,
the way the United States is built on white supremacy.
None of this place belongs to us,
and we would kill before we give it back.
Colonization does not just look like evil,
it also looks like good people being silent.
it looks like our study abroad programs,
it looks like Hoover Tower,
it looks like Senators abstaining from divestment.
Most evil is done by people
who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
Dear West Bank,
Dear Gaza,
Dear Intifada,
I am sorry that my peers
could not do something
minimally decent in solidarity
with all of your suffering,
that they have been robbed
of their kindergarten capacity for speaking out
against unkindness.
For now I can only offer my adoration
for your continued struggle
and all your radiant darkness.
Dear Palestine,
With Love,
Janani
Janani is a South Asian electron spinning around the Bay Area making art and scholarship. They like thinking about apocalypse, decolonizing the food system, and making space for quantum queers everywhere. You can view more of their on queerdarkenergy.sqsp.com, and about their happenings with poet-activist-comrade Alok Vaid-Menon at bit.ly/queerdarkmatter. Janani’s also assistant editor over at blackgirldangerous.org.
It’s disappointing when STATIC posts articles without any context or further reading when it comes to complex issues. I am NO expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and I don’t expect STATIC editors to be either, nor do I even expect posters to be, but I would hope that a website meant to promote dialogue is not reduced to simplifying debates like the divestment one taking place on our campus into one-sided rants.
It is hypocritical and offensive to the notion of an activist to make this a website on which voices are left out of the conversation. A preface at least or a related post should welcome information from “the other side” – especially when a specific group of people is referenced. Again, it’s disheartening when I see a post that denigrates anti-divestment students/Republicans/any kind of person involved in some way with an activist issue without context. I appreciate where this author is coming from but this is a sensitive topic and I doubt it’s helpful to the situation to paint a picture of good and evil from one point of view. I also doubt any issue is so simple as good and evil – that’s just my personal opinion.
This is not meant to comment on my thoughts about the content of this piece, I’m just expressing my frustration with how pigeon-holed this website can be.
STATIC does not have any official political position. It does have standards, and it solicits posts from activists, people who do service, or posts about improving the world in general; it also publishes things that other newspapers would not. That does not mean it would reject an article against divestment. I am not actually speaking for the website in any formal sense; I am on staff, but that just means I have been told several different but related things about what STATIC might be, and have my own contribution.
But to your larger point, I personally don’t think this website needs to provide context for each individual point of view being expressed, especially not for a poem. I think the site’s emphasis on personal perspectives and experience is a great strength. So perhaps you might address a comment to Janani asking for context and clarification.
Finally, a word choice issue. “Denigrates” may carry certain implications, often belittling someone based on some identity, as if they don’t have the same feelings and rights as anyone else. “Anti-divestment”, “Republican” are not a “kind of person” or “evil”, but are about views that a person holds, ideas they spread and actions they take. So criticism as such is about what they do and how that impacts others, not what they are or their personal life.
The way Israel is built on occupied Palestinian land
the way Stanford is built on occupied Ohlone land,
the way Israel is built on white supremacy,
the way Stanford is built on white supremacy,
the way the United States is built on white supremacy.
None of this place belongs to us,
and we would kill before we give it back.
Colonization does not just look like evil,
it also looks like good people being silent.
it looks like our study abroad programs,
it looks like Hoover Tower,
it looks like Senators abstaining from divestment.
Most evil is done by people
who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
You guys are too extremist and you will never convince anyone with this message.
“None of this place belongs to us,
and we would kill before we give it back.
Colonization does not just look like evil,
it also looks like good people being silent.
it looks like our study abroad programs”
Erika, I agree with what a lot of what you are saying but you seem to be white-washing Janani’s position here to make it seem less radical than it is. Saying that white people have to recognize privilege is very different from saying that we simply don’t belong here.
Even though my ancestors come from Europe, America “belongs” to me just as much as it “belongs” to any Native American because it’s my homeland. To suggest otherwise is incredibly prejudiced.
As a side note, I don’t understand what our study abroad programs have to do with colonialism. If someone could explain that to me, I’d appreciate it (not being sarcastic here)
The question as stated was not whether white people belong on this land, it was whether the land belongs to us.
Do Americans have the right, not so much as individuals but as a white-dominated country, to keep out Latinos who are descended from Native Americans, or to keep out Native Americans who live in Mexico? When did those Native Americans decide the borders between the US and Mexico? There are policies to try to address some of these questions, but they don’t provide good solutions; here is an entire wiki about indigenous tribes and how they are affected by that border.
The question of what “giving it back” would look like is not one I have practical answers to–I have more to learn, writing about decolonization to read, and I’m not sure what answers they will provide. But US anti-immigration policy is injustice after injustice founded upon centuries of injustice. With white supremacy at its core.
And what to say to over 7 millions of Palestinian refugees who were exiled from their homelands and living in diaspora since 1948? Israel is a racist state building its regime on apartheid and genocide! who’s still hearing about Jewish or Christians or Muslims only states?! even the radical and extremists Muslims and Arabs are stepping forward in building democratic regimes but Israel is still robbing lands and building settlements of Jewish only in the originally Palestinian lands!
Palestinians (i’m one of them) are welcoming Jews to live in our lands if the right of return to the native Palestinians is satisfied
Wow… this left me speechless… so beautiful, so truthful, so powerful… So obvious and yet people don’t see it? why is that? how is that?
thank you for speaking out, your words could not have been more clear and direct
I agree. I am tired of them taking the role of the victims and keep crying. Why don’t you create a democratic government in Gaza? Why do you keep throwing rockets to Israel? You have to understand that Israel cannot negotiate with terrorist animals like Hamas. Keep a democratic government for a few years and then Israel will listen to you.
Guys, Palestinians have Gaza. Why don’t they create a democratic government and build a Palestinian nation instead of having Hamas as their leaders and throw rockets to Israel every day? Why don’t you stop blaming everyone else and playing victims instead of growing up and taking responsibility? I hope one day these Muslim extremist understand that their authoritarian ways are wrong.
Do you understand the conditions people are living under in Gaza right now?
Beyond powerful. Kudos.
So what now, you think Israel should be done away with as a country? Just tell those 8 million Jews to pack up and go somewhere else? And what about the millions of White Americans? Tell them to pack up and go back to Europe where they belong?
You can’t just “give land back.” The fact of the matter is it really doesn’t matter if White people’s ancestors stole American land. For the people who were born and raised here, this *is* their homeland, regardless of whether they’re White, Black, Asian, etc. The only thing you can do moving forward is make sure the various different peoples who now live with each other can coexist.
But we can’t coexist if White people (I’m ‘white’ btw) don’t acknowledge the fact that in order for us to have got here, our ancestors had to occupy this land, commit genocide against most of the native tribes of the land and decimated their way of life. Now, I shouldn’t go back to Sicily (where most of my family is from), yes, because I don’t know Sicilian Italian, nor do I understand the culture of living in Sicily, despite the strong Sicilian heritage my family has maintained. But I should be aware that on my maternal grandfathers side of the family, one of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower, and he, along with all of them, were responsible directly for killing indigenous peoples. Even if my family had just moved here from Sicily, I STILL as a white person would benefit from those white cultural predecessor’s actions. The key is that through understanding this, we can change our actions, and encourage others around us to change their actions, to counteract their colonist narratives, and though systems of oppression and privilege founded in colonialism and racism. And Janani quite excellently, in my opinion, challenges white people to reframe their view of how we got to where we are today, so we can better understand what we need to do to create a new history moving forward that does not systematically privilege and oppress people arbitrarily. Now, as this relates to Gaza and Israel, I’m hardly the expert on that area, and as someone with no connection to that area, I really shouldnt speak to it. These are just my thoughts on the general notion of what youre talking about.
Unless you want to racially segregate Palestinians on transportation and tear down their homes, I think you need to go do research on what divestment does.
And what to say to over 7 millions of Palestinian refugees who were exiled from their homelands and living in diaspora since 1948? Israel is a racist state building its regime on apartheid and genocide! who’s still hearing about Jewish or Christians or Muslims only states?! even the radical and extremists Muslims and Arabs are stepping forward in building democratic regimes but Israel is still robbing lands and building settlements of Jewish only in the originally Palestinian lands!
Palestinians (i’m one of them) are welcoming Jews to live in our lands if the right of return to the native Palestinians is satisfied
“who’s still hearing about Jewish or Christians or Muslims only states?!”
Are you kidding me? It’s called f***king Saudi Arabia.
And Israel is not a Jewish only state. Over 20% of the population is Arab and the official languages of Israel are both Hebrew and Arabic. As opposed to Saudi Arabia which only relatively recently uplifted its ban on Jews entering the country.
To Anonymous: you probably know perfectly well that Israel by and large wants to maintain itself as a Jewish state, and that is exactly its problem. The Israeli government is moving toward a law *again* to define Israel as a national state of Jewish people, as if the star on the flag, the discriminatory immigration policies, and the denial of Palestinians’ right of return weren’t indicator enough.
Otherwise, why would they worry about Arabs being a demographic threat? And why have they been threatening Ethiopian women into taking birth control until the scandal finally got out enough?
People keep talking about “there are lots of Arab states, why can’t there be a Jewish state” as if there were no difference among different Arabs, as well as no difference between being Arab and being Muslim. That’s deliberately ignorant.
“People keep talking about “there are lots of Arab states, why can’t there be a Jewish state” as if there were no difference among different Arabs, as well as no difference between being Arab and being Muslim. That’s deliberately ignorant.”
I don’t know what you are talking about here. No one is claiming that being Arab equals being Muslim. The truth of the matter is that there *are* Muslim only states like Saudi Arabia where Islam is imposed on the entire population, practicing non-Islamic faiths is illegal and conversion away from Islam carries the freaking death penalty.
Where is your outrage against Saudi Arabia? Why is it that these Muslim states can commit the most vile atrocities and human rights violations and liberals remain silent, yet when Israel tries to defend itself from being annihilated by its rabidly antisemitic neighbors it’s portrayed as this evil nation.
Israel’s attempts to maintain itself as a Jewish state is reactionary in nature and although some of its policies may be controversial, they all stem from this fear of being swallowed by Islam. Everywhere Muslims dominate they set up a system of religious apartheid. Don’t pretend like this isn’t the case.
For instance, here’s an excerpt from Hamas’ charter, which is a direct quote from the Islamic Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed):
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews , when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
The Muslim world is incredibly antisemitic and this antisemitism has its root in Islamic scripture and Islamic history. The truth is that if the Israelis weren’t Jews there would be no conflict. The Muslim world is upset that non-Muslims want their own state on what they consider “Muslim land.” For centuries, Christians and Jews were forced to take on dhimmi status and pay extra taxes to be allowed to live on Muslim land. As long as they were second class citizens all was fine. Now that Jews have the audacity to demand equality and not to be dhimmis, the Muslim world is in outrage.
Anonymous: in your previous comment you specifically said “it’s called f***ing Saudi Arabia” as if that alone implied it’s a Muslim-only state.
You also said “Israel is not a Jewish only state”, without addressing its discrimination against non-Jews until I brought up specific points.
The fears that Israel as a nation has, and that fears that many Israelis share with it, are understandable. But they are also distorted in order to distract from Israel’s human rights abuses.
While my comment was specifically addressing your point, you are also employing distraction tactics, including shifting the focus onto “liberals”, presumably American from context. I or someone else could counter every single point at length, including the blindingly obvious explanation of why we should react to the USA’s problematic role in the Middle East directly and through Israel. What accusations would you have next, in what directions?
I do not wish to play this game and I am mostly making this comment to highlight the pattern you’re following, intentionally or not.
“Anonymous: in your previous comment you specifically said “it’s called f***ing Saudi Arabia” as if that alone implied it’s a Muslim-only state.”
The previous poster said there was no such thing as a Muslim only state and I pointed out the glaringly obvious example of Saudi Arabia. It *is* a Muslim only state. Any person with even the tiniest bit of knowledge about global affairs would know this. That’s why I didn’t go into more depth, the original posters claim was ludicrous.
I also only mention liberals just once in my post, but anyway, so what? That doesn’t invalidate the points I made above. The fact that you are harping on this one little thing while ignoring everything else I wrote suggests to me that you are incapable of actually defending your views and are looking for a way to discredit what I say without actually having to do the work to discredit me.
The rest of my post was not a “distracting tangent” but was entirely meant as evidence to support my claim that Israel fears being swallowed by Islam. My quoting the hadith, mentioning the Jews historical status as dhimmis, etc all support the fact that Israel is struggling to stay alive and is doing what it can to not be annihilated. I’m sorry you couldn’t (or chose not to) see that.