Princeton and the massacre in Palestine: the danger of selective empathy
Israel “better rid itself of the territories and their Arab populations as soon as possible.” If it does not, Israel will “soon become an Apartheid State.” These are the words that journalist Hirsh Goodman recalled in 2009 from a radio speech from the founding father and first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, after the Six-Day War in 1967. Thirty-five years later, Israel’s former attorney general Michael Ben-Yair described Israel as an “apartheid regime,” a sentiment echoed by the former education minister in 2007, the former environment minister in 2008, the UN, Amnesty International, and a myriad of independent human rights organizations. Yet, many Princeton administrators and students continue to “stand with Israel.”