Israel Advocates at Columbia University to Hold ‘Indigenous People Unite’ Event to ‘Reclaim Narrative’ About Jewish Right to Native Land
Lea Speyer
The Algemeiner
Sun Dec 04 2016
Students at New York City’s Columbia University have launched a new initiative aimed at refuting the claim that Jews have no historic right to the land of Israel.
Rudy Rochman, the president of the Columbia chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) who is spearheading the campaign, told The Algemeiner that his group seeks to “reclaim the narrative” with an upcoming event entitled “Indigenous People Unite.”
“The Palestinians frame Israel and Jews as a movement that came to take away someone else’s and whose mere existence impedes on the Palestinian right of self-determination,” he explained.
According to Rochman, anti-Israel Columbia faculty and student groups — like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — “target the average student on campus by playing up and riding on the shoulders of other minority struggles,” while maintaining that the Israeli cause lies outside of that group. “It’s no coincidence they use phrases like ‘boycott’ and ‘apartheid’ when it comes to Israel.”...
