Israel/Palestine

Source: The Forward

The Obama Administration just approved a $38 billion foreign aid package to the Israeli government. This is the largest aid package to Israel in history, ensuring Israel can maintain the largest and strongest military in the region.

And yet, some of Israel’s advocates in Northern California say they’ve been battling for Israel’s very existence.

The existential threat? A one-unit, pass/fail course entitled “Palestine: a Settler Colonial Analysis,” in the Democratic Education at Cal program, known as DeCal, at my alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley. The class was to be run by undergraduate student Paul Hadweh, who grew up in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Students in the course were intended to have “researched, formulated, and presented decolonial alternatives to the current situation in Palestine/Israel.”

DeCals are known for giving students the freedom to teach unorthodox classes on topics about which they are passionate. I once taught a DeCal about the Jewish holiday calendar; we ate a lot of good food.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/350233/berkeleys-choice-to-nix-palestinian-course-disgusts-me-as-a-jewish-alum/

Note: The opinions expressed in the article don't necessarily reflect my own.