November 1989, Page 24

Education

US-Palestinian Sister School Agreements

Under Fire at U. of Wisconsin

By Edward Beidas

It is customary for American universities to encourage programs of exchange students from foreign countries to promote greater understanding and harmony among different cultures. This practice usually commands overwhelming support from universities, faculty members and students. However, when the international affairs director of the Wisconsin Student Association (WSA), Nadia Rahman, returned from an exploratory trip to the West Bank with a signed sister school agreement between An-Najah University in the occupied territories and the University of Wisconsin in Madison, she was met with harsh criticism from two local Jewish organizations.

Aliza Rieger, president of the Campus Coalition for Israel, described the sister agreement with a Palestinian university as "underhanded," and accused WSA of playing politics. Joanne Hovis, coordinator of the Madison Friends of Peace Now/Progressive Zionist Caucus also voiced her concern about the agreement and criticized WSA for not attempting to establish a similar relationship with an Israeli university.

The criticism drew a sharp rejoinder from Michele Goodwin, co-president of WSA. "We have two existing student exchange programs with universities in Israel, paid for by the University of Wisconsin," Ms. Goodwin said. She added that it was "precisely" for this reason that Rahman went to the West Bank to establish communication with a Palestinian university. She charged also that the trip was made with the approval of the student senate, which later reversed itself under pressure from Jewish organizations.

"It's racism and an obstruction of free speech," Ms. Goodwin charged.

She said also that it is the indifference or timidity of Americans who should know better concerning such efforts to erect barriers to understanding between Americans and frequently maligned people such as the Palestinians that allows special interest groups to flourish in the very areas where Americans most need information and education.

Edward Beidas is a free-lance journalist based in Chicago.

On the Rise Elsewhere

By Anthony Shadid

Although the University of Wisconsin Madison's sister university relationship with a Palestinian university is currently on hold, it is only one of a number of similar projects planned at campuses across the US.

The flare-up on the Madison campus has attracted the attention of students and faculty members working for similar sister university projects with Palestinian universities at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Iowa, Rutgers University in New Jersey and San Francisco State University. California State University at Long Beach established a similar relationship last year.

The University of Michigan students began work on their project last year, providing $3,500 for two students to travel to Israel and the occupied territories to visit Bir Zeit University, near the West Bank town of Ramallah. The students returned in August, but no agreement was signed by the Michigan students and Bir Zeit student council members.

Possibilities for such a formal agreement are slim at present. "It's a high probability that it won't happen in my administration," Michigan student assembly president Aaron Williams disclosed. A self-described conservative, Williams said issues at the campus level deserve more attention than international projects.

Steve Ghannam, coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) chapter at the University of Michigan, said his group and others will push to place a referendum on the ballot in the November and April student council elections. The referendum will call for the opening of Palestinian educational institutions.

Activists on several other college and university campuses across the nation are organizing for similar agreements based upon greater American student interest aroused by the Palestinian uprising.

"It is beginning to take place in a bunch of places, all over the country and the intifada has a lot to do with it," said Rabab Hadi, a PSC coordinator in New York. "There's an incredible amount of momentum across the country on the issue right now."

One peculiar aspect of the issue is that much of the activity on forming sister-university relationships appears to be occurring in the Midwest, with the Universities of Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan all working on projects. PSC Midwest Coordinator Dick Reilly attributes this to the midwest's tradition of activism on such issues as South Africa and to the large number of Palestinian students concentrated in that region.

Another issue may be the type of organizing activists engage in. "A lot of politiccal organizing for Palestinian activities in the East and West has been off-campus and at the community level, whereas in the Midwest it has been on the campus level," Reilly said.

On both the East and West Coasts, however, students also are mobilizing for work on this issue. Michel Shehadeh, a student at California State University at Long Beach, said the student council there passed a resolution approving a sister-university relationship with a Palestinian university. He said the current campaign is to have a similar resolution approved by the faculty senate. "Wherever there are Palestinian students, this sisterhood campaign is active and work is being done on it," he added/

Most of the campaigns appear to be working toward relations with An-Najah National University in Nablus, Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and Bethlehem University, according to Ginny Kraus, the PSC national director. Although not the largest Palestinian universities, they may be best known, and all are located near centers of the intifada.

One problem facing all such sister university projects is the fact that most student council members at Palestinian universities are currently under Israeli detention. Communication with Bethlehem University, a Roman Catholic institution, is very difficult, because the university was closed by Israeli authorities prior to the intifada and they have kept it shut down ever since. At An-Najah University, nine of the 12 student council members are in administrative detention or serving prison terms. The student council at Bir Zeit is facing a similar situation with 10 of its 12 members also in detention.

Nonetheless, activity at American campuses seems to be reaching the stage of critical mass. "We're on the verge of having several sister-university relationships all over the country," Kraus said. "There is an incredible momentum right now for this across the United States."

Anthony Shadid is a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a reporter for Isthmus,a Madison weekly newspaper