Every year the International Studies program at Vassar has a course that includes an overseas trip. The IS program has gone to Russia, Cuba, Spain, Morocco, and Vietnam among other places. The students read up on the place for months, then go on their trip and come home and discuss the issues more. Students who can’t afford the trip get help from the college.
Members of Vassar’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter objected to the nature of the trip and met with the head of International Studies. Then the group staged an action against the class. On Thursday night, February 6, nine members of SJP, all but one a person of color, picketed the class. They gave out leaflets describing Israeli apartheid and Israeli appropriation of Palestinian water. They urged students to drop the class and, citing the Boycott, divestment, sanctions call, said that “the indigenous people of Palestine” did not want students going on this trip.
Friedman and Schneiderman said the demonstration went too far because they and some of their students felt intimidated. They communicated these feelings to college officials. In turn, the protesters said they were being unfairly targeted for complaint. And the racial issue came to the fore.
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