Israel Matzav: Harvard students told Arafat's grave to be moved to Jerusalem

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Harvard students told Arafat's grave to be moved to Jerusalem

In an earlier post, I reported on a pilgrimage by Harvard University students to Yasser Arafat's grave, which was financed by the Boston Combined Jewish Philanthropies. A couple of the students have posted blogs about the trip, which make clear some of the things the students 'learned' in Ramallah. Here's the first one (both blogs came from Truth Revolt).

The Israel-Palestine conflict is urgent for my green-sweatered friend in Ramallah whose house had been destroyed twice. Ambassador Dore Gold and Col. (res) Dr. Eran Lerman spoke to us about security at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. One map after another filled the screen in front of us as our speakers turned geographic boundaries into calculated threats, like the range of rockets, or the time needed to mobilize troops from A to B. For them, Israel’s fight is urgent. The man who spoke to us at Yasser Arafat’s grave emphasized the grave’s temporary location, to be moved to Jerusalem when (not if) Palestine reclaims the city. The conflict, for him, is urgent.

Here's the second blog.

The amazing organizers of this trek are all Israelis. Five of them are Jewish and one of the is Arab Israeli. Was it easy for them to see the grave of Arafat, who is responsible of the death of so many Israeli civilians, their beloved ones specifically? But does that dispute the fact that the same person is also the founder of the PLO, hero of so many Palestinians symbolizing their fight for independence?

It is not at all easy to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is exactly why we listened to speeches at Harvard by Ari Shavit, the author of the book ‘The Triumph and Tragedy of My Promised Land’ and Ami Ayalon, the former head of the Shin Bet, Israeli National Security Agency, who was appointed to the position right after the assassination of the Prime Minister Ytzhak Rabin. Then, during our tour in Israel, we were lucky enough to hear from Jodi Rudoren, the editor in chief of New York Times Jerusalem, Danny Siedemann, an attorney very much involved with the negotiations process, Dore Gold, foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister Netanyahu, Nadav Tamir, senior policy advisor to the President of Israel Simon Peres, Eran Lerman, Deputy National Security Advisor for Foreign Policy and International Affairs, Dr. Rachel Korazim, a Holocaust educator, a Rabbi from Jewish settlements in West Bank and an Israel Defense Force officer along with those two Palestinian leaders.

Actually, out of the named speakers, there are a lot more people of the Left than of the Right. I've added some links that explain why.

Was there an agenda here? Did the pilgrimage to Arafat's mausoleum fit in with that agenda? I leave that to the reader to decide.

Labels: Ami Ayalon, Ari Shavit, Dore Gold, Harvard University, Jewish Federations of North America, Jewish philanthropy, Jodi Rudoren, liberal Jews, Nadav Tamir, Palestinian incitement, Palestinians, Yasser Arafat