Public Transport in Brunswick

Letter to the editor: SJP petition is anti-Semitic

To the editors:
For the second time in as many weeks, Orient contributors have published articles as agents of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a movement that has called for an “academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions.”
Israel is not a perfect nation, and there are certainly aspects of its domestic and foreign policy that are open to criticism and debate. But make no mistake, the “Petition for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel” that has been circulated by SJP, is deeply anti-Semitic and should be labeled as such.
I make this claim within the framework of our State Department under former Secretary Clinton and President Obama who adopted the “Three Ds” test for identifying twenty-first century anti-Semitism
1. Demonization: SJP and its agents consistently and unfairly demonize Israel and compare its “genocidal practices” to those of the Nazis during the Holocaust or South African apartheid. Such comparisons are, of course, illegitimate and false.
2. Double Standards: The petition notes “Israel’s systemic violation of fundamental human rights.” The multitudes of nations with significantly worse human rights records than Israel (China, Russia and Saudi Arabia to name a small few) are left unmentioned.
3. Delegitimization: The petition questions Israel’s fundamental right to exist as a Jewish state and SJP’s agents label Zionism (the movement articulating the principle of Jewish self-determination) as racist.
SJP and their boycott petition fail the test.
In 2011, the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Hannah Rosenthal said, “When all academics and experts from Israel are effectively banned or their conferences boycotted, or individual Jews are held responsible for Israeli policy—this is not objecting to a policy—this is anti-Semitism.”
Rather than boycotting Israel, Bowdoin should strive to invite those from all viewpoints to campus and expand debate towards the shared goal of a peaceful two-state solution.
Sincerely,
Alex Linhart ’06

Letter to the editor: Importance of boycotting

To the editors:
The suicide rate among young Palestinians in Gaza is skyrocketing because their lives feel hopeless and they do not see a future growing up under Israel’s constant siege and almost biannual bombardment.
That juniors Zachary Albert, Rachel Snyder and Evan Eklund criticize the boycott of complicit academic and cultural institutions because “Israel’s right to exist” is “absent from” the “rhetoric” of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is baffling at best (“Denouncing SJP’s one-sided narrative,” April 10). The boycott doesn’t even call for a one-state or two-state solution. It calls on Israel to abide by international law: something it has adamantly refused to do.
The boycott, called for 10 years ago by hundreds of academics and faculty members in Palestinian civil society, is an institution-level boycott. This means that regardless of their political views, scholars from Israeli universities would be welcome to come and talk and present their research, as long as they did so as individual scholars, not as representatives or ambassadors of the state or its institutions.
The point of the boycott is to cut institutional ties with Israeli universities and cultural institutions for as long as they normalize, fully aid and abet Israel’s policies of apartheid, occupation, siege and systematic discrimination.
Sincerely,Christopher Wedeman ’15Student Leader of SJP

Letter to the editor

April 13, 2015

To the editors:

Whatever we may think of the College’s divestment from fossil fuel companies, most of us probably agree that using less of these fuels is a desirable goal to avert climate disaster. Personal vehicles account for nearly one-fifth of all U.S. emissions. Did you know that every gallon of gasoline you burn puts nearly 20 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

You might now be questioning how a gallon of liquid gasoline, which weighs about six lbs. can turn into 20 lbs. of carbon dioxide gas. Combustion in your car engine requires oxygen—the carbon dioxide emitted is mostly oxygen by mass.

So one trip down to Portland and back, in most cars, puts about 40 lbs. of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“Driven” by both a climate perspective and from the angle of a mom who wants her teenagers to have some transportation independence, I’ve become locally involved with advocating for increased availability of public transit in the Brunswick and mid-coast Maine areas.

The Town of Brunswick is currently in discussion with Portland METRO about expanding their proposed Portland-Freeport bus route to Brunswick. Imagine if you had the option to catch a WiFi-equipped bus several times per day from here to downtown Portland? Or to the mall—or L.L. Bean along the way? This project is likely to go ahead if Brunswick can gather local match funding. What do you think, Bowdoin Student Government? Would this be a good project to support?

Let’s think outside the car.

Sincerely,
Karen Topp
Karen Topp is a Senior Lecturer in Physics.

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