Is Israel committing genocide against Palestinians, and does it matter? Attempting to answer that question is getting US international students deported and defunding universities. As far-right governments use fear and resentment of Jews and Muslims worldwide, the world needs to look to students for a new approach that doesn’t blame the victim. Perhaps we should begin by listening to a young student from Türkiye currently imprisoned and slated for deportation for sharing her answer to that question.
On March 28, on the way to break the daily fast of Ramadan, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish psychology PhD student at Tufts, was arrested by plain clothes ICE officers and imprisoned in preparation for deportation. Though not charged with any crime, Rümeysa was the co-author of one article in her student newspaper. What may be Rümeysa’s first, last, and only op-ed, refers to the mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank as genocide.
If writing an op-ed is a crime, then I plead guilty as charged.
Though we are very different people (I am a retired American Jewish nurse) we are both scholars and members of the same union. We also have in common, I think, the desire for peace with justice in Israel and Palestine. We also have in common that Türkiye, the United States, and Israel have decaying democracies with a history of both providing sanctuary and committing ethnic cleansing.
Unfortunately, the leaders of our countries and of Israel are currently arresting opposition leaders and students. President Erdogan had his principal opponent in the election disqualified by withdrawing his university diploma (Blanchet).
When Rümeysa Öztürk and I talk about charging Israel with genocide, we have more than academic or union activist credentials. The United States became the most powerful nation in history with slavery and the near obliteration of the Indigenous nations. While Türkiye was losing during World War I, the government falsely blamed Armenians and Assyrians. The Turkish empire also ruled over Palestine and viewed both Arab and Jewish nationalism as treason with imprisonment, deportation, and execution of civilians. Being caught between British and the Turkish armies, Arabs and Jews were given conflicting promises of sovereignty.
Would Rümeysa Öztürk and I agree on the history of Türkiye, the United States, Palestine and Israel? My understanding is that Türkiye not only denies the Armenian and Assyrian genocide but punishes those who dare to acknowledge that it happened. The United States government for its part is led now by the most openly anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim president in its history.
There is hope in the history of our peoples as well. The Muslim Moorish empire was a golden age for Jews on the Iberian Peninsula. When Spain and Portugal claimed to have discovered the entire Western Hemisphere, they expelled the Muslims and Jews. Many of them found refuge in the Turkish Ottoman Empire. When Jews in Russia suffered pogroms, Türkiye provided refuge. Though allied with Germany in the first World War, Türkiye was on an escape route for Jews during the second World War. Türkiye was the first Muslim majority country to recognize the sovereignty of Israel and one of the first to recognize Palestine as well. Türkiye provided refuge for the Syrian civilians fleeing the civil war there.
Help us save local journalism!
Every tax-deductible donation helps us grow to cover the issues that mean the most to our community. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area.
The experience of Turkish “guest workers” in northern Europe is similar to that of immigrants throughout the world. Germany in particular was rebuilt by immigrants who were reviled and denied citizenship. Ironically, the German company BioNTech that co-created the safe and effective mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is led by Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, two German citizens from Turkish families.
As an international student of science, Rümeysa might also discover something that will save lives. Instead, she was arrested and imprisoned as a criminal for sharing an opinion.
Seeking freedom for Rümeysa and the increasing number of foreign students being deported is about solidarity. Not only because we are members of the same union. Not only because we are scientists. Not only because we are Jewish or Muslim. Not only because we care about Palestine and Israel. Not only because our nations have committed genocide against our own people. Not only because our elected leaders are behaving as dictators. Not only because totalitarians will target others next.
Rümeysa and other young activists may have the solution to problems that have so far eluded even well-meaning politicians.
Our individual experiences are not separate from the fate of our peoples. In fact, Israeli peace activist Alon-Lee says we must organize around self-interest. Yes, the war must end because it is immoral and anti-thetical to Jewish ethics. Yes, the occupation must end because it is unjust. But it is also destructive to Israeli Jewish society. Alon-Lee says that his friends are trying to leave Israel permanently. Who wants to live in perpetual warfare? As Booker T. Washington famously said: “No nation can hold another down without staying down itself.”
I have authored many provocative op-eds during my life, and I hope this one will be the last one. “Last” as in “most recent,” not as in final. The late literacy activist Lucille Cuttler (yes, my mother-in-law) wryly noted the distinct uses of the word “last.” As she approached 100 years old, she would do yoga online. At the end of the session, the instructor would often say “take one last breath” to which Lucille immediately responded: “You mean one MORE breath!”
Rumeysa must be freed so that her first op-ed is not the last we hear from her. Op-ed writers of the world unite!
Mx. Sasha Cuttler RN PhD worked as a nurse for the San Francisco Department of Public Health and was the Registered Nurse Chair for the Service Employees International Union Local 1021. Sasha is currently an honorary associate professor at the University of Nottingham School of Health Sciences (UK) and a member of Friends of Standing Together.
