Jewish student stands at controversy's center

As a hurricane of controversy descended on the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference at Duke University this weekend, Rann Bar-On stood alone at the eye.

Bar-On, a graduate student at Duke, is an Israeli-born Jew. He also worked for six months to convince the school to host the PSM, a group that seeks to end the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank through divestment, the economic withdrawal of investments in Israel.

"He has a really interesting story," said Fayyad Sbaihat, a national representative of the PSM. "He has a real understanding of the Palestine situation."

Bar-On was born in Jerusalem but grew up in Haifa, an Israeli town on the Mediterranean. From a very early age, his parents took him to political rallies and demonstrations about the Palestinian issue.

"I've been going to demonstrations in Israel since I was 5 years old," he said. "From then, I had the idea of coexistence."

His parents continue to be supportive of his activism. "They've been wonderful," he said.

As a young man, Bar-On travelled to a number of Arab villages and saw the conditions in which the Palestians were living. "I asked myself, 'Where are all the kids? Why are we not living together?'"

But he didn't start thinking about a specific solution to the Israeli occupation until his family moved to Botswana when he was 13. There he saw firsthand the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, which had been toppled, in part, by Western divestment.

He immediately drew a connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in South Africa. "I saw how similar they were," he said. "It was the same thing between blacks and whites."

Bar-On's experiences are one of his biggest assets to the PSM, Sbaihat said. "He's one of the few people with first-hand experience of both," Sbaihat said.

He can really understand what apartheid is."

Bar-On didn't specifically get involved with divestment issues until he was an undergraduate at University of Warwick in England.

Returning from a trip back home, he said, he was angered by the poor living conditions of the Palestinians. These conditions influenced Bar-On to join the PSM.

As a Jew, Bar-On disagrees with the idea that the PSM is anti-Semitic. "In this country, every anti-Israeli criticism is considered anti-Semitic," he said.

About one-third of the PSM's membership is Jewish and another third is Palestinian, said Sbaihat.

Bar-On said he might be working to end the Israeli occupation for a long time. Divestment in South Africa took more than 20 years, and divestment against Israel is just getting off its feet, though he said he hopes faster means of communication like the Internet will speed the processes.

"I hope I will see (the end of the occupation). I hope to see the end of the violence," he said.

In the meantime, Bar-On plans to be an activist for life. He said he would like to continue working toward divestment in Israel and to work with the PSM after graduation.

"I feel I have a moral and ethical duty for activism," he said.

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