We represent the ATV program Capitol Politics, which has been attempting to organize a debate between AU Students for Israel and AU Students for Justice in Palestine. We were spurred to do this by the issue of Palestinian statehood being brought before the United Nations and wanted to organize a reasonable discussion between the two groups on not just that one issue, but as part of a broader discussion on the conflict. We were very disappointed to see AUSFI’s letter to the editor last issue explaining their reasons for not coming on.
Normally, we would not respond to something like this, but the following statement in the letter really caught our attention: “ATV’s proposed program does not provide a welcoming and educational environment in which to engage.” This is flat-out inaccurate, for we could not have been more welcoming in trying to set up the episode.
The initial plan we had was to devote one segment of an episode to the discussion. On Thursday, Sept. 29, we met with representatives from SJP and AUSFI, including AUSFI Vice President Jonathan Lipton (one of the writers of The Eagle letter), and spent almost an hour discussing exactly how we wanted the episode to go. At some point during the meeting, we came to the conclusion that, for the purposes of being as detailed and informative as possible, we would devote an entire episode to the issue.
There were some concerns that we would only be presenting people’s opinions instead of taking a more educational approach. One suggestion made by AUSFI was to bring on professors to talk about the history of the conflict, which we were certainly open to. We had also discussed doing independent research to present on the show leading up to the discussion.
It was brought to our attention that members of the SFI e-board would not be able to appear on camera because of their involvement with other organizations. We sent out an email the following Monday asking SFI to contact their membership and ask who in the group would be interested in appearing on the show. We particularly emphasized the need to present “an objective and unemotional impression of the historical circumstances” regarding the region. Later that day, we received an email from SFI informing us that no one from the group would be coming on the show, saying “the organization strives to participate in campus activities that would benefit us and our overall goals.”
We honestly believed that by having both groups engaged in a televised discussion of the issue, we would be able to provide students with a broader perspective. We regret that Students for Israel felt that publicly discussing their own opinions was somehow not beneficial to their cause.
Because we were committed to setting up the debate, we sent another email back to SFI. That email was sent Tuesday, Oct. 4. We received no response from SFI. One week later, we saw that SFI did respond: in a public letter published in this very paper.
We have no problem with receiving critical feedback, but we would rather have someone bring his or her concerns to us directly instead of responding through a letter in The Eagle. Every single concern brought up in the AUSFI letter was brought to our attention at the initial meeting. The only reasonable conclusion we can come to is that AUSFI wanted to bring publicity to their organization.
We could not have been more accommodating to everyone involved in the negotiations. The purpose of our show is to foster an honest dialogue between students on issues affecting our community, our generation and the world at large. We agree with AUSFI’s sentiments that AU is a place for honest, safe and open dialogue, and we regret that they didn’t take this opportunity to actually have one. Suggesting that we were creating a potentially “hostile environment” is personally offensive, given how much we worked to find a compromise acceptable to all parties.
We still plan to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on our program in the near future, so we hope that AUSFI reconsiders its position and joins the discussion.
Josh Feldman ATV Co-Programming Director Producer, Capitol Politics
Paul Bencivenga, Ryan Hunter, Anna Kark Hosts, Capitol Politics
