New
York – Professor Simona Sharoni compared the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
to campus rape in a recent interview with the online publication Alternet.
Sharoni,
a professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in the Gender
and Women’s Studies Department, said that both the conflict and campus sexual
assault feature institutionalized disparity of power as a linchpin.
Sharoni
articulated that the pro-Israel narrative embraces a victim-blaming narrative
akin to “she was asking for it” allegations common in rape culture.
“The assumption that Palestinians bring the violence on themselves…it’s
similar to telling a survivor that it’s what she was wearing,” Sharoni
said.
Additionally,
she asserted that supporters of Israel engage in a behavior analogous to
discrediting rape victims in their repudiation of Palestinian claims.
“Palestinians are not believed, which
is the same with survivors [of sexual assault]. It’s very similar to saying,
‘No, he’s actually a nice guy,’ about a man accused of rape,” Aharoni
remarked.
The
professor concluded her interview by explaining that drawing parallels between
campus rape and the “Israeli apartheid” is strategically advantageous
for both the BDS movement as well as sexual assault survivors groups because it
serves as “a means to an end…to create a just and equal society.”
