for college students by college students
for college students by college students
Feb. 17 2022 / 16 Adar I 5782

Bridges over Boycotts

Ethan Price } jewish@edu writer
O

n Feb. 9, Spartans for Israel were 
fortunate enough to host Bassem 
Eid at Michigan State University, 
where he gave his unique perspective on 
the Israel-Palestinian conflict. 
Eid is a Palestinian journalist and 
human rights activist who was born and 
raised in the United Nations Refugee 
Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camp of 
Shuafat in East Jerusalem. 
He rose to prominence during the first 
Intifada as a senior field researcher for 
B’Tselem. In 1996, in response to the dete-
rioration of the human rights situation 
under the Palestinian Authority (PA), he 
founded the Jerusalem-based Palestinian 
Human Rights Monitoring Group, which 
is a nonpartisan human rights organiza-
tion dedicated to exposing human rights 

violations and supporting a democratic 
and pluralistic Palestine. In 2016, Eid 
assumed the role of chairman of the 
Center for Near East Policy Research.
Bassem Eid has spent 26 years research-
ing UNRWA policies and has written 
extensively on the subject of UNRWA 
reform. He also is an outspoken critic of 
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions 
movement, otherwise known as BDS. 

During the conversation, Bassem 
explained how the BDS movement actu-
ally harms Palestinian civilians more 
than it helps them, and he described his 
decision to take Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream 
Company to court after it announced 
its removal of factories and goods from 
Israel. 
While the BDS movement is active in 
the United States and around the world, 
Eid argues that their victories are active-
ly eliminating jobs for Palestinians who 
work in Israel. 
“I don’t believe that these people are 
seeking any peace between the Israelis and 
the Palestinians,” said Bassem in reference 
to the motives of the BDS movement.
Spartans for Israel is very grateful to 
Bassem Eid for coming to campus and 
sharing his personal experiences and per-
spectives with Michigan State students. @

Ethan Price is a sophomore at Michigan State 
from Sterling Heights. 

Spartans 
for Israel 
hosted 
Bassem Eid 
(center) on 
Feb. 9.

Spartans for Israel hosted 
Palestinian journalist 
Bassem Eid.

Bassem Eid

36 | FEBRUARY 17 • 2022 

