By Sebastian McAteer

“The [Palestinian] village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it,” says Israel’s new finance minister Betzalel Smotrich, one day after a deadly Israeli settler rampage in the occupied West Bank. Clear statements from senior Israeli ministers calling for ethnic cleansing and denying the existence of a Palestinian people may be tempting to treat as outliers. However, such positions align neatly with an incumbent Israeli government that explicitly claims the Jewish people’s right to settle Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for the West Bank. Simply put, such a policy is only possible through the deaths or displacement of millions of Palestinians.

Enter “Middle East” Trek. If you’ve taken even a quick glimpse at any of the bulletin boards throughout the International Affairs Building at SIPA, you’ve likely noticed a “new” trek being advertised to our student body. The poster is headed by a lush forest scene promising to satisfy students “curious about the region in a global context” who wish to “embark on a trip to Israel and Palestine” and provide “a safe space for all viewpoints.” However, the logo tucked into the poster’s corner reveals a more familiar trip sponsor, the organization iTrek and the host of SIPA’s controversial Israel Trek.

For students who may not be aware, the iTrek organization plans subsidized trips to Israel for graduate students of law, business, and policy across the United States. Decried by Palestinians as a whitewash of Israel’s crime of apartheid (as confirmed by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and several UN officials), the iTrek website promises an “unforgettable experience” of Israel in all its “complexity”. Acting with the implicit support of the Israeli government, trip participants can meet with high-profile political leaders, including Israeli presidents, ambassadors, military officials, soldiers, and members of the Knesset.

iTrek participants have previously complained about the lack of impartial information given to students about their trips. Many SIPA students were surprised to discover that their fun day out on ATVs last year took place in the Golan Heights; land illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 in a clear violation of international law. iTrek leaders often use couched and measured rhetoric and yet a 2022 SIPA iTrek leader found online notoriety through her involvement in provocative, violent Flag Day demonstrations in East Jerusalem. Some iTrek participants report that, despite rhetorical commitments to a holistic and ‘balanced’ experience, a narrow narrative that is uncritical of Israeli government positions is instead propagated to trip participants. In the context of the recent far-right zealotry of Israel’s apartheid government, any trip that is complicit in such propaganda must be strongly opposed.

iTrek’s activities are increasingly unwelcome on American campuses. Georgetown’s student government last year voted against providing any form of financial support for iTrek’s activities and students at Harvard Kennedy are campaigning for all students to boycott iTrek. However, the cosmetic shift in PR from iTrek to Middle East Trek at SIPA indicates that organizers are attempting to distance themselves from valid criticism with ostensibly no new commitments to not propagate the same propaganda of iTrek, beyond a single and cursory new reference to Palestine. These attempts to deliberately obfuscate the nature of the trip, blur the identity of its sponsor, and mislead newer students at SIPA are dangerous and now the administration must step in.

SIPA students recently demonstrated in Ancell Plaza with the support of Students for Justice in Palestine and Young Democratic Socialists of America and to call on SIPA’s Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo and her administration to divest from SIPA’s iTrek and all associated treks. Divestment would mean the withdrawal of any and all material support from SIPA to iTrek, including the use of SIPA’s name, logo, communications, facilities or resources either directly or through student groups for the planning, promotion or organization of iTrek or associated treks. Many students want confirmation from Dean Yarhi-Milo that SIPA will cut all ties with iTrek and that recent controversies, such as the inclusion of SIPA’s official logo promoting college parties in Tel Aviv, will not be repeated and that any benefit iTrek receives from its association with SIPA will end. Any country guilty of apartheid must be treated as an international pariah and SIPA cannot be complicit in narratives that lessen the seriousness of Israel’s crimes.

Columbia University has a long history of student activism stretching from successful protests securing the university’s divestment from investments in apartheid South Africa to Columbia College’s successful 2020 referendum divesting from Israel’s human rights abuses. As the consensus grows regarding Israel's guilt of apartheid, it’s time for us to support Palestinians in the same way and join millions of Jewish people around the world boycotting Israel’s new far-right government. SIPA has a responsibility to uphold the standards taught in its classrooms. Students should boycott iTrek and SIPA must cut all ties.

Sebastian McAteer (MPA ‘23) studies human rights, humanitarian policy, and international conflict resolution at SIPA, and is a union organizer with Student Workers of Columbia (SWC).

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