Like many others at this University, I took a gap year between my high school graduation in June 2010 and my first year of Brandeis in September 2011. I spent the year in Mevaseret, the first suburb outside of Jerusalem along Route one, the highway that connects the Israeli capital of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

I remember the day, March 23, quite vividly. A few friends and I had joined a gym, called "Jump," located in Binyanei Hauma, an office complex in downtown Jerusalem a few months prior-we were going through our inevitable workout phase all teenagers seem to experience. As we were leaving the gym that day, we heard a large bang. A pillar of smoke erupted just across the street and mass chaos ensued. We were far enough away to not be engulfed in the hysteria that immediately occurred, but close enough to know what had happened. A bus had just exploded. The number 74 bus that runs from Talpiot to Har Nof had been bombed. Just a few moments later, the sirens began. 

In the days after, the numbers were finalized: one person was killed, 59-year-old Mary Jean Gardner, a Scottish Bible translator who was studying Hebrew at Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Rothberg International School. At least 24 others were injured, including four Americans. In September 2011, as I was starting my college career here in Waltham, four Hamas militants were finally arrested for the bombing, one of whom is a permanent resident of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority joined the U.S. and the U.K. in denouncing the attack. Hamas praised it. 

Bus bombings, air strikes, rocket attacks, suicide bombers, counter-operations-these are the violent acts that characterize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All those in the region want this violence to be stopped with a permanent peace deal. The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University estimates that 63 percent of Israelis support the two-state solution, and the Arab World for Research and Development estimates 54 percent support from Palestinians. Peace is the goal. 

This past week Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a series of events as part of the international movement labeled as Israel Apartheid Week. Although the Facebook event page's description has changed many times-most notably it originally listed a falsely credited quote to Nelson Mandela-it now reads, "We wish to devote this International Apartheid Week to deconstructing this powerful word and the narratives that comprise it." 

The week was about discussion, they say, constructive dialogue, social justice and most notably, ending the conflict and human rights violations, once and for all. Yet, it became clear that the week had nothing to do with dialogue.

The sentence before the one quoted above in the Facebook event description currently reads, "Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine invites you to join them in wrestling with the reality of apartheid." Let's deconstruct these two sentences. First, all who attend Israel Apartheid Week events must wrestle with the reality of an apartheid Israel-as an objective fact. Only after accepting this matter-of-fact statement can we then proceed with the "deconstructing of this powerful word and the narratives that comprise it." The mere labeling of Israel as an apartheid state is deemed a narrative, yet is only secondary to it being a matter of fact. The name of the week itself exudes the same sentiment: the week is not labeled in an inquisitory fashion such as "Is Israel an apartheid state?" Rather, the week is labeled again as a matter of fact: "Israel Apartheid Week." The title forces an opinion regardless of the subsequent discussion.

Compounding the implicit lack of productive discussion within the weeklong event was the highlight last Monday-the keynote speech of renowned author and journalist Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal spent the first half hour of his speech vilifying the "right-wing zionists" who had attacked him previously-including two Brandeis students specifically. His speech virtually echoed the highlights of his book Goliath: Life and Loating in Greater Israel. It is a highly disputed book that, for example, compares Israel to Nazi Germany-a claim Blumenthal did not dispute when asked. 

To add to the suppressive nature of the speech, Blumenthal inculcated seemingly endless ad hominem attacks on any person who has ever voiced dissent from his personal views, including but not limited to: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, University President Frederick Lawrence, Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz and Brandeis student Joshua Nass '14. Even extreme left-wing Jewish Daily Forward writer J.J. Goldberg has labeled the Blumenthal book as the "I Hate Israel Handbook." The intent of the speech had absolutely nothing to do with a productive conversation; the intent was to push a highly controversial and accusatory platform of anti-Zionism. An opinion Blumenthal is entitled to nonetheless-but to pretend the speech was promoting discussion is laughable. 

But say these problems are nitpicky. I'd rather not assume the worst of my fellow Brandeis students; rather let's assume the sentence configuration was a mere oversight in a Facebook description, the lackluster name was simply following the title of the national movement, and the content of Blumenthal's speech could not be controlled. Let's assume the intent of the week on our campus was in fact about discussion. Does the call for productive dialogue justify Israel Apartheid Week? Is the greater Israel Apartheid Week even associated with productive discussion?

But we must first define why we place such an emphasis on discussion in general. Why do we constantly strive for civil discussion? Discussion breeds understanding of opposing views. Discussion fosters common ground on which opposition can disagree. Discussion helps us find a mutual ground on which we can agree; a ground on which we can move forward in productive fashion to resolve conflict. 

Brandeis Israel Apartheid Week is part of the international Israel Apartheid Week movement. A quick tour of IAW's website-and by extension the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that Israel Apartheid Week lists as one of its two main goals-is not about reaching a fair solution that is beneficial for both sides of the conflict. As one of the founders of the BDS movement-and current Tel Aviv University student in Israel-Omar Barghouti stated in one interview, "'If the occupation ends, would that end your call for BDS?' No, it wouldn't." Israel Apartheid week is about ending the Zionist state of Israel, not reaching a mutually beneficial end to the conflict. 

Those with this end-of-Zionist-Israel mentality are certainly entitled to their opinion and to express themselves accordingly. However we at Brandeis must realize the flaws in the IAW movement. Curbing the violence I witnessed firsthand must be the focus of our dialogue on this complex issue. The goal of any discussion should be to end the fighting and death; not end the players involved. We must strive toward the solution that ends the conflict and violence, and fosters equality for all, not the solution that ends Israel. I invite those supporters of Israel Apartheid Week to discuss their concerns, and how to rectify those concerns, at any point-but Israel Apartheid week was simply not that discussion. Let's call this spade, a spade-not a peace-yearning heart.