Dear editor,
I appreciate the Sept. 8 column by Spectrum Editor Sara DiNatale on the controversy over Athira Unni’s Sept. 3 story about UB Students for Justice in Palestine, which appeared in print under Ms. Unni’s name. After heavy editing, it appeared online in a shorter version, attributed to “News Staff.”
But some of the edits are troubling. Unni’s original version refers to the family experience of UB SJP President Manar Kustiro in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem –specifically, the way in which her grandmother and aunt were separated from each other by Israel’s Apartheid or “land grab” Wall.
UB SJP member Fadi Suboh spoke of his difficulty concentrating in school in Israeli-occupied Ramallah when members of his family were kidnapped and assaulted.
It’s surprising to see that both passages have been cut from the online version, without explanation. It is common practice for all newspapers to present personal experience, identified as such, without independent verification.
The Spectrum itself regularly does this, and it would have been easy enough to emphasize the unverified quality of these recollections through phrases such as “Kustiro says” and “Suboh claims.” Indeed, Suboh's comments in the original version appeared in quotation marks as his claims, not those of The Spectrum.
Simply to cut these passages, without explanation, raises the uneasy suspicion that it’s only certain sorts of experience that will be edited out. Unfortunately, there is a long history of Palestinian voices being repressed. This goes all the way back to the 1947 UN resolution that split Palestine in half, without asking Palestinians whether or not they desired this split. It’s good to see that UB SJP is working to restore these voices. I look forward to The Spectrum’s future coverage of the full campus conversation about the 66-year-old Occupation and its effects on Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Jim Holstun
Professor of English
