Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article erred in referring to former Ambassador Kurtzer as the ‘Israeli ambassador.’ Kurtzer is the former United States Ambassador to Israel.
On March 20, former United States Ambassador to Israel and Egypt Daniel Kurtzer addressed the campus community in a talk titled “Israel, Palestine, and the Old-New Middle East.” The room was filled with students protesting Kurtzer’s talk, citing his invitation as an attempt of the administration “to perpetuate colonial narratives about the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” according to pamphlets distributed among protestors of the talk.
Associate Professor of Economics Syon Bhanot started the talk by introducing Kurtzer’s background. Along with his time as an ambassador, Kurtzer served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 29 years and as a speechwriter with the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State. He was also the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. After receiving his Ph.D from Columbia University, Kurtzer co-authored two books — Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East and The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace 1989-2011. Currently, the former ambassador is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.
Before Kurtzer started his talk, attendees held up papers quoting Kurtzer, who stated that “Zionism is, arguably, the most successful movement of national liberation in the last 100 years,” as well as a quote from the first prime minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion, who stated that “we must expel the Arabs and take their places.” Pamphlets distributed to audience members cited Israeli military assaults that took place under Kurtzer’s term as ambassador to Israel, such as “Operation Defensive Shield,” which resulted in the death of 497 Palestinians as Israel attempted to reoccupy and increase security in the occupied areas. Members held up a large poster stating “Ambassador Kurtzer supports genocide.”
Kurtzer started his talk by attempting to explain how the difficulty of holding “two contradictory narratives” simultaneously leads individuals to take sides on Israel-Palestine and the importance universities have in facilitating discussions for both individuals who have taken sides.
“The easiest thing to do — and I don’t denigrate it at all — is to pick sides. The reason I say that it’s easy is because people who take sides are motivated, usually by positive motivations. They’re motivated to advance the interests of the side that they support. But very often they shut out the other side entirely. But that’s what universities do best — is to provide a forum for these kinds of discussions that aid those who are trying to maintain the two narratives simultaneously but can also assist those who have decided to take a stand.”
Kurtzer also touched upon what he deemed the highlight of his career as a member of Secretary State James Baker’s peace team that helped organize the Madrid Peace Conference. Though the peace conference did not bring a resolution, Kurtzer argued that it opened new pathways that could have led to a settlement on Israel-Palestine.
“Not only did we have a conference that immediately launched bilateral negotiations between Israel and each of its neighbors, but we also introduced a novel concept at the time of multilateral engagement for parties in the Middle East who had not talked about issues that they needed to talk about because of the conflict — economics, water environment, regional security refugees,” Kurtzer said. “So we launched the process of two parallel tracks designed to bring not only to resolution the basic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel and each of its neighbors, but also problems that in effect don’t know about conflict and don’t know about borders.”
Kurtzer was able to complete his speech uninterrupted but faced difficult questions from the audience during the Q&A part of the lecture that led to arguments between him and the attendees.
“You’ve spoken about Oct. 7 and all the violence that’s been perpetuated to Israel by Palestinians, and again, you’ve neglected 76 years of oppression… how can you claim that Palestinians have equal rights under Israeli democracy, and how can you recognize the violence is perpetuated on Israelis but fail to recognize the fact that violence is perpetrated on Palestinians like my mother, like my grandfather, like my family who continues to exist in Palestine?” an attendee asked.
“I am not in a position to judge another country’s level of democracy,” Kurtzer said. The attendee replied, stating “your position is to sit here and to perpetuate [the] liberal Zionist narrative and to be part of the counterprogramming efforts made by the administration. The least that they can do if they are going to organize events like this is assign faculty who are well-informed of the facts to ensure that these lies and these narratives are being achieved.”
The ambassador also gave a range of critiques on current United States and Israeli policy, including on Israel and its incarceration process when questioned by attendees. One attendee explained the large number of women and children detained by Israel, citing how 500-700 Palestinian children are prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year.
“If Israel had legal reasons for incarcerating Palestinians, then bring it to a court — a fair court — and bring the charges, bring your evidence, put it before a panel of judges, and either they get freed or they get sentenced,” Kurtzer responded. “But the administrative detention, which is what I think underpins your question, is wrong. It’s a practice that was inherited by Israel from the British. They took on a process of the British and US through the entire mandate period and they continue it to this day, and it’s wrong.”
Kurtzer ended the Q&A portion of the talk abruptly, concluding that he does not support genocide.
In the conclusion of this lecture, Kurtzer emphasized his belief about the possibility of a two-state solution, even if this approach is seen as becoming less viable by policymakers in Washington.
“The argument we made is that it’s not just a question of saying we support a two state solution, but it’s doing the hard work. It is getting Israel to stop settling activities, it is getting Israel to change the way it occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” Kurtzer said. “It’s getting the Palestinians to get serious about security within their own community and the way they teach their children about this conflict. In other words, it’s getting serious that way that we have not been for almost 40 years, despite the fact that, as I noted, some progress has been made.”
