The demand that a college stop siding with Israel is the demand that it abandon a status quo partisanship favoring Israel. To withdraw from a position of partisan support — to desist from an existing practice that strengthens one side of a conflict against the other — is not to violate neutrality but, on the contrary, to achieve it.
So, if it is true, as students allege, that the university’s status quo position is one of partisan support for the state of Israel against the Palestinians, then their demand that the university withdraw its support of Israel — by divesting and dissociating from Israel — is not a demand that the university violate neutrality. Rather, it is the demand that the university change its current practice so as to become more neutral than it is.
So, if it is true, as students allege, that the university’s status quo position is one of partisan support for the state of Israel against the Palestinians, then their demand that the university withdraw its support of Israel — by divesting and dissociating from Israel — is not a demand that the university violate neutrality. Rather, it is the demand that the university change its current practice so as to become more neutral than it is.
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