The Ramallah Quakers

• Author: Asaf Romirowsky
• Date: 15 March 2021
• Published date: 15 March 2021
• Publication title: Israel National News (Israel)

To start, Atshan is a well-known BDS activist, and the college itself has endorsed BDS. In many ways, Atshan is a poster child for Quaker education—he's an alum of the Quaker school in Ramallah who now teaches for the same Quaker school he attended as an undergraduate. He represents the Quaker echo chamber regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ensures that only the Palestinian narrative will be voiced.

Atshan has also been active with Students for Justice in Palestine, whose parent organization, American Muslims for Palestine, was recently shown to be connected to the same American Muslim Brotherhood supporters who funded Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation, and which has trained its activists in "Countering Normalization of Israeli Oppression on Campus."

The Ramallah Friends School, where Atshan was educated, is one of the oldest Quaker institutions in the Middle East. The school acts as a feeder to the Quaker colleges in Pennsylvania. Another proud alum of the school is Joyce Ajlouny, the Secretary General of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Ajlouny is a native of Ramallah and formerly the head of the Quaker school.

The Ramallah school has also been exporting its pedagogy through programs like "Go Palestine," which is focused on Palestinian culture. Yet, in addition, "Go Palestine" participants receive a steady dose of anti-Israel rhetoric through films and lectures. These include"Occupation 101" and "Jerusalem: The East Side Story," films which depict Israel as a racist, savage oppressor. A panel on "Youth Activism and Engagement in Palestine" featured representatives of "the Love Under Apartheid Campaign [and] the BDS movement."

Spreading their faith through direct evangelizing was not as central to Quakers as it was to other Protestant denominations, but their theology of individual action led them to create institutions that would, in effect, speak for themselves. The accusations of proselytizing lodged against their schools in Palestine may have sensitized AFSC personnel to the problem in later years.

But despite Quakers' theological opposition to nationalism, it became unavoidable during the decades after World War I. For example, the Quaker boys' school in Ramallah became a hotbed of Arab nationalism and opposition to Zionism, particularly under the leadership of Khalil Totah. Educated at the school and later at Columbia University...