Hawaii has been touted as a land of aloha for all and its university is dedicated to being a “Hawaiian Place of Learning” — one where “the people and the knowledge systems are rooted in sustainable care and pono for Hawaii” (“The Ku Makani Commitment, Aloha ‘Aina,” 2019).

However, the adoption of the agreement for Israel to share “cybersecurity and artificial intelligence technology” with the state of Hawaii is a deeply flawed accord that reveals the disingenuous way that these terms have been employed, and it should be retracted. A number of erroneous views have appeared in recent days that take exception to a letter to the editor that critically questioned the agreement (“Ige should withdraw from Israel agreement,” Star-Advertiser, Oct. 27), with suggestions to censure airing such opinions.

First is a misunderstanding of these islands and their history: the independent nation of Hawaii was illegally overthrown in 1893 with support of the U.S. Navy, and the islands remain a place with no aloha for indigenous Hawaiians whose land was stolen and whose colonization continues until today. There is much in common between Hawaiians and Palestinians.

In a talk at Stanford University on March 8, 2021, J. Kehaulani Kauanui, professor of American Studies and Anthropology at Wesleyan University, analyzed the ways in which both contexts are part of broader settler colonial projects and it is at this structural level that Hawaii has profound commonalities with Palestine. This framework challenges political discourses regarding the view of “exceptionalism” as applied to Israel- Palestine as, indeed, it challenges the myth of this country’s exceptionalism. It further raises questions “regarding indigeneity and the attendant problematics regarding statist solutions,” particularly cogent issues when advocating the Jewish people as the indigenous people of Palestine.

Second are statements that Israel is the refuge for Jews to survive the horrors of Nazi and European genocides and refer to the rising antisemitism in this country and across the globe. However, the horrors of the Holocaust do not give Israel license to perpetuate crimes of apartheid, persecution, inhumane acts and abuses of fundamental rights of Palestinians and continued illegal appropriation of their land — all documented by the news media and human rights organizations both within and outside of Israel.

While the rise of antisemitism both nationally and globally is alarming, too often individuals or groups that exercise the freedom to critique the policies of Israel — as we may of our own country — are labelled “antisemitic” or “self-hating Jews” in the attempt to delegitimize or censor their concerns.

Third, I draw attention to Israel’s provision of military-grade surveillance software (Pegasus Spyware) developed in 2011. Revelations about widespread abuse of the powerful Israeli-made spyware drew international condemnation, including sanctions and lawsuits. The Israeli government and military have now launched Project Nimbus (2021), a $1.2 billion contract with Google’s cloud platform and Amazon’s web services to provide services to “keep information within Israel’s borders under strict security guidelines.”

Google and Amazon workers, as well as shareholders, are protesting the deal with concerns the project will lead to further abuses of Palestinians’ human rights (see “Revoke Hawaii’s partnership with Israel,” Island Voices, Star-Advertiser, Oct. 30). This is especially because their further surveillance and unlawful data collection will facilitate the expansion of Israel’s continuing illegal removal of Palestinians and expropriation of their land.

Miriam Sharma is an emerita professor in Asian studies, University of Hawaii.