[WCUSP] Israel Lobby's Efforts to Stifle Speech It Doesn't Want Americans to Hear

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Israel Lobby Unrelenting in Efforts to Stifle Speech It  Doesn’t Want 
Americans to Hear  
By Ron David
 
Ron David is the author of Arabs and Israel for Beginners,  available from 
the AET Book Club.
_http://www.washingthttp://wwwhttp://www.wahttp://wwhttp://www.wahttp_ 
(http://www.washington-report.org/archives/December_2007/0712023.html) 
 

On a global scale, it makes sense to focus on the Israel Lobby’s impact on  
U.S. foreign policy. When it comes to the everyday lives and freedoms of  
Americans, however, the Lobby’s greatest threat is its ravaging of our domestic  
institutions. Three almost simultaneous assaults on academic freedom—at DePaul  
University, St. Thomas University and the University of Michigan—make that 
point  inescapably clear. 
 
Indeed, having so menacingly insinuated its agenda, the Lobby need not even  
announce its presence. Its very existence caused one university (St. Thomas) 
to  succumb before it was even threatened! 
Overcoming Zionism at the University of Michigan 
In its August newsletter, the Michigan chapter of the pro-Israel  
organization StandWithUs invited Islamaphobe CampusWatch founder Daniel Pipes to  speak 
on Michigan campuses; attacked the book Overcoming Zionism (available from the 
AET Book Club); and urged its members to send letters  and e-mails demanding 
that the University of Michigan Press (UMPress) stop  distributing the book, 
published in the UK by Pluto Press. UMPress, it should be  noted, has 
distributed the independent publisher’s 400 titles for the past four  years, generating 
no complaints. 
 
In typical fashion, StandWithUs described Overcoming Zionism as  “anti-Jewish,
” “Israel-hating” and “unscholarly,” and hurled a dozen other  obfuscating 
insults. What it really hated, however, was (Jewish) author Joel  Kovel’s 
elegantly reasoned contention that Zionism has created an apartheid-like  racist 
state in Israel and that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian  conflict 
is a single, secular, democratic state. 
 
To the astonishment of everyone who respected the university, UMPress  
announced it would immediately suspend distribution not only of Overcoming  Zionism, 
but of all Pluto Press books. In the words of Pluto Press chairman  Roger van 
Zwanenberg, “We are a small and vulnerable publishing company in a  world of 
well-financed organizations, many of which are determined to silence  our 
authors.
 
“Many presses in the United States are frightened of the pressures the  Lobby 
can place on them,” he pointed out. “We get authors from the United States  
precisely because they can’t obtain adequate representation elsewhere, and we  
have a good reputation for scholarly work on the subject of Israel and  
Palestine. We probably have the best collections of any university press in that  
area.” 
 
In September, the university came to its senses and released a statement  
un-banning the book and the publisher. Finally, on Oct. 22, UMPress issued a  
statement saying its executive board had “unanimously agreed to continue the  
distribution contract between the University of Michigan Press and Pluto Press  
under existing contract terms.”
 
One week later, on Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now,” host Amy Goodman  
interviewed Kovel, who explained that he wrote Overcoming Zionism to  open up the 
discussion on the idea of a single democratic state in  Israel/Palestine. 
Acknowledging that the idea currently has “very small  support,” Kovel described 
it as a “strategic goal.” 
 
Toward that end, Kovel announced the formation of the Committee for Open  
Discussion of Zionism (<_www.codz.org_ (http://www.codz.org/) >), and said a  “
high-profile” conference is being planned for early next year in New  York.
In Defense of Academic Freedom
In the aftermath of Prof. Norman Finkelstein’s denial of tenure by and  
subsequent settlement with DePaul University, top intellectuals met Oct. 12 in  
Chicago to discuss the assault on academic freedom by organizations mobilized to  
suppress criticism of Israel’s policies. The one-day symposium featured 
scholars  who had been pressured by their universities or by the publishing 
industry.  Participating were Tariq Ali (Verso Books), Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia  
University), Noam Chomsky (MIT), Tony Judt (Remarque Institute, NYU), John  
Mearsheimer (University of Chicago), Neve Gordon (Ben Gurion University),  
Finkelstein, and Mehrene Larudee (DePaul University).
 
American academics are unprotected because they don’t have a union and they  
lack cohesiveness, Judt and Gordon pointed out. Unfortunately, nobody on the  
panel suggested that they act as a unified group to protect each other—despite 
 the fact that Larudee is still on suspension because she had publicly 
supported  Finkelstein.
Zionist-Induced Self-Censorship
The Justice and Peace Studies Program at St. Thomas University in St. Paul,  
Minnesota was forced to cancel an appearance by Archbishop Desmond Tutu after  
university president Father Dennis Dease decided against allowing the Nobel  
Peace Laureate to speak on campus. The administrator made his decision after  
consulting with a single representative from the local Jewish Community  
Relations Council and several rabbis affiliated with the university.
 
In another instance of coming to one’s senses, Father Dease subsequently  
reversed and apologized for his initial decision and re-invited Archbishop Tutu.  
However, he failed to rescind his firing of Prof. Cris Toffolo, chair of the  
Justice and Peace Studies Program.
Speaking Oct. 27 at a Boston conference on “The Apartheid Paradigm in  
Palestine-Israel” sponsored by Friends of Sabeel-North America, the South  African 
cleric said he accepted Father Dease’s “warm apology” but would not  appear at 
the university until Toffolo is reinstated and her record  cleared.
Dershowitz Counts to Four
Finally (so far), an Oct. 30 Oxford Union debate was held as scheduled—but  
without any of the speakers present. Speech-stifler and Harvard Law Professor  
Alan Dershowitz, along with Peace Now UK co-chair Paul Usiskin, protested when 
 Norman Finkelstein was asked to join the three supporters of the motion “
This  House believes that one state is the only solution to the 
Israel-Palestinian  conflict.” Along with Northern Irish politician Lord Trimble, Dershowitz 
and  Usiskin were scheduled to debate Israelis Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappé and  
Palestinian writer Ghada Karmi. But when Dershowitz’s nemesis Finkelstein was  
added to the debators, Big Al picked up his marbles and went home in a  huff.
 
Ron David is the author of Arabs and Israel for Beginners,  available from 
the AET Book Club.
_http://www.washingthttp://wwwhttp://www.wahttp://wwhttp://www.wahttp_ 
(http://www.washington-report.org/archives/December_2007/0712023.html) 





 
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