[WCUSP] Israel Lobby's Efforts to Stifle Speech It Doesn'tWantAmericans to Hear

Tue Jan 15 10:43:13 CST 2008

The Rachel Corrie play is coming to Des Moines Saturday, Jan. 26 for two performances--matinee and evening.  It will be performed at Grace United Methodist Church, the congregation where Rachel's grandmother Doris Corrie is a member.  Some folks have been in dialog with leaders in the local Jewish community and we do not anticipate "anti-stuff".  (We may be surprised, of course.)

Des Moines Branch of WILPF is one of several co-sponsors of the event, along with other peace groups. AFSC and several churches.

I will send a report after the event.

Ruth Anne Petrak
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joyce McLean<mailto:jmclean at jps.net> 
  To: KATHARLOW at aol.com<mailto:KATHARLOW at aol.com> ; wcusp at wilpf.org<mailto:wcusp at wilpf.org> 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:07 AM
  Subject: Re: [WCUSP] Israel Lobby's Efforts to Stifle Speech It Doesn'tWantAmericans to Hear

  I appreciate the substantive point of this...thanks! but I believe it may be out of date? The St Thomas decision about having Tutu was reported to have been reversed and he did go... was what I thought I had heard....Our branch (Santa Cruz) is going to have a production of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" and we have been told about all the anti stuff that may happen......a whole pack of lies have been put about......fascinating really....will keep you informed if actual difficulties take place...............Joyce McLean
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: KATHARLOW at aol.com<mailto:KATHARLOW at aol.com> 
    To: wcusp at wilpf.org<mailto:wcusp at wilpf.org> 
    Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:41 AM
    Subject: [WCUSP] Israel Lobby's Efforts to Stifle Speech It Doesn't WantAmericans to Hear

    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.washington-report.org/archives/December_2007/0712023.html<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.washington-report.org/archives/December_2007/0712023.html<http://www.washington-report.org/archives/December_2007/0712023.html>

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