The “Pro-Israel” Forces Strike Against Free Speech Again

The “Pro-Israel” Forces Strike Against Free Speech Once Again (this time at Cal State University at San Jose).

Because the media has so completely subordinated itself to the denizens of the Zionist right-wing in the US and Israel, you may not know that for the past 46 years (since Israel’s expansion into the West Bank and Gaza and Syria) the American Jewish community’s major institutions have shut out the voices of Jews and others who have ethical questions and strategic worries about the wisdom of “the Occupation” that the winning of the Six Days War in June, 1967 made possible. Rabbis have lost their jobs, Jewish educators fired, the synagogues have closed themselves to the voices of a wide swath of critique, and individuals in every sphere of work and culture have felt extreme pressure to support Israeli policies (even when those policies are perceived by many to be self-destructive for Israel and providing an appearance of legitimacy for real anti-Semites who have used the opportunity to join with more legitimate critics of Israeli treatment of Palestinians).

In recent years this process has spread to college campuses where the right-wing Zionists have managed to convince some college administrations that presenting any views about Israel other than those supported by the pro-Zionist mainstream of the Jewish world is a. intellectually dishonest or b. oppressive to Jews who may feel subject to abuse because Israel is being "maligned" and therefore criticism of Israel is perceived as "a hate crime" or "hate speech" rather than as a normal part of the intellectual life that universities and colleges are supposed be promoting. Demands which the anti-war movement made to academia for decades to present alternative views (e.g. in economics, political science, and sociology classes where capitalist globalization is taught as the only rational way for all humanity), almost always ignored and marginalized, are now being given credence when the Right makes similar demands about classes or public presentations that have given space to the Palestinian discourse and understanding of the Middle East struggle. "hearing the other side" is not taken seriously when the demand comes from those who deny evolution or those who wish to have the history of America's genocidal wars from pre-Revolutionary America to post-Vietnam taught or presented, but when the Zionist lobby makes similar demands they suddenly are treated as credible.

I'm no stranger to this problem. When Tikkun magazine, a strong supporter of Israel's right to exist and a champion of much that is good in Israel and contributive to the well-being of the human race (particulary in regard to science and medicine and new technologies), also critiqued the irrationality and immorality of the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the lawlessness and violence of West Bank settlers against Palesitnian civilians, we became targeted as anti-Israel, and I was personally labeled as an anti-Semite (even though I was sometimes excluded by some in the Left from speaking at their events because I was viewed as a Zionist apologist). Though as a rabbi I am deeply committed to the well-being the Jewish people, and though as a father I facilitated my own son's high school education in Israel and his subsequent entrance into the IDF Paratroopers (Tzanchanim), I've been effectively banned from getting speaking engagements in most American synagogues. And after we gave Justice Goldstone the annual Tikkun Award for his courageous UN report labeling both Israel and Palestine as having engaged in human rights violations during the 2008-9 Gaza War, my house was physically attacked and painted with signs describing me as a Nazi. 

And yet, this week i was once again shocked when a group of right-wing Zionists appealed to the president of San Jose State University (SJSU)  to interfere with a seminar on how to teach about Israel/Palestine convened by an Iranian professor named. 

Persis Karim, Prof. Karim's intention was to help people see both sides, and she invited me as part of the discussion because my recent book Embracing Israel/Palestine argues that both sides have co-created the situation in the Middle East and both sides need to overcome the tendency to demonize the other. But from the standpoint of the right-wing Zionist group Amcha, this even-handedness is tantamount to  hatred of the Jewish people which must always be portrayed as the righteous victim being oppressed by some evil Other.  What ensued were attempts by some on the faculty to demand changes in the program so that their right-wing perspective could be presented (to the twelve educators signed up for the seminar) and by Amcha in a letter to the President of the University that he should know that the seminar may be in violation of Federal regulations and he should not allow similar events to happen in the future that did not represent all perspectives.  Prof. Karim was in tears when she told me how brutal and irrational the attacks on her have become. Luckily, and unlike many of her colleagues both at San Jose State and around the US who watch these incidents and learn to avoid anything that might offend these right-wingers, Prof, Karim has tenure. But that has not stopped other efforts elsewhere to remove even tenured faculty who are suspected of having critical views of Israel's policies toward Palestinians.
Prof. Karim has not backed down, and the president of San Jose State has not canceled the seminar. But until this kind of harassment stops, there is little chance that this kind of policy of intellectual fascism will cease, that faculty without tenure will feel secure, or that the media will even report about it. 
The Letter to the President, while not explicitly calling for the cancellation of the program, implies the possibility that it is in violation of federal policies and hence might be dangerous for the university to have on its campus. 

Here is the letter: From: Tammi Benjamin

Subject: concerns about Middle East Studies workshop

Dear President Qayoumi,
We are faculty at the University of California and co-founders of the AMCHA Initiative, a grassroots organization committed to investigating, documenting, and combatting campus antisemitism, particularly on California public university campuses.  
We are writing to you now to share our concern about an upcoming event entitled "Peace Building & Approaches to Teaching the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," an all-day workshop for high school teachers and college and university professors on "how to educate students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," which is scheduled to take place at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library this coming Friday, April 19. The workshop is being organized by SJSU Coordinator for Middle East Studies, Professor Persis Karim, and it is being sponsored by the SJSU Middle East Studies Program (MdES).
According to the promotional flyer, support for the workshop comes from the federally-funded U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) Public Education for Peace Building Support initiative, whose grant guidelines specify that "USIP cannot fund advocacy activities or programs of a partisan nature."
In addition, as you know, MdES, through its  collaboration with the Silicon Valley Middle East Studies Consortium (CMES), receives a significant amount of funding from the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. In order to ensure that recipients of federal funding are engaged in education rather than advocacy, Title VI requires that all federally subsidized programs "reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views."
We believe that the upcoming MdES-sponsored workshop will violate both the letter and spirit of the federally-funded USIP and Title VI grants, by engaging in anti-Israel advocacy and partisanship rather than truly educating participants about all sides of the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for the following reasons:

1. The workshop organizer and MdES Coordinator, Professor Persis Karim, has publicly declared her animosity towards the Jewish state and participated in efforts to harm it:

• She signed a letter to President Obama falsely accusing Israel of "one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times" and supporting the elimination of the Jewish state.

• She signed a statement by international writers and scholars endorsing an academic boycott of Israel, which U.S. State Department's former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Hannah Rosenthal has declared to be "antisemitic."

• She endorsed a petition to have an Israeli scholar ejected from an academic conference in Los Angeles, in solidarity with the academic boycott of Israel.  

2. We believe that none of the 6 workshop speakers will present the Israeli narrative, and that some may even make presentations which demonize and delegitimize Israel. For example:

• Samia Shoman, who is speaking about "Teaching the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at the High School Level," is a high school social studies teacher who frequently lectures on how to teach the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to high school students.  In 2009, she taught an all-day workshop entitled "Teaching the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Through Dual Narratives."  Although the workshop's title  implied that Shoman would provide a balanced presentation of both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, in actuality, as can be seen in many of the materials posted with the announcement of the 2009 workshop, Shoman's presentation was highly partisan and egregiously anti-Israel.  (For instance, in her introductory PowerPoint presentation, she whitewashed Yaser Arafat and the genocidal PLO charter, and falsely claimed that Israel -- not the actual Lebanese perpetrators -- committed a "deliberate massacre" of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatilla, which she emphasized with a photograph of dead and bloody bodies presumably massacred by Israelis. Shoman's list of 15 "Useful Websites" contains only one website which does not come from a pro-Palestinian perspective, with several of them, such as "Electronic Intifada," "If Americans Knew," "Miftah," "Palestine Monitor," and "Stop the Wall," being egregiously anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic).  Shoman advocates for inserting the Palestinian narrative in high school curricula and for encouraging anti-Israel activism among high school students.  In her own classroom at Hillsdale High School, many pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel images adorn her walls, but none presents a pro-Israel perspective. (HERE is a photograph taken in Ms. Shoman's classroom, where a large Palestinian flag dominates the images displayed on her classroom wall;  HERE is a photograph of another wall-hanging in Ms. Shoman's classroom, a poster "In Solidarity with the Palestinian People's Liberation Struggle" advocating to "Tear down the Apartheid wall!").  Ms. Shoman has also signed a petition accusing Israel of being a "racist," "apartheid" state, engaging in "ethnic cleansing," and treating Palestinians in "a savagely racist way," and calling on a local food store to boycott all Israeli goods.

• Michael Lerner, who will speak about "Engaging Israel and Palestine," has a long history of anti-Israel bias despite being a Jew and a rabbi.  He has accused Israel of "deep racism," suggested that its leaders are "repressive" and "fascistic," and endorses boycotts of Israel. 

3. SJSU Professor of History Jonathan Roth, who teaches courses about Israel and was included as a faculty member for the Middle East Consortium in their application for the Title VI grant, was not included in any of the planning for this event, nor was he even informed of it. We believe this was due to his well-known support for the state of Israel.

4. Within the last few years, MdES and/or CMES has sponsored several events and exhibits which have demonized and delegitimized the Jewish state.  For example:

• May 3, 2011 -  "Arab Revolutions," a panel discussion by four scholars about revolution in the Arab world, included negative statements about Israel, such as that Israeli's are "foreign occupiers."  Three of the four panelists are local leaders in campaigns to boycott Israel.

• September 21, 2011 -  "Occupied Minds: Life and Education Under Occupation" was a lecture given by Prof. Persis Karim about the difficulty of life under Israeli "occupation" for Palestinians in the West Bank.

• December 8, 2011 - "Slingshot Hip Hop" is a movie about life under Israeli occupation which is shown widely at events promoting the boycott of Israel.

• February 27 - March 30, 2012 - "Recollections: Art and Archive of an Iranian-American Journey" was an art exhibit on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, containing a poster from the Islamic Society of America with a swastika superimposed on a star of David, next to a map of Israel.

In addition to our concern that the upcoming workshop may violate the funding stipulations of both the USIP and Title VI grants, as educators we are troubled by the unbalanced composition of a pedagogical workshop for training high school and college instructors how to teach about a complex conflict, and as members of the Jewish community we are worried that a workshop which purports to promote "peace building" between Israelis and Palestinians will instead be a forum for promoting hatred of the Jewish state.
We request that you look into this workshop and its lack of a credible Israeli perspective, and we urge you to ensure that all future events and exhibits sponsored by SJSU academic units receiving federal funds, especially MdES and CMES, will avoid engaging in advocacy and partisanship and "reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views." 
Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Tammi@AMCHAinitiative.org

If you feel that Professor Karim deserves support, please write such letters to all the people receiving this letter from Amcha, but particularly the president of the university  Mo.Qayoumi@sjsu.edu  and please copy such letters to Prof.Karim Mo.Qayoumi@sjsu.edu
From: Rabbi Michael Lerner . If you live in the Bay Area you may wish to come study Torah with Rabbi Lerner in Berkeley this Saturday morning (we study parshat Achrey Mot and Kedoshim--some of the most controversial some of the most progressive ideas from the Torah). Wherever you live, you might consider coming to Rabbi Lerner's annual Jewish Renewal Shabbat retreat in Marin county in May. Info on both of these at www.beyttikkun.org. 

ENDS

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