Israeli Apartheid Week poster at Carleton: no freedom to offend
The administration at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, has deemed the poster at left offensive to some students and an infringement on civility and rights. The poster—while possibly not the best choice to convey a sophisticated and articulate argument for students to engage in Israeli Apartheid Week (a week of activities and events in dozens of universities all over the world, aimed to bring an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel)—is a pretty accurate representation of the military and political inequity between Israel and Palestine. It also rightfully represents the massive death toll of civilians in Gaza during Israel’s most recent military assault.
The move comes on the heels of a B’nai Brith advert in Canada’s National Post calling for an end to “Hate-Fests” festering on Canadian campuses. It seems there may be an orchestrated global movement to shut down free speech and academic freedom on campuses with active pro-Palestinian communities, and Carleton is topping the shameful list.
Disclosure: The links to the stories above are on a new blog, for which I am a contributor and site administrator.
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I maintain a website that includes a number of videos involving Finkelstein and several other notable commentators. For those interested: http://home.mchsi.com/~kjlevy
"It seems there may be an orchestrated global movement to shut down free speech and academic freedom on campuses with active pro-Palestinian communities"
Funny, if read independently, this line could have been lifted directly from a commentary critical of various calls for academic boycotts of Israel. Of course, it isn't and, sadly, with the illusions to some shady global conspiracy, it is far more reminiscent of the kind of crap found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
I have to wonder, does this "new" form of judenhaas (hate the nation-state, not the nation *wink wink*) actually seem original in some way? Someone comes along and claims a "zionist" global conspiracy and that doesn't ring any bells at all??? Or is the problem more that it does indeed ring bells. It relies upon such ingrained and unspoken assumptions and suspicions at the heart of Western x-tian cultures that claims such as this come with their own "ring of truth". We divide the world into "good Jews" who are in almost every way completely assimilated and proclaim as loudly and vocally as possible that they have no loyalties or ties whatsoever to the Jewish state (like the "good modern Jews" of Berlin at the turn of the 20th century) and "bad Jews", the "zionists" who secretly control world financial markets and the governments of every major state and who are pure evil seeking only to crush and enslave the world. Sound at all familiar? Again, do you really feel as though this "new" movement is in no way connected to the "old" movement built on these same allegations of secret, globally "orchestrated" networks of "bad Jews" with no real loyalty to their "host" countries and purely selfish and malicious intentions? Really?
Scary, how very similar the turn of this century is looking to the turn of the last…
skeptik:
At a talk last night at Concordia University, Robert Fisk said that if good, compassionate, honest and just people are continually labelled anti-semitic it's going to give the term a good name. Arguments like skeptik's are barely worth replying to, because they shift the argument away from the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel to one of anyone-who-criticizes-Israel-hates-Jews. It's disgustingly misguided, mischievous and malicious.
There is no Global Zionist Conspiracy.
I can name all the organizations, the pro-Israel-no-matter-what-they-do organizations and associations, who are leading this anti-academic freedom and fear-mongering campaign across the world's campuses. It's not a conspiracy when B'nai Brith takes out a full page advert in Canada's National Post. I'd say that's pretty front and center. Pretty damn conspicuous. The international community has labelled Israel's occupation of Palestinian land as illegal. Israel has every right to exist and should exist. But it does not have the right to violate international law and human rights in the process. When activists, writers, scholars and politicians make this point they are doing the job of pointing out injustices. To label them anti-semitic or racist is an inane and belligerent tactic of diversion. It's now wasted about ten minutes of my time, so I guess it's working.
If I critique Stephen Harper, his government, his military, and people that voted for him, am I anti-Canadian. If I critique the people who have written policy allowing for whites to occupy First Nations land in Canada, am I being anti-white? Surely not. The double-standard is prolific among unconditional supporters of Israel, and it's time to call it what it is: fear-mongering and diversionary tactics.
Enough already, on to the real task of ending the illegal occupation of Palestine and the suffering of oppressed people everywhere.
As ignorant and biased as the poster is – and the concept is hat Israel is practicing "apartheid" by defending themselves against gutless terrorists.. freedom of expression should exist for everyone. Including the evil and stupid.
Given that hundreds of children were killed by Israel's recent bombing and assault on Gaza, I'd hardly call the poster ignorant. Once Israel ends the slaughter of Palestinian children with helicopter gunships your argument might carry a little more weight.
You say potato..
I think the poster would've been more powerful if the child was carrying an assault rifle. This is a complex issue. A bit of authentic outside intervention is needed to sort this problem out as well as cessation of the intelligence community throwing in their subversion.
good morning,
today i woke up in quite hecticly (nothing to do with this) and thought about sitting and reading some zen stories to calm my mind.
before i continue, there an amazing story i wish to share:
"
A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen.
The master poured the visitor’s cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself.
“It’s overfull! No more will go in!” the professor blurted. “You are like this cup,” the master replied, “How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.”
"
there are a few great stories in that beautiful site http://www.renegadezen.com and i was admiring a the deeply profound stories trying to grasp their meaning. than i've went on to the portfolio section to see maybe a few more delightfull pearls from the same web persona.
the first link brought me to "motive", which states art for good.
and the first thing i see is this poster above (i traced it back here, so i could say something aobut it)
now,
the Israel and Palestine issue is such a complex one i find it so curious that so many people all over the world show so much intrest and seem to have it all figure out.
sometimes reading this posts it sounds so easy
so whats the solution?
yes, Israel has killed many civilians in the latest war, and also many hamas militiry soliders (some would say terorists cause they delight on the indiscriminately killing of men, women and babies which are directly responsible for their current situation)
I cant say im happy for all the death in gaza, not at all, i hate it, i wish there was some way to prevent it.
I can only imagine whats it like being born in gaza in this last years, hungry, humiliated, no proper edjucation, learning from day one to hate the zionist dogs.
(that was serious, not cinicly its not easy) i easly get how tempting it is to hate Israel and all the zionist criminals in it, men, women, and babies.
but than again, u are all intelegent people.
Israel has a right to be. (those who oppose this simple line, are irelevent to this discussion)
now, how can a country deal with and organization constantly trying to kill its civilians, shooting rocket (still to this day!) on its cities. trying to launch people who will take their own life just so they can kill some men women and baby zionist.
how do u fight an organization that locks its own people in their houses so the israeli army will have a harder time not killing them. an organization that stills young kids from moms to move with them, so the zionist wont try to shot at them (or if they will so there will be another baby casualty)
(im talking about just facts, which u may or may not believe, but none of us is leaving in gaza)
none of us is clean.
but how do u make peace with an organization that wants to destroy u completly. taking over all of ur land, killing all ur civilians in the name of religion.
now,
im sure that there are so many plastinians that wants peace, and its realy hard for them to express themselvs cause of fear. i know that usually when someone attacks u, u dont get to ur senses and want to do peace but the other way around, ur just turning more and more hostile.
so now
im open to suggestions
what do u think we should do to stop this hostility?
about the freedom of speech, its definitly and important thing and sits at the base of every democratic socity, but it shouldnt be exploited to encourage hate. i get it, its a very popular things to hate israel and feel for the plastinians, a bit like china and tibet.
i've met many tibetians people in maclaud gansh in India (their exile city) and they are amazing as im sure so many plastenians are. but they are not led by people who wants to kill innocent zionist. and gloat at the death toll. does someone goes around universities in north america stating how dangerous the mexican-american, african-american, asian-american, and so on…
and yes u can present the truth in so many ways, im counting on ur intelegence to know this by now.
for those of u who were paitent enough to read all my thought, thanks for ur time, and I'll appretiate ur opinion
im sorry for all the spelling mistakes i've probably done, as i am not a native.
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