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| Fifth Column |
| The Intifada comes to Duke |
| 2005-01-05 |
| EFL A new ritual on the American academic scene is the annual conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement. The PSM is an umbrella organization that connects various U.S. and Canadian groups; its yearly gathering offers an opportunity for the constituent elements to establish a visible presence on a prestigious university campus and plan strategy and tactics for a movement dedicated to delegitimizing the state of Israel. Over the past several years, the convocation has been held at Ohio State, the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley. In October, it was the turn of Duke University. Duke's president, Richard Brodhead, had only just assumed office last summer when the university announced that it would be hosting the PSM conference in the fall. Because the organizers had followed the proper procedures for mounting such an event, Mr. Brodhead explained, the decision to grant approval was an "easy one." After all, the university was only reaffirming "the importance of the principle of free expression." Easy or not, the decision immediately provoked criticism. Some of it came from Duke alumni and others off campus, and some of it came from a student group, the Duke Conservative Union. Altogether, some 90,000 signatures were gathered for an online petition denouncing the university's move. Not everyone likes the beauzeaux. Among the targets of protest was the PSM's fifth official "guiding principle," which decrees the group's refusal to denounce any terrorist act committed by Palestinians. Condemnation was also directed at the PSM's amply documented history of anti-Semitism and incitement to violence. One scheduled speaker, Charles Carlson, had openly called for lethal attacks against Israeli youth, declaring that "every young Israeli is military--they are all proper war targets," and that "each wedding, Passover celebration, or bar mitzvah [in Israel] is a potential military target." "May Haman son of Hammedatha and Adolf son of Alois smile on this endeavor." Another scheduled participant, Abe Greenhouse, had been arrested in 2003 after smashing a pie in the face of Israeli minister Natan Sharansky as he was about to give a lecture at Rutgers. An organizer of the 2002 PSM gathering, Fadi Kiblawi, had written that the Palestinian plight made him "want to strap a bomb to [his] chest and kill those [Zionist] racists," while an erstwhile PSM speaker, Hatem Bazian, had called for "an intifada in this country" (i.e., the U.S.) and asserted that the sacred texts of Islam require its adherents to "fight the Jews." Prominently active in the movement was Sami al-Arian, who in 2003 was indicted on racketeering and terrorism charges and is currently awaiting trial in Florida. These and other unequivocal statements and deeds of PSM activists were detailed in letters to the editor and in advertisements that the Duke Conservative Union placed in the Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper. In response, the university administration was largely silent. But Mr. Brodhead himself, moving beyond his previous stance of avowed neutrality in the name of free expression, issued what amounted to an outright endorsement of the conference. Declining to criticize any aspect of the PSM, he asserted only that a great deal of inaccurate information was circulating on the Internet and that the "deepest principle involved [in hosting the conference] is not even the principle of free speech. It's the principle of education through dialogue." How this "dialogue" would proceed under the PSM's practice of prohibiting recording devices and reporters from many of its sessions was never made clear. More at link |
| Posted by:Korora |
| #3 Fadi Kiblawi, had written that the Palestinian plight made him "want to strap a bomb to [his] chest and kill those [Zionist] racists... Wonder what's stopping him? Got too good a scam going over here, Fadi? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-01-05 5:59:45 PM |
| #2 "Altogether, some 90,000 signatures were gathered for an online petition denouncing the university’s move." Makes me feel better. |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2005-01-05 5:53:24 PM |
| #1 How this "dialogue" would proceed under the PSM’s practice of prohibiting recording devices and reporters from many of its sessions was never made clear. Free speech is all fine and dandy, but given a group history of pushing the line, limits have to be set and enforced. No provision for monitoring and enforcement should mean no conference, no ifs, ands, or buts. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-05 1:28:11 PM |