This issue of the periodic newsletter from Jewish Voice for Peace is dated October 8, 2007. News on the liberal democratic front of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is available each month or more frequently from Jewish Voice for Peace. If you want an alternative viewpoint from liberal Jewish peace movement, one that does not beat the drum for Zionist hegemony or ethnocentrism along with further false propaganda about Palestinian aspirations for nationhood, look up their site here.
Here is the latest news from JVP:
Making News
Bishop Tutu, as we all know, was recently banned from a scheduled speaking engagement at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. The protest has been critical in making known the censorship which exists in the United States about Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, but not exactly effective in reversing the decision. But here is where we are at this point.
Your letters about Tutu are making the news! Read the Jerusalem Post (headline: US university urged to lift ban on Tutu, carried by the ASSOCIATED PRESS). Listen to a live conversation with JVP’s Mitchell Plitnick and Steven Walt about the Israel Lobby this Wednesday, Oct 10, 10-11 am PST on KALW-FM. Also read JVP’s Cecilie Surasky’s recently op-ed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dissenting at your own risk.
The first few paragraphs of Cecilie Sarasky’s op-ed says it all:
Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel’s occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself “America’s pro-Israel Lobby.”
A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire youth program’s funding canceled if I was allowed in the door. The threat worked, and in disgust, they canceled the whole talk.
Pundits will surely argue for years about professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s explosive new book, The Israel Lobby, which blames poor U.S. policy in the Middle East on a loose network of individuals and pro-Israel advocacy groups.
But the book, and the response to it, opens up another controversy: the stifling of debate about unconditional U.S. support for Israeli policies.
Read the rest of the article at the above link.
Chicago, Oct 12: In Defense of Academic Freedom
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm, Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago.
What is the nature of the assault on academic freedom by organizations mobilized to suppress criticism of Israel’s policies? This one-day symposium features targeted scholars affected by controversy within academia and the publishing industry. Chair: Tariq Ali (Verso Books). Participants: Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University),Noam Chomsky (MIT, emeritus), Tony Judt (Remarque Institute, NYU), John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago), Neve Gordon (Ben Gurion University), Norman Finkelstein (formerly DePaul University) and Mehrene Larudee (DePaul University).
Co-sponsored by JVP-Chicago, DePaul Academic Freedom Committee, and others.
JVP’s Health and Human Rights Delegation Ready to Go!
We send specialized delegations to Palestine consisting of medical and human rights workers, journalists, labor organizers and others. Our team will leave October 20. If you are not going, you can follow the progress on their work at this blog.
JVP Bay Area defends a SF mural expressing solidarity with Palestinians
The Mission District mural (above), created by the H.O.M.E.Y. Collective and entitled “Solidarity-Breaking Down Barriers” included a depiction of Palestinians breaking through the Israeli wall, along with many related images. Other imagery included the barrier on the US Mexico border,and images of various liberation struggles. Muralism is a long tradition in the Mission District. The mural was funded through the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the funding for the mural was held up after complaints from the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League. You can read more about the controversy and see a picture at the Muzzlewatch blog. HOMEY agreed to revise the mural and the final version has now been approved. Several JVP-Bay Area members spoke at an Arts Commission hearing on Sept. 19 and delivered a letter supporting HOMEYand the mural.
Massachussets, Oct 11 and 14: Broken Promises, Broken Dreams
Two reading and discussion sessions with JVP member Alice Rothchild, who co-organized the JVP Health and Human Rights Project, and is the author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams.
- Western Mass, Oct 11 in the evening. (For more info contact: stephaniealevin@hotmail.com)
- South Hadley, Oct 14, 1 pm, Gamble Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass. (For more info contact: odysseynews@aol.com)
Boston, Oct 26: Tearing Down Walls, Building Bridges
3:00 – 4:30pm, Copley Square, across the street from Old South Church, Boston
Join a peace rally organized by JVP-Boston and other local peace groups with the Sabeel conference. All participants attending the conference are asked to wear clerical attire.Title of the conference,
The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine/Israel: Issues of Justice and Equality
Seattle, Oct 29: The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism
7:30 pm, Elliott Bay Bookstore, 101 South Main Street, Seattle.
A reading by JVP Advisory Board Member Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz. Her engaging and eye-opening book examines the historical and contemporary views on Jews and whiteness as well as the complexities of African/Jewish relations, the racial mix and disparate voices of the Jewish community, contemporary Jewish anti-racist and multicultural models, and the diasporic state of Jewish life in the United States.
Co-sponsored by JVP-Seattle and the African American/Jewish Coalition for Justice.
More info: http://www.elliottbaybook.com/events/oct07/kaye.jsp
Reprinted by permission.
