Re: [Marxism] Norman Finkelstein meeting at Columbia tonight generates controversy

["cleon42@xxxxxxxxx" <cleon42@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've noticed a lot more activity to try and stop any event sympathetic to the 
Palestinians on campuses.

Last night I moderated a panel at Georgia Tech about the Palestinian elections, 
an event coordinated between Atlanta Palestine Solidarity and GT Students for 
Justice in Palestine. One woman on the panel was an untenured professor at Tech 
that I had spoken with on another panel back in November. An article about the 
November panel was printed on FrontPageMag.com and circulated among the Jewish 
Student Union and local community. Needless to say, that article was filled 
with lies, half-truths, innuendo, and outright slander.

As a result, this woman (whose name I am not mentioning for obvious reasons) 
has been verbally attacked by students and faculty alike, and her job is 
possibly in danger. She still speaks up, but she was (understandably) nervous 
speaking at last night's panel--especially as a number of University 
administrators were onhand to see if what was said was really as "out there" as 
the FrontPage article made the last event out to be. Thankfully, the University 
administration has--thus far--been very firm on ensuring freedom of speech on 
campus, and their meetings with SJP have been very positive.

More to the point, 12 or so visibly pro-Israel students showed up at last 
night's event. (By "visibly" I mean wearing Israel flag t-shirts, IDF jackets, 
etc.) To minimize the disruption that they were undoubtedly there to cause, we 
did audience questions via notecard. There were still some snide ones (I got 
one lovely little question asking if I was "born a traitor"), but by and large 
it went well with minimal problems and I only bothered relaying the substantial 
questions.

I think the main thing to take from these things is to note that the Defenders 
of Israel are taking an offensive approach on all fronts--not just the 
propaganda like Horowitz's latest blacklist, but the "foot soldiers" as well.

One thing we discussed during our traditional post-event relaxation beer was 
how to deal with this in the future. We're still chewing over this, but one 
thing we all agreed on is that when we organize future events we, as a matter 
of habit, prepare contingency plans in case of disruption. Last night went ok, 
but if they decide to get more disruptive when University officials AREN'T 
around it might be a bit more difficult to deal with. And we have to deal with 
the unfortunate reality that if something comes to he said/she said, the 
pro-Israel voices have a lot more resources at their disposal to get their 
"version" out. (To that end, the SJP folks are making it a habit to videorecord 
events they put on.)

Comrades who are involved in Palestine solidarity work might want to keep the 
situation in mind and start thinking along the same lines. I'd also like to 
encourage comrades to meet their escalation with our own--let's organize *more* 
events, let's get the message out there more than ever. Let's make the "Israel 
uber alles" crowd work as hard as they can.

Adam


----- Original Message ----
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 11:22:37 AM
Subject: [Marxism] Norman Finkelstein meeting at Columbia tonight generates 
controversy

Zionist students protest:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/01/44053165a3566

Jewish student interviews Finkelstein:
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/08/440e74fd1c36e

--

www.marxmail.org


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