MONDAY UPDATE: Tonight the City University of New York will reverse the decision to ban playwright Tony Kushner for his views on Israel. See the New York Times update here. This whole Kushner suppression thing blew up in the right's face. Not only will Kushner get his degree but he is probably going to sue those who defamed him. Nice.
All too often the people who think of themselves as "pro-Israel" take actions that seriously harm their cause.
In Washington this takes the form of pressuring and pestering Congress and the White House to unquestioningly support right-wing policies that thwart Israel's chances for peace and security.
Away from Washington - especially on the nation's college campuses and in other intellectual arenas - it takes the form of squelching any idea that deviates from right-wing Israeli positions.
That is what apparently happened after John Jay College, part of the City University of New York system, decided to confer an honorary degree on one of the world's greatest playwrights, Tony Kushner.
Kushner, most famous for the Pulitzer-winning "Angels in America" - and with a host of other award-winning plays under his belt - would seem to be a more than appropriate choice for a Manhattan-based college that prides itself in allowing students to pursue their degrees through independent study with scholars throughout the City University system.
Kushner, whose plays often interweave gay and Jewish themes, international politics and American social issues, is, one would think, a natural for John Jay. And that is what its trustees thought when they invited him to be honored at graduation; it was what they thought when they rejoiced at his acceptance of the honor.
But then one of the university's trustees, conservative Republican Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, discovered that Kushner (who he says he had never heard of!) holds unacceptable views on Israel. According to the New York Times:
Mr. Kushner has criticized policies and actions by Israel in the past, including what he called the "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians from the land that became the State of Israel at its founding. But he has also repeatedly said that he is a strong supporter of Israel's right to exist, that he has never supported a boycott of the country, and that his views are shared by many Jews and supporters of Israel."I have been honored many times by prominent Jewish organizations [he received an honorary degree from Brandeis in 2006], proudly identified as a Jew and maintained a passionate support for the continuous existence of the State of Israel."
Here is his Wiesenfeld's rationale for his actions, which he offered in a telephone call with the Atlantic's Jeff Goldberg:
"My mother would call Tony Kushner a kapo," he said in a telephone conversation earlier this morning. "Kapos" were Jews who worked for the Germans in concentration camps.
Pretty amazing, likening criticizing Israel to working with the Nazis to kill Jews. But Wiesenfeld (active in AIPAC, trustee of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, and an admirer Muslim baiter Pam Geller) has some strong views. In today's New York Times, he told Jim Dwyer that he did not consider Palestinians to be human.
I tried to ask a question about the damage done by a short, one-sided discussion of vigorously debated aspects of Middle East politics, like the survival of Israel and the rights of the Palestinians, and which side was more callous toward human life, and who was most protective of it.But Mr. Wiesenfeld interrupted and said the question was offensive because "the comparison sets up a moral equivalence."
Equivalence between what and what?
"Between the Palestinians and Israelis," he said. "People who worship death for their children are not human."
Did he mean the Palestinians were not human? "They have developed a culture which is unprecedented in human history," he said.
That is why former New York mayor, Ed Koch, far right on all matters relating to Israel, says of the revocation of the honorary degree that he "can't think of a dumber academic action...What does Kushner receiving an award have to do with criticism of the State of Israel? I am a well-known supporter of that nation. What if I were denied an honorary degree because of my strong support for that state? That would make as much sense as denying Mr. Kushner a degree." Koch wants Wiesenfeld fired from the CUNY board.
The difference between Wiesenfeld and Koch may simply be a matter of smarts. Wiesenfeld believes that using smash-mouth tactics to silence critics of Israel makes the Jewish state stronger. Koch seems to understand that blatantly silencing debate on Israel in America does the opposite. .
After all, if Wiesenfeld had not achieved his ban on Kushner, who would have known - other than the graduates and their families - that the great playwright was being honored by John Jay? Sure the college would have promoted their good fortune in landing him as a degree recipient but it would not exactly be big news. And no one would have noted his Middle East views. But now the story is big news. And the story is that the one issue on which free discussion is prohibited in academe is Israel.
That may not even be completely true. But making it appear to be is Wiesenfeld's big contribution to Israel. Israel needs to find itself some new friends.
Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjayrosenberg
Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Behind the Tony Kushner Story
This is how "the other" is degraded, offering Israel the opportunity to take away the human rights of the Palestinians.
The most shocking aspect is that the compliance of other 11 members of the board of trusties. It illustrates the power of these thugs to silence people.
Eve Ensler, playwright: My hope is that this attempted censoring and dishonoring of one of our great playwright may be a call to the end of blacklisting and muting of voices who have differing views on the policies of Israel. That it may be the moment that opens dialogue and discourse without shaming, bullying or anti-Semitic accusations.
http://mondoweiss.net/
Yeah. Lets turn this whole article and the subsequent fallout on its head, ignore everything that has been written about it over the last week and pretend pro-Israeli professors are suffering through the non-existence pro-Palestinian bias of imaginary trustees.
Hee hee!
Also (a non-exhaustive list from a simple Google search):
University of Calgary
University of Maryland
University of Oklahoma
CUNY
Temple University
SUNY Binghamton
University of Michigan
University of Washington--Seattle
University of Miami
San Francisco State University
University of Denver
Notre Dame
Michigan State University
What's wrong Matt. You can't shut up one playwright so now you want to silence whole departments? How typical!
Did you know Israel has incarcerated over 630,000 Palestinians? Thats 20% of the West Bank population. Twenty percent. 1/5th of the population have been in an Israel prison.
Ill leave it as an exercise for yourself to calculate how many Palestinian civilians the IOF has killed expressed as a percent of the population in the last ten years.
The British Government broke its promise to grant independence to the Arabs who at that stage were roughly 80% of the total population to create a homeland for a group of Europeans. It should be noted here that there was a Jewish population in Palestine constituting 10% of the total population who were opposed to the creation of a Jewish homeland. The remaining population of Palestine was Christian.
When a foreign Government breaks an agreement with you about independence and promises your land to a third party to rule over you, the foreign government and the third party have effectively declared war.
Any actions taken by the Palestinians in reaction to the British Government and European Zionist's denial of their right to self-determination were actions in self-defence. When white settlers came to Australia are you seriously suggesting that the aborigines started a war. When white settlers moved into the Dakota black hills do you suggest that the Sioux were the aggressor?
While there was a small pre-existing Jewish population in Palestine, the fast majority of those seeking to disenfranchise the Palestinian Arabs arrived by boat, like the first fleet to Australia.
So where are the rest? Well, go to the Arab nations and look in the 'refugee camps' that the Arab League set up...where the refugees, and their descendents, are located to this very day. Why weren't they offered resettlement, citizenship elsewhere, homes, jobs, opportunities--like EVERY OTHER REFUGEE POPULATION of the 20th century? Were they polled, do they get a referendum every few years, can they have genuine choices? And Israel took in over half a million Jews who were chased out of Arab lands, expropriated...and gave them citizenship. Surely the vast Arab world could've done better? If not, why not?
gdiTony Kushner :
“I can unambivalently say that I think that it’s a terrible historical problem that modern Israel came into existence.”
“I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”
—The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY(10/14/02)
“I think [Israel's creation] was a mistake.”
—Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“Zionism aimed as the establishment of a national identity is predicated on a reading of Jewish history and an interpretation of the meaning of Jewish history I don’t share. Insofar as Zionism is an idea that the solution to the suffering of the Jewish people was the establishment of a Jewish nation, I think it is not the right answer.”
—Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“I am not a Zionist, in case you haven’t noticed.” Kushner cited “the shame of American Jews” for failing to denounce Israel.
—Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)
It is not racism to criticize Israel unless it is an attack on Jews as Jews. You can say you hate France and still get an honorary degree. Or Japan. Or our own country.
It is the price of having a state.
Calling attacks on Israel anti-Semitic negates the Zionism idea which was to create a "state like any other."
That means, in addition to everything else, subject to criticism, no matter how strong.
You can say anything you want about Israel. But universities are also allowed to decide to not honor you if they disagree with you.
So what?
And Kushner can call for the destruction of Israel as much as he like. He just has to accept the consequences of that action, which is he might not be rewarded for his hatred.
The thing about McCarthy, at least he could claim he was defending his own country.
McCarthy prosecuted and locked up people he believed were traitors. No one is locking Kushner up, they just aren't giving him free stuff. No comparison.
If you are going to attribute words to Mr. Kushner, perhaps you might provide a source?
Meantime he HAS said:
"I am very proud of being Jewish, and discussing this issue publicly has been hard; but I believe in the absolute good of public debate, and I feel that silence on the part of Jews who have questions is injurious to the life of the Jewish people. My opinion about the wisdom of the creation of a Jewish state has never been expressed in any form without a strong statement of support for Israel’s right to exist, and my ardent wish that it continue to do so, something Mr Wiesenfeld conveniently left out of his remarks."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/06/tony-kushner-israel
“I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”
—The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY(10/14/02)
“I think [Israel's creation] was a mistake.”
—Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“Zionism aimed as the establishment of a national identity is predicated on a reading of Jewish history and an interpretation of the meaning of Jewish history I don’t share. Insofar as Zionism is an idea that the solution to the suffering of the Jewish people was the establishment of a Jewish nation, I think it is not the right answer.”
—Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“I am not a Zionist, in case you haven’t noticed.” Kushner cited “the shame of American Jews” for failing to denounce Israel.
—Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)"