Prof. Akhavan, was speaking about the original film that was created by the US, preparatory to the Nuremberg Trials, where the leaders of the Nazi genocide were tried as war criminals. As a law professor, he grappled with the issues of racism, Nazism,and history, i.e. the definition of war crimes, the Nuremberg tribunal, the judgement of history: He grappled with the issues of bombing of civilian cities and populations by both the allies and the Nazis during the war. Are these war crimes as well? And yet the systematic murder of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and members of the opposition of all races in death camps and elsewhere was premeditated and committed by Nazis, and their collaborators, alone. And this specific and planned murderous assault is what the Nuremberg trials were about. The complicity of the world via neglect, regarding the plight of the Jews facing this ideology, both before and during the war was also mentioned.
Prof. Akhavan pointed out the tremendous courage of Iranian students in our time standing up to the fascist state, today in Iran. (A person is hanged every eight hours by the secret police in Iran, according to Canadian member of parliament, Hon. Irvin Kotler who spoke last week. Nevertheless, Prof. Akhavan believes that change will come only through this kind of student civil discourse not through guns and violence. In short he shared his thoughts and ideas with integrity.
I cannot say the same about Ali Abunimah, who should be ashamed of himself.
Ali Abunimah, a Princeton graduate calls himself a journalist. Ali Abunimah, the keynote speaker for Israel/apartheid week is actually an ideologue promoting the idea that "Israel is a racist and apartheid state and therefore should be abolished and returned to the Palestinians". He totally denies the notion that Israel is the Jewish homeland created as a refuge for Jews in their ancestral homeland. As a matter of fact this is the basis of his claim that Israel is a "racist and apartheid state", namely, the fact that Israel accepts all Jews based on their history and proof that they are Jewish, and does not automatically accept Arabs or any other ethnic group. He totally denies the history of the last sixty-three years and also denies any attempts to dialogue or work toward peace on the part of the Israelis.
When I asked him about the over 800,000 Jewish refugees ethnically cleansed from Arab lands within the last sixty years, he had the gall to say that he hoped they would be welcomed back to their Arab countries of origin by the Arab countries that had expelled them. What world does he live in? I hesitate to ask...
Moreover, he totally denies any efforts on the part of Israel to make peace with the Palestinians, and only supports the total destruction of Israel, and the taking back of Israel by the "victimized" Palestinians. He speaks to an audience of the converted, with very little critique of his arguments.
He totally denies any positive intention on the part of Israel and the Palestinians to coexist in peace on the West Bank and Gaza, denying any positive intention of the Oslo accords or the Israel peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan, and even accuses the current Palestinian authority of "collaborating" with Israel" in the peace talks for having peace talks. In his world, Israel is "the "colonial power" who "dominates" the "second class citizens", the Palestinians against whom according to him "apartheid" is being practiced. Again, it is only apartheid if you believe that Israel has no right to exist because Israel "really belongs to the Palestinians." This is only true if you also believe that Canada really belongs to the Native aboriginal population. By the way this is another proposition put forth by the Israel/apartheid movement on an annual basis. They did the same this year.
A Palestinian, in the audience, took Abulimah to task for his claim that the Palestinian authorities are actually "Israeli collaborators". This Palestinian in the audience, was visibly upset by the comment, and reported that his own family members had been killed while in the Palestinian attacks against Israel, the intifadas etc. (the reason the wall was erected). And this person also also dared to say that only non-violent resistance could bring change in the current Palestinian situation, that the Palestinian wars of the last 60 years have not brought any fruits to Palestine, but only made things worse.Of course Ali Abunimah does not agree wit this. (I have this exchange recorded).
I believe and have evidence from visiting in the West Bank that the desire for peace and cooperation with Israel among the Palestinians living in the Israeli territories (those lands occupied since the 1967 attack on Israel) see that only peace and civil discourse with Israel brings fruits.
As other Palestinians have shared with me, both Egypt and Jordan have benefited over the last forty years from peace with Israel. And Israel, also, has taken advantage of the benefits of peace to become the economic and social power house that Israel has become. Palestine too could have become an oasis if the Palestinian leadership had chosen peace with Israel instead of conflict and war.
In terms of Gaza, Abulimah conveniently forgets that there are no more Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Gaza is currently ruled by Hamas, an Iranian proxy, and continues to lob missiles into Israel. I am reminded here of anonymous facebook posts by young Gazans inviting revolution against Hamas, the ruling authority Iranian sponsored government because Gaza has been using fascist tactics in terms of human rights there. (This was posted by an Arab journalist at the beginning of the recent Egyptian uprising and I posted it in one of previous posts.) Here is the link.
Ali Abunimah has a smooth tongue, and a British accent. He is a Princeton graduate and dangerous because in the worst tradition of propaganda he uses big lies and small lies to promote his thesis, and with a smile, never raising his voice, explains away any criticism and lobs any disagreements.
This is the seventh year of the Israel/apartheid boycott/divestment campaign on American and Canadian universities. Its interesting that although these talks take place at universities, no discussion or refutation of the theories takes place, since they have a single speaker or even several, all of whom support the same ideas.
Why is this important?
The veneer of the University is here used to preach an ideology of racism towards Israel and Jews. (1)
Prof. Akhavan quoted a Supreme Court Justice of Canada on free speech, that "the gas chambers of Auschwitz were initiated not by bricks and mortars but by words and intentions" and I might add many of those words originated, and were supported by academics in universities in Nazi Germany and elsewher. Let's not commit the same errors of supporting this fantastic racist theory regarding Israel, here in Canada, at our universities, through apathy and lazy thinking.
Thanks for your time.
(1) The Gaza incident which I quoted in my blog: "Scuttlebut on the Egyptian Crisis."
"But just to end on a more positive note I share an article by Irshad Manji on civil society in Gaza.
Earlier Discussion
Irshad Manji on democracy in the Arab world
Published Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011 11:52PM EST
Arab Awakening:a Light in the Palestinian Darkness:
Just a few lines from the article below:
"...Just before Tunisia and Egypt made headlines, an extraordinary statement issued forth from Gaza. Three women and five men – university students all – released a cyber plea for progress on behalf of young people, who make up 50 per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.
The Gaza Youth’s Manifesto for Change begins by blasting Hamas, which “has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behavior and aspirations.” Then the dissidents scorn Israel, the United Nations and the United States. Finally, their fury turns to Fatah, the secular Palestinian political party that competes with Hamas for credibility and clout. “Politics is bollocks, it is screwing our lives up,” vents one of the manifesto’s drafters.
So what exactly do he and his fellow activists want? Says their statement: “We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask?”
For the moment, it might be. They’ve posted the manifesto anonymously because, in Gaza, “you can be thrown in jail at any time.” And you’d be endangering more than yourself. Authorities “will threaten you with ruining your family reputation and that would be it.”...
Complicated situations in which we all share and which impact all of us..."
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