Nakba memorial week went well at Columbia. Here’s some favorable coverage in a School of International Affairs journal. Though my friend the journalist Armin Rosen (whom I admire for his doggedness) says the week failed, it was shallow and anti-Zionist and pointless.
The most interesting development for me is this letter from Jacob Shapiro of the campus’s Israel lobby, Lionpac, to the organizers of Nakba week, saying that the debate over Palestine had ripped the campus apart for eight years, so dialogue is needed:
The dialogue we propose requires diligent thought and planning, down
to the smallest details. We do not offer this as a ploy or a political
trick. We fully intend for this to take place, if you are willing to
join us. As a first step, we propose a private meeting among
representatives of our organizations to initiate discussions and talk
about moving forward. While we fully understand the potential for
failure, we believe that the time has come to challenge ourselves and
search for solutions. Next semester we look forward to working together. Our hand is extended. Will you meet us?
The response we have to Mr. Shapiro is simple: we are more than glad to
join in any debate you want, any time you want, anywhere you want.
However, we are only willing to debate the issues themselves, and have
no interest in any meta-meetings to discuss how we discuss the issues… [M]ore importantly, what Mr. Shapiro needs to realize
is that our organizing of our events is itself part of the debate that
needs to happen, just like all of the events that LionPAC organizes are
part of the needed debate. [emphasis mine] A real debate happens when people talk
freely about the conflict, attend stimulating events, and discuss them,
not when people organize meetings to talk about what language to use
and how we can move on with talking about talking about the conflict.
It is only if we engage in such open, honest, and inclusive debate that
there can be a chance for the Palestinians and Israelis to live in
peace.
I think Ammous is right, and that Shapiro is afraid of a wide-open debate for the same reason that the Jewish establishment is afraid of such a debate: if the truth about Israeli crimes against the Palestinians was widely discussed here, fair-minded Americans would turn against U.S. policy, and the status-quo would quickly become unsupportable.
RE: "A real debate happens when people talk freely about the conflict, attend stimulating events, and discuss them, not when people organize meetings to talk about what language to use and how we can move on with talking about talking about the conflict."
Now, anybody care to guess who constantly posts on this blog to talk about what language to use and how we can move on with talking about talking about the conflict?
No interest in any meta-meetings to discuss how we discuss the issues…
Phil,
Was the event presented as polemic or as information?
I think I'll lay out the terms for debate with my wife the next time she gets mouthy. I'm sure that will work out just fine.
Shouldn't the two sides should be debating the issue in PALESTINE? I guess it's cosmopolitan to have every group with a gripe to bring it to our shores.
"Phil, Was the event presented as polemic or as information?"
This is really funny. Read what Saif Ammous said, what Shapiro. What Phil said, then Witty.
Todd's remark about his debating his wife is astute.
So is the parable of the Good Samaritan, brought up a few days ago in this blog.
Interesting that the biblical Jesus chose the Samaritan to do what he did, and the definition of the other two, and what they respectively did.
Thanks for the link. I'm actually in agreement with Saif on the substance of LionPac's idiotic offer of "dialogue," although I think we were coming from umm, slightlly different directions:
http://commentariat.specblogs.com/index.php/2008/05/01/this-weeks-take-home-message-discourse-is-bullshit/#comments
Also, scheduling an event with Gil Anidjar and Joseph Massad for Nakba Week betrays a much deeper fear of "open dialogue and debate" than does Shapiro's letter.
Armin, what did you think of Lila Abu-Lughod's statement? Were you moved by it? Do you think her family, or hte family of Rima Hammemi, the woman who visited her grandfather's house in Jaffa and was treated with such rudeness, is due an apology or compensation? And if you do, why delay? Bitterness has been multiplying for decades, on the basis of what I see as a real injustice… Phil
Again Phil,
Do you think the presentation of the nakba was done as polemic or as information?
Since you can't separate the birth of 1948 Israel from the Nakba Richard, what's your point? Phil's is as obvious as the US Congress's resolution celebrating the B-Day of Israel and not mentioning the Nakba.
Is it realistic to mention the actions of Israel without mentioning the Holocaust?
Where's your moral compass?
In the Talmud?