Last December the Pacifica radio station in Houston, KPFT, offered a programming segment to the Israeli consulate. The move angered activists and led to a proposal to join the international boycott call against Israel. Rob Block is one of the activists.
We had a really weird meeting at the Houston Pacifica station KPFT Thursday night about the BDS resolution we're trying to pass there.
How did a proposal asking for KPFT to support the human rights of Palestinian by supporting BDS turn into a resolution that makes no mention of the responsibility of Pacifica Radio and instead requests the United States government to impose weapons embargoes on 21 countries in The Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and North America-- including itself--as well as call to limit aid to countries that don't have a constitutional provision similar to the US First amendment against having a state ordered religion?
Here's the story. This was the first meeting of the committee created by the Local Station Board [LSB] , early in 2011 (I think March). It was represented to some of the people working with the KPFT BDS ad hoc committee as follows:
“After polling the LSB, it looks like everyone who's interested can come to a meeting Thurs. of next week to work on the language of the BDS resolution: ...
I hope we don't have to do much to the resolution language, although it might help to add some intro language (whereas clauses or whatever) that address some of the objections people have offered -- that BDS is somehow like censorship, that it would turn over decisions to some outside BDS organization, etc.
Thanks again to all of you for your interest and patience.”
Myself and Nick Cooper from the committee went to the meeting expecting to talk about the language of the original proposal which we had submitted to the Local Station Board and expected a meeting where we could try to make the language of the proposal as palatable as possible to board members who had concerns about it. Present were seven board members (on both sides of the BDS proposal) and seven people who came to speak in opposition to the BDS resolution.
The opponents to the resolution were at the meeting to attempt to shut down the process and stop a proposal that represented the concerns of our group, many KPFT listeners, and human rights activists across the world. Some of the people who objected to the proposal acknowledged that they were not familiar with Pacifica but still felt that the proposal violated our mission. When polled, none of them were members of KPFT. Most of them refused to talk about the language of the proposal and alleged that the language did not matter and that BDS was a either a shadowy secret group or Hamas sponsored.
Board Member: "Do you have specific concerns with the language of the proposal?"
BDS opponent: "Yes very specific. When I think of BDS I think of blood, [unintelligible] and suppression. I think of KPFT adopting BDS, I think BDS becoming a governing body for this community, for you to signing up to a third party telling us what to do in this country, and supporting through the threats and hatred and bigotry of the community that launched BDS. When you say no to to BDS what you are doing is saying no to; threats, hypocrisy prejudice, suicide bombers.."
Steve Tobias in particular led the apparently faith-based charge that there is a BDS central (he repeated this a dozen times, as though saying it enough will make it true) and that this proposal will hand over editorial control to this “BDS Central.” To support this claim he cited an article for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott. I was able to see this email "from BDS central" and pointed out that
1. the US in USCACBI stands for United States, not Palestine.
2. It is a campaign supporting BDS in academic venues, not a “BDS Central”
We also pointed out that the proposal concludes: “This proposal is not meant to set up a new review board or authority, but to establish a new commitment for our programmers, staff and management in addition to our Mission and Bylaws.” Steve maintained that the language did not matter, our resolution would be handing over authority to a foreign group.
The structure of the meeting was very confusing. I would like to commend the chair for trying to get as much feedback as possible, but ultimately the mass of people at the meeting demanded a vote on substituting a previously-written proposal by LSB chair Robert Marks which calls for “BDS” of 21 other countries. Eventually they pushed for this vote to be taken, and the majority (most of whom are not members or familiar with KPFT), replaced the proposal submitted by our group with the one written by Marks. What is wrong with the resolution by Marks?
1. It represents itself as a BDS proposal while not addressing the demands of the BDS (which are A. an end to occupation and colonization of Arab land, B. equal rights for Arab citizens of Israel and C. recognition of the right of return as described in UN resolution 194). It maintains a sad tradition of American arrogance that we can come up with our own ideas about how to solve problems on the other side of the world instead on engaging with and supporting the leadership of the Palestinian movement and their call for non-violent movements for social change.
2. It ignores the responsibility the KPFT has to address this issue, making demands on the US government that will obviously not be met, like and arms embargo on itself.
3. It jumps into whether or not we give relief aid to countries depending on their constitutional provisions, a pretty serious digression away for the demands for the human rights of Palestinians
4. It won't work. The objective of the group of people who have manipulated the process to stop a BDS resolution will not address the concerns of the KPFT community that wants a BDS proposal, and want our community radio station to take a stand in support of human rights for Palestinians by respecting their just call for non-violent action and solidarity.
It is unclear what the fallout of this meeting will be if this outcome will stand. But it is clear that the call for BDS at KPFT is just starting, and will continue until it gets a fair hearing.
Here are the competing proposals:
Original boycott proposal for KPFT’s Local Station Board KPFT LSB members:
We ask that you pass this proposal locally and instruct our representatives on the National Board to pass this resolution for the Pacifica Network:
———— Proposal for Pacifica to sign on to the BDS campaign
Media collaboration boosts Israel’s image on the international stage. By refusing to participate in media partnerships, media institutions globally can send a clear message to Israel that their occupation and discrimination against Palestinians is unacceptable. While Israeli media enjoys relatively free global freedom of movement and access to well equipped facilities, Israel has subjected Palestinians to movement restrictions and a lack of adequate funding, economic damage caused by the occupation, and restrictions for media facilities.
Whereas all forms of international intervention have until now failed to force Israel to comply with international law or to end its repression of the Palestinians, which has manifested itself in many forms, including siege, indiscriminate killing, wanton destruction, and the separation wall built on occupied land and ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice,
In light of the escalation of human rights violations in the Occupied Territories of Palestine,
And until Israel meets the minimum obligations under international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall,
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194,
KPFT’s LSB recommends Pacifica Radio agree to join AMARC (The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) in supporting Palestinian civil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions; and in particular:
a. There will be no form of restriction on the work of individual Israeli media workers, or on conducting interviews and debates with people from any institution, but we will not turn over program production, or enter into collaboration or joint projects with official Israeli institutions or institutions supported by the Israeli state.
b. We will discuss and hold dialogs about BDS on the air.
c. We will support Palestinian media institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
We affirm our commitment to anti-racism by adding that Pacifica will not turn over program production, or enter into collaboration or joint projects with anti-Jewish racists, white supremacist, Nazi Holocaust deniers, as well as Islamophobic, or any other type of racist groups.
This proposal is not meant to set up a new review board or authority, but to establish a new commitment for our programmers, staff and management in addition to our Mission and Bylaws.
KPFT Pacifica Substitute Resolution on Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (Minority Report)
Whereas, The violence in Israel and Palestine is intolerable and must not continue, and
Whereas, the violence in the Middle East is a threat to the peace and security in the entire world and to civilization generally.
Now Therefore it is resolved that Pacifica Radio should support a network wide resolution condemning violence in all forms and on all sides of the political conflicts In the middle east generally and to Israel/Palestine in particular.
Further resolved, that Pacifica condemns the import or export of weapons and articles of war to or from the following countries: The United States of America, The Palestinian Occupied Territories, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates. Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia.
Further resolves, that the United States shall limit any form of aid or assistance to any nation of the world that does not have a constitution guaranteeing the civil rights of all persons living within said nation and which does not have a constitution guaranteeing the civil rights of all persons living within said nation and which does not have a constitutional protection against State ordered or sanctioned religion similar to the first amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court as of the date of passage of this Resolution, exempting disaster relief, food, medical supplies and children's educational materials. Said relief shall be delivered only in the form of commodities and not cash and be administered only by international relief agencies upon a demonstration that such aid is being used in those countries for the intended purpose of disaster relief, feeding the people, medical assistance and education. In no way should any such government of said country grant or receive assistance in the form of cash for these purposes, and
Further resolved, that Pacifica calls for a general effort to boycott, disinvest from and sanction nations that perpetuate violence as a means of resolving political disputes or making profit from war across the globe, but specifically by the above nations (including the United States of America).
Starting back to the 80s, I became involved in a struggle to get Pacifica Radio and KPFA in Berkeley, in particular, to honestly report the Palestinian struggle as it was and and as it is and not through pro-Israeli filters, and later had my own current program taken off the air by KPFT because of my “pro-Palestinian” bias. (I don’t say alleged bias because I would never deny I have one.)
I also became deeply involved in Local Station Board politics around KPFA and am familiar with what the responsibilities are of the local board of a non-profit media outlet and despite the fact that I am totally in favor of BDS and in complete sympathy with those in Houston who were pushing the resolution, I have to question whether it is the role of a radio station board to act as a political body as opposed to making sure that those supporting the wider BDS movement are not prevented from doing so on the station’s airways.
As noted, this battle developed in the wake of an astonishing agreement by a weak program director and even weaker general manager to offer the local Israel consulate its own program on KPFT to “balance” the criticism of Israel that was frequently voiced by KPFT programmers. This, predictably, set off a storm of protest in which I was also involved, albeit from a distance. The program was withdrawn but, as we see, the issue has not gone away.
Some background: At KPFA, in the 80s, “Zionism” was not allowed to be mentioned or discussed by general manager David Salniker who was later rewarded for his defense of free speech by being made Pacifica’s Executive Director. A program host who had invited me on to discuss a protest I had was organizing at the SF Consulate opened the phones to listeners and one called in to defend “Zionism” to which I, perforce, responded. The host was properly chastised by Salniker for allowing me to “manipulate” her. The head of the Third World Dept., however, was not aware of the restriction and one Saturday night she had me on for two hours talking about the history of Zionism. If she had not been African-American and a tough lady she probably would have been censured.
The same Salniker also stopped broadcasting the excellent reports on Israeli politics by an anti-Zionist elderly Israeli, Amos Wolin, after he received a letter from New Jewish Agenda (JVP’s precursor) demanding that Wolin be taken off the air because of his “anti-Israel bias.” Wolin showed me the letter when I was in Tel Aviv in 1983.
Wolin was replaced by an Israeli-American stooge Steve Rodan who, Phyllis Bennis informed me in passing, was also employed by Israeli government radio. I immediately called Israel radio to make sure and was asked which extension I wanted since he had three. Why Bennis had not done anything about it I never asked her but I immediately began a campaign to get Rodan off the Pacifica airwaves to the point where I was accused of “harassing” the news director. Finally, he gave in but who did Pacifica replace him with but David Bar-Ilan, a speechwriter for Netanyahu. Seriously. I could not make this up. It took less time to get rid of Bar-Ilan but that will give you some idea of where Pacifica has been at critical periods of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The most positive thing about the struggle at Houston is that the issue is out there in the larger community and will not be buried. That is a far cry from what it was in the 80s.
NPR has become ZPR and JPR.
Try to find a host, guest, reporter, caller or email response that is not Jewish.
This is not an self-hating Jew/anti-Jewish post…it is an anti-good old boys network/club, whatever.
Interesting how Palestinians often have less than charitable feelings toward those given to pontificating at them in the name of “socialism”, “universal values”, etc., as espoused by likes of the Pacifica general manager you mentioned and as opposed to the openly supremacist ones given to shouting “Death to the Arabs”.
I see Jeffrey, you are upset when an anti-Israel speaker is removed, but you want to ban Pro-Israel speakers. Love your stance on free speech.
You might love it if you knew the difference between free speech and government propaganda.
Apparently, you have no issue with New Jewish Agenda’s idea of it.
How typical.
Amos Wolin, who had emigrated with his family to Israel from Germany to escape the Nazis was not anti-Israel but against what it was doing in his name and the name of Zionism. And yes, I will object when a paid employee of the government of Israel, or any government, is hired to present the news on any radio station and particularly so when that station or network purports to be radical. That the people hired represented the government of such a racist, oppressive state as Israel only showed how even a network that claimed to represent the “voice of the voiceless” was caught up in allowing the spread of Zionist propaganda
Jeff, what does radical mean? You only present your version? It’s YOUR opinion about Israel, others can make up their own minds. Of course, you on the left know very well how to use propaganda for thought control. (Soviet Union and it’s communist satelittes, China etc.)
Now you share with Iran, who says exactly the same things about Israel as you do, the desire to muzzle any opinions that don’t jive with your world view
Well, longliveisraelNOT, I meant radical to the left as opposed to radical to the right which can be used to describe your beloved entity which by its behavior is heading for a disaster sooner than later. That’s not just an opinion of someone like myself who would be dishonest if I wrote that I cared for Israel’s well being and its future (which I don’t in its present form as a Jewish state) but that of such stalwart defenders of Der Judenstaat as Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni.
I also am not a supporter of Ahmadinejad nor fond of the Islamic Republic even without him, but if Israel chooses to bomb Iran and I have select which side of the barricades I’m on, I assure you it won’t be yours.
You see, I have seen your wehrmacht in action, in occupied Palestine and Lebanon and I have been all over Israel where I actually have friends who I admire and who share most of my opinions about their fatherland and while I believe that one can find some of the best cappucinos in the world in Tel Avi cafes (which is why the Über Zionist Howard Shultz had to pull his Starbucks out of there), that is not quite enough reason to justify the existence of a racist Jewish state (excuse the redundancy but it couldn’t have been anything else.)
I actually agree with you that one of the serious failings of the USSR and its satellites was that by controlling political dissent they ended up being police states as well as welfare states, but what does that have to do with this discussion?
Actually Jeffrey, in light of the McCarthyite laws Israel is passing against free speech, along with the aggressive campus programs it is running against Israeli critics, it has a great deal to do with the to do with this discussion.
The irony of course is the in LLI’s lame attempt to malign you for harboring Soviet type hostility to free speech, he only serves to demonstrate that Israel is the party that most closely exhibits these policies.
You are so right, Shingo. I must have been under the spell of “The Only Hypocrisy in the Middle East.” One might argue that there are some other unsavory governments out there but none, too my knowledge, pretend to the world that they are anything otherwise,
Israel already has the trappings of a fascist state, having long fetishized its military and given birth to an equivalent of the Hitler Youth on steroids. Now it is passing laws that have its most ardent, well, most of its most ardent, supporters in the US worried, not because of the threat to the free speech of Israelis but because of what passing such laws will do to Zion’s image in the US.
Heaven for fend we talk about ourselves with the same disdain we reserve for those “occupiers”.
So, this replacement proposal is not passed yet. The chair of the meeting will present the results of this meeting to the whole Local Station Board at their next meeting, which is either this week or next. The chair is sympathetic to the original proposal and it will be interesting to see what gets presented.
We are trying to regroup and see what kind of strategies make the most sense, this has dragged on for a long time, and many people have been gone for the summer.
Thanks for sharing your experience Jeffrey. KPFT’s programing is largly very sympathetic to Palestinians. There are a number of local programs that devote significant time to the issue; most notably Arab Voices.
There are 12 shows with at least one programmer supporting the genuine BDS resolution [link to houston.indymedia.org
+ Connect the Dots and Proyecto Latinamericano]
and you should too, especially is you are a listener or member of a Pacifica station: link to kmaw.net
RE: “Some of the people who objected to the proposal acknowledged that they were not familiar with Pacifica but still felt that the proposal violated our mission. When polled, none of them were members of KPFT.” ~ Rob Block
CUT FROM THE SAME BOLT OF CLOTH: The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics, by David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi, Tikkun Magazine, September/October 2009
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to tikkun.org
Fear of the Jews. At this point, it’s almost funny. Stand up for what’s right and quit looking over your shoulder.
I’ve learned a lot from this article. To think – the US liberal left media is weak on Jewish supremacy. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
“b. We will discuss and hold dialogs about BDS on the air.”
Will those discussions include BDS opponents, or will they be the usual echo chamber discussions prevalent on Pacifica?
because all good journalism is ‘balanced’ like this?
They can include opponents of BDS. The primary concern is that we do not give production space or control over programs to the Israeli government or Israeli institutions. The station has continued to give air time to Jewish community groups that are pro-israel, while I disagree with their position, I dont think this violates the call for BDS.