Students protest Israeli spokesperson at Wayne State University

by on November 2, 2011 70
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hoffmanprotest
Student's silent protest during GIl Hoffman talk. the students walked out en masse. (For more photos see Facebook here)
wsumarch
 

About Adam Horowitz

Adam Horowitz is Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 70 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. pabelmont says:
    November 2, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    The red tape is brilliant (visually and conceptually). No nned to speak. No need to risk arrest. Very visual to the speaker if he is looking at them.

    • Avi_G. says:
      November 2, 2011 at 4:13 pm

      No need to speak. No need to risk arrest.

      That only goes to show what freedom of speech has come to mean in these United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave, where OUR troops are fighting over there so that we can have all these freedoms. Support our troops. USA, USA, USA!!!

      I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

    • Chaos4700 says:
      November 2, 2011 at 10:57 pm

      Although unfortunately, I’d be surprised if the speaker was perturbed.

    • dumvitaestspesest says:
      November 3, 2011 at 7:31 am

      I have another idea for a massive protest against such a “speakers”. Students can put white shirts with a red paint all over it ,simulating blood.
      If all of them would wear it, I think this also would be a pretty powerful statement.
      Another idea:
      Dress in the colors of Palestinian flag, (black, green, white, red shirts) and sit on the audience in a way that Palestinian flag is formed.
      Simple, yet also pretty powerful.

  2. Taxi says:
    November 2, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    Red duct tape is cool.

    Should be the symbol for global revolution.

  3. Boycott Israel on Campus says:
    November 2, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    This returns Wayne State to its greatest days.

    In 2003, the Wayne State Student Council approved the first university resolution for total divestment from Israel:

    link to 4.bp.blogspot.com

    The resolution ended with two demands:

    “THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED, that we ask the Board to immediately divest (dis-invest) our university from Israel,

    “THEREFORE IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Board for a report this semester, on its progress in divesting the University from its investments in Israel, including divestment from all companies doing business in Israel, and divestment from all stocks and pension funds which include those companies.”

  4. dumvitaestspesest says:
    November 2, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Good job guys.
    It reminded me of an event that took place in Poland good, few weeks ago.
    There was a soccer match between Israeli team Hapoel and Polish team Legia Warszawa. The game took place in Warsaw (Warszawa) Poland.
    The fans of Polish team prepared a huge green baner with white letters that read: “Jihad Legia”. Their whole are had colors of Palestinian flag.
    Ay and vay. What an international chutzpa it was. Even ADL’s eternal guru , Abe Foxman, wrote angrily about this “anti-Semitic event” on his infamous website.
    Here is a video of it.
    link to youtube.com

      • seafoid says:
        November 3, 2011 at 2:07 am

        The Fox is probably right though, for a change. But Israel has agency
        that the Polish Jews of the 40s never had.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 9:51 am

          I disagree that Foxman was right. He was wrong, as usual. Here was an Israeli team and they were being jeered as Israelis, not as Jews. There is nothing anti-Jewish about such a sign and sporting Palestinian colors, although there is something clearly anti-Israel about it (and rightly so.)

          Foxman’s doing nothing here but chumming the waters trying to justify his paycheck.

        • dumvitaestspesest says:
          November 3, 2011 at 10:30 am

          seafoid,
          You are wrong.
          The Israeli team, Hapoel, was waving flags and banners with red stars,hammer and sickles, and some other communistic symbols in a country that suffered a great deal under communism.
          Communistic regime was as bloody and cruel as Nazi regime.
          There is no reason to “shine” those hated symbols in public.
          But I assume you won’t understand it.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:01 am

          “The Israeli team, Hapoel, was waving flags and banners with red stars,hammer and sickles, and some other communistic symbols in a country that suffered a great deal under communism.”

          If this is true (and I’ve no reason to doubt you, dumvitaestspesest), that the team was doing this, then the Israeli team should be banned from international competition by FIFA.

        • Shmuel says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:11 am

          The Israeli team, Hapoel, was waving flags and banners with red stars,hammer and sickles, and some other communistic symbols in a country that suffered a great deal under communism.

          The Hapoel logo – link to en.wikipedia.org – incorporates the hammer and sickle, and the team’s colours are red and white. Hapoel means “the worker” and the team has socialist roots. I’m sure there was no intention on the part of Israeli fans to protest or offend their hosts “in a country that suffered a great deal under communism”. Communism is not particularly popular in Israel, to say the least. Hapoel, on the other hand, is.

        • seafoid says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:15 am

          But apparently there used to be Jews in Poland. Someone told me they didn’t always live in their eternal homeland. Football fans are always sparky. I am just saying…

        • dumvitaestspesest says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:40 am

          Do you think that some kind of neo-Nazi team, sporting svasticas and photos of Nazi leaders would be warmly welcomed in Israel??

        • Shmuel says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:50 am

          Do you think that some kind of neo-Nazi team, sporting svasticas and photos of Nazi leaders would be warmly welcomed in Israel??

          If it were a problem, I would expect the team not to be invited or for stipulations to be made in advance – rather than getting upset, after the fact, about fans waving the team logo and colours. I don’t know whether “Che” was also present in Warsaw (as in the 1999 clip you linked to), but his image is far more of a “brand” these days than anything else.

          On a side note, the hammer and sickle (or cog, or wheat, or star or colour red) as a left-wing political symbol have both noble and ignoble significance. Do you know of any decent right-wing groups of any kind that incorporate the swastika in their logo?

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 11:58 am

          “The Hapoel logo – link to en.wikipedia.org
          – incorporates the hammer and sickle, and the team’s colours are red and white. Hapoel means ‘the worker’ and the team has socialist roots. I’m sure there was no intention on the part of Israeli fans to protest or offend their hosts ‘in a country that suffered a great deal under communism’.”

          I think that they should have had the good sense to leave the hammer and sickles garbage behind in Tel Aviv. It is no excuse that this is their team logo.

        • Shmuel says:
          November 3, 2011 at 12:05 pm

          I think that they should have had the good sense to leave the hammer and sickles garbage behind in Tel Aviv.

          Good sense from football fans? No flags, scarves, or banners?

          These are things the clubs have to agree on before the game – although I don’t see how a visiting team’s logo or colours could be banned. FIFA would probably have a thing or two to say about that.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 12:09 pm

          “If it were a problem, I would expect the team not to be invited or for stipulations to be made in advance – rather than getting upset, after the fact”

          So then the fact that the Israeli team didn’t condition its acceptance of the offer to play on any condition that the Legia fans didn’t prepare a counter banner shoudl mean that they (and their supporters like Foxman) shouldn’t get upset after the fact, right??

          “On a side note, the hammer and sickle (or cog, or wheat, or star or colour red) as a left-wing political symbol have both noble and ignoble significance. Do you know of any decent right-wing groups of any kind that incorporate the swastika in their logo?”

          Right-wing, left-wing is not the point. The swastika symbol is revered in Native American and South Asian cultures. I would expect that a football squad from those areas which incorporated that symbol in its logo would alter them to omit it, if it were traveling to Tel Aviv — not because it believes that the symbol is bad, but because it would be humane enough to think about its hosts for a moment and ask whether the hosts would believe the symbol is bad.

          And the same here. Hapoel should have understood that it’s communist trade dress (in this capitalist enterprise) would be perceived as very, very insulting by the team’s hosts and should have acted accordingly.

        • Shmuel says:
          November 3, 2011 at 12:47 pm

          Woody,

          I’ll give it one more shot.

          The Legia fans wanted to be provocative. The Hapoel fans wanted to sport their team logo and colours. There is a difference. If the logo and colours are offensive to Poles, that would have been known in advance, and might have been addressed by the Polish club. As far as I know, Legia Warszawa has not officially changed its name to Jihad Legia Warszawa, and the team colours (the same as those of the Palestinian flag, if I’m not mistaken) displayed without the word “Jihad” would not have posed any problem.

          I specifically said “political symbol” (which is the context of the Hapoel logo), because the problem is not with hammers or sickles or even hammers and sickles together, but with the hammer and sickle as a socialist-communist-trade-unionist symbol. It is communism that offends Poles, not carpenters or farmers. In my side comment I pointed out that even in the left-wing political context, the hammer and sickle has very good as well as very bad significance. The same cannot be said of the swastika.

        • kapok says:
          November 3, 2011 at 12:50 pm

          “suffered a great deal under communism” implies that the communism led to the suffering. I don’t know, I’m not a scholar of Polish history, but it might just as well be that Poland suffered during the communist era at the hands of the West who loathe communism. What I do know is that Lenin was a staunch anti-Zionist, so any attempt to appropriate the “symbols of communism” by Zionists is ipso facto an affront to a genuine Marxist-Leninist.

        • kapok says:
          November 3, 2011 at 1:05 pm

          BTW, the Hammer and Sickle are not hateful symbols, they are mighty Signs that bespeak the unity of city folk and rural in the search for the just society your libruls only pay lip service to.

        • seafoid says:
          November 3, 2011 at 1:11 pm

          “Hapoel should have understood that it’s communist trade dress (in this capitalist enterprise) would be perceived as very, very insulting by the team’s hosts and should have acted accordingly.”

          I don’t buy that. Polish antisemitism is the real McCoy. Anyone for Kielce 1946 ? Football fans can be very extremist.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 2:00 pm

          Shmuel,

          I understand your point; I simply think you are wrong. I have no doubt that the Legia fans were being provocative. I never said they were not. (The notion that they were being anti-Semitic, on the other hand, is nonsense.)

          My point is simply that no one in his or her right mind, in 2011 could fail to understand that, to a large percentage of the Polish population, that the hammer and sickle would be seen as a hightly, highly offensive thing, and the Israeli club is, at the very least, extremely negligent in not taking steps to insure that they, and their fans, did not insult their hosts by the gratuitous display of these symbols, whether in the political realm or not. It was not incumbant upon the Polish club; any thinking human being should know this already.

          In my mind, there are no innocents here. Both sides are guilty of provacative behavior and gross negligence.

          “In my side comment I pointed out that even in the left-wing political context, the hammer and sickle has very good as well as very bad significance. The same cannot be said of the swastika.”

          Not as a political matter, no; but as a societal matter, some South Asians and Native Americans have positive connotations with this symbol. If a club had incorporated it into its logo, I would expect it to know enough that it would have to change it if it were to go play in Tel Aviv. The same should be true with the Hapoel team playing in Poland.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 2:05 pm

          “I don’t buy that.”

          Then we disagree.

          “Polish antisemitism is the real McCoy. Anyone for Kielce 1946 ?”

          And no doubt that there are very few people in those stands who were anything more than infants in 1946, and the vast majority borne afterwards. So unless you are proposing a genetic disposition on behalf of all people of Polish descent, an even occurring in 1946 seems fairly irrelevnat to what’s happening 66 years later.

          “Football fans can be very extremist.”

          Yes, but that does not mean that we can believe anything we want without proof, and it does not change the fact that an anti-Israeli insult is not magically transformed into an anti-Jewish one, because Abe Foxman says so.

        • dumvitaestspesest says:
          November 3, 2011 at 3:38 pm

          @seafoid
          You know nothing about Kielce 1946, except what the propaganda tought you.
          Are you going to quote Jan Gross to prove your points??
          Do you ever wonder why so many Jews lived in Poland before the WWII?? Maybe it was due to the fact that they were not welcomed in other European countries?? Not too mention USA??
          You are repeating some stereotypes, ADL’s style.

        • seafoid says:
          November 3, 2011 at 5:05 pm

          I have been to a few matches in Eastern Europe, Woody. The “Ultra” style fans at a Slovakia -Portugal game in Bratislava a few years ago did Nazi salutes.

          Closer to “home” the Betar Jerusalem fans are racist, bigoted and overflowing with hatred of Arabs. Football is no highbrow scene.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if the Legia fans were antisemitic. It’s provocative, it’s Polish and it’s guaranteed to get a response. Germany has dealt with its antisemitic past but has Poland ?

          link to tau.ac.il

          Israelis are always moaning about imaginary antisemitism but in Eastern European you can still find the real deal.

        • seafoid says:
          November 3, 2011 at 5:07 pm

          Dumvita

          I only know about Kielce because I read the book “Konin”.
          The History of Jews in Europe is a tragedy. But please don’t imply there was never any antisemitism in Poland. It is a very complicated story .

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          November 3, 2011 at 5:19 pm

          seafoid,

          The fans may or may not be antisemitic. I’m not arguing that point. All I am saying is that there is nothing inherently anti-Semitic about the banner and sporting the Palestinian colors in response to an Israeli team. They are anti-Israeli acts, for sure, but not inherently anti-Semitic.

          Interesting that the Roth Institute does not publish a country report on Israel.

        • dumvitaestspesest says:
          November 3, 2011 at 5:27 pm

          Antisemitism was prevalent in Europe before the war.
          Have you ever wondered why Poland was called “Paradisus Judeorum” ( Jewish Paradise) before WWII??
          Do you think because it was so bad or so good??
          Have you ever heard about the ship St Louis that left Germany at the end of May 1939, carrying about 800 German Jews to the USA??
          And the USA did not let them in, they sent them BACK to Germany, fully knowing about Jews being persecuted there??
          And do you know how Sweden and Finland reacted to the offer of accepting Jews escaping from Germany?
          There are tons of facts that only people, who do some reaserch know about. It is still like a tip of an icberg.

  5. Jan says:
    November 2, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Avi, if you think that our troops are fighting to protect our “freedoms” you have a lot to learn. We heard that same stupid mantra when Reagan supported the death squads in El Salvador. We heard it when the US and Israel supported contra terrorists who were responsible for the murder of 10,000 Nicaraguans. We heard it when a reason had to be given for our murderous assault on Vietnam. We heard it when Bush and his criminal cabal said that we had to attack Iraq because of WMDs and to protect our freedoms. It is the cry of those in government and elsewhere who cannot reveal the real reason for sending our troops overseas to kill and be killed.
    As for covering up their mouths, I find it brilliant. They did not stop the Israeli mouthpiece from spewing his hasbara. They exercised the right of every American to show what they think of the speaker. No American soldier fought or died for this right. The troops were sent overseas to ensure our right to the oil under the ground and to give hegemony in the Middle East to the US and Israel.

  6. annie says:
    November 2, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    more power to them!

    i went to the hoffman link where they had an interview w/AJ. what a tool. he’s a gov shill.

  7. pabelmont says:
    November 2, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    As Taxi said above, OWS could use a good color, and RED might be a good antidote for the GREEN of $$$.

  8. hophmi says:
    November 2, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    LOL. Now we target journalists.

    Arab protests of Jewish Israelis: 1
    Arab protests of Arab dictators: 0

    • Chaos4700 says:
      November 2, 2011 at 11:04 pm

      Syria Egypt Jordan Libya…

    • tree says:
      November 3, 2011 at 1:20 am

      From Gil Hoffman’s own website:

      Gil Hoffman is the chief political correspondent and analyst for The Jerusalem Post. Well-connected to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Hoffman has interviewed every major figure across the Israeli political spectrum, has been interviewed by top media on six continents and is a regular analyst on CNN, Al-Jazeera and other news outlets.

      Called “The most optimistic man in Israel” by Israel Television, Hoffman’s writing and TV appearances provide a behind the scenes look at the intrigue and humor in the Israeli political arena.

      Hoffman, who was raised in Chicago, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University’s School of Journalism and wrote for the Miami Herald and Arizona Republic before moving to Israel. A reserve soldier in the IDF’s Spokesman’s Unit, he has lectured in seven countries and 36 US states. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, and two children.

      link to gilhoffman.com

      Looks like he’s a journalist AND an IDF Spokesperson. Normally one would think that would be a massive conflict of interest. But then the rules are different for Israel, right?

      • pabelmont says:
        November 3, 2011 at 7:33 am

        No, the rules are the same. At least one main reporter for NYT in Israel is an American newsie with many ties to the gov’t he is supposed to be reporting impartially on. Within USA, many newsies are megaphones for the gov’t trading “access” (for which they pay with subservience) for independence. That’s how the game works under capitalism where everything is for sale.

    • chocopie says:
      November 3, 2011 at 3:16 am

      That’s an American protest, not an Arab protest. Those are US college students and I presume nearly all of them are US citizens. I know it’s a difficult concept to grasp: Arab ethnicity, U.S. passport, and an American sense of entitlement. They don’t like people coming to their country trying to promote a foreign, racist ideology.

    • Woody Tanaka says:
      November 3, 2011 at 10:01 am

      “Now we target journalists. ”

      LMAO. Benito Mussolini was a journalist. So was Julius Streicher (after a fashion.) This issue isn’t that one writes, but what one writes. And Hoffman is a cog in the Israeli apartheid machine and should be opposed as such.

  9. hophmi says:
    November 2, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    Once again, a journalist is not an Israeli spokesperson. Whatever. It’s just a suggestion of how Arabs would treat Jews if they were in the majority in Israel. They would disregard us and enact a tyranny of the majority. That’s yet another reason why a Jewish state is necessary. This is Dearborn; it’s not a surprise. Yay; there are way more Arabs at WSU than Jews. Let me know when they protest the Saudi Ambassador.

    • Avi_G. says:
      November 2, 2011 at 8:23 pm

      hophmi November 2, 2011 at 7:18 pm

      It’s just a suggestion of how Arabs would treat Jews if they were in the majority in Israel.

      That’s strange logic. Are you making that assumption based on the assertion that every student in that room is an Arab?

      Or, are you basing your assumptions on the assertion that all Arabs are the same?

      Or, are you basing your assumptions on the assertion that there is no difference between protesting injustice and living peacefully with one’s neighbor?

      They would disregard us and enact a tyranny of the majority. That’s yet another reason why a Jewish state is necessary.

      You’re an American. So who do you think you’re kidding when you use the plural first person pronoun, “us”?

      To add insult to injury, you close with typical Zionist logic; tyranny of the majority is a threat, hence a Jewish state is necessary. But then again, according to Zionist thinking, said tyranny is only tyranny when the majority is Arab. When the majority is Jewish, it suddenly transforms into a democracy because special blood flows in Jewish people or some such mythical arguments.

      Didn’t you once say you were a lawyer? I wonder how many cases you’ve lost, that is if you’ve actually passed the bar exam with your brand of logic. Which school accepted you? It wasn’t the Hillel-We-Need-Ideologue-Drones school of law, was it?

      P.S. – In case you haven’t noticed, you’re a rabid bigot.

    • Chaos4700 says:
      November 2, 2011 at 11:04 pm

      Actually, a spokesperson is not a journalist, hophmi. But I can see why you can’t figure that out. Find those nukes in Iraq yet?

    • kapok says:
      November 3, 2011 at 1:28 pm

      gotta love the subjunctive, eh hoph?

      • patm says:
        November 3, 2011 at 2:30 pm

        hops, the fabulously wealthy volunteer at Hasbara Central who had no idea Orthodox Jews formed the majority of settlers in Israel!

        I wouldn’t put much stock in anything he says.

  10. Kathleen says:
    November 2, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears

    British officials consider contingency options to back up a possible US action as fears mount over Tehran’s capability
    link to guardian.co.uk

    link to cnn.com
    Iran threatens to ‘punish’ any Israeli attack
    By Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Kevin Flower, CNN
    updated 3:30 PM EST, Wed November 2, 2011

    Iranian military official: We will use “suitable equipment” to punish any attack
    Israel test-fires a rocket propulsion system
    The events come amid speculation in Israel about possible military plans

    Tehran, Iran (CNN) — Iran issued a warning to Israel on Wednesday, with a top military figure saying Iran will “punish” any threat.

    “The United States is fully aware that a military attack by the Zionist regime on Iran will not only cause tremendous damage to that regime, but it will also inflict serious damage to the U.S.,” said Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, commander of the joint chiefs of staff, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

    “We, as the military, take every threat, however distant and improbable, as very real, and are fully prepared to use suitable equipment to punish any kind of mistake,” he added, according to a CNN translation of his remarks.

    Another semi-official Iranian news agency, ISNA, published a story in English quoting Firouzabadi as saying, “The U.S. officials know that Zionist regime’s military attack against Iran will inflict heavy damages to the U.S. seriously as well as Zionist regime.”

  11. Kathleen says:
    November 2, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    Russia threatens to supply Iran with top new missile system as ‘cold war’ escalates
    Russia is deploying the threat to sell a “game changing” air defence system to Iran as a high stakes bargaining chip in its new “cold war” with America, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

    link to telegraph.co.uk

  12. dumvitaestspesest says:
    November 2, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    A funny example of a non-violent resistance a’ la Ghandi in Poland , that took place sometime in 1970′s in a Polish town, in which there was a monument of some communistic dignitary.
    One beautiful night, a group of a young people spilled a catnip all over the monument . All local and not local cats ,( and there were many of them) climbed happily on the monument, meowing loudly, rubbing against it , having time of their life. They did not want to leave. After being chased by the local police ,they kept coming back.
    Finally, soldiers from a local garnison ,were called to scrub, scrub thoroughly the monument with soap and water .
    People still mention this with a laughter.

  13. atime forpeace says:
    November 2, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    The “Student silent protests” are stupendous.

  15. Ron says:
    November 2, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    As a USS Liberty survivor and the man who was in charge of recoveing the bodies and identifying them I shoud take some satisfaction in this, but really I don’t. Justice is what I require for the men that were killed during the deliberate attack on the Liberty. No one is above that. NO ONE.

    • Kathleen says:
      November 3, 2011 at 9:56 am

      whoa hey Ron. Have you commented before? Did I miss it? Hope you write up a post for Mondoweiss or allow one of the host to interview you. Would sure like to hear about your experience

    • Kathleen says:
      November 3, 2011 at 9:58 am

      “No one is above that. NO ONE.”

      So far Israel is always above the law. Always above being held accountable for their crimes against humanity, USS Liberty etc.

      Tell us what you would like us to do?

    • Woody Tanaka says:
      November 3, 2011 at 10:05 am

      Ron,
      Thank you for your service. Sincerely. That, these decades later, the perpetrators (both foreign and domestic) of that crime and the cover up have not been brought to justice is a stain on the USA. One of many since 1948.