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Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor to speak at Columbia Law School tonight

Amid all the controversy over whether the Political Science Department at Brooklyn College should have co-sponsored a forum on boycott, divestment and sanctions last week, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Columbia’s Law School has a Center for Israeli Legal Studies, dedicated to bringing Israelis to the school; and tonight it’s hosting the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations to lay out Israel’s situation on the global stage. Sorry, make that the “Jewish state on the global stage.” I see there’s a Q-and-A.

Prosor at Columbia
Prosor at Columbia

Here are some of Prosor’s choice views, on Palestinians:

“France’s foreign minister said this month that his country was fighting to prevent the creation of an Islamist terrorist enclave ‘at the doorstep of France and Europe.’ If Mali is on France’s doorstep, Gaza is in Israel’s living room,” Ron Prosor said at the UN Security Council’s monthly open debate on the Middle East.

“Make no mistakes: France’s principled stand should be commended. We only ask that France and all the countries who are supporting its principled stand today, support Israel tomorrow when we fight Islamic terrorism on our borders.”

That analogy doesn’t work. Malians invited France to intervene. Israel is practicing collective punishment against all Gazans. And it helped create Gaza by ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Jewish state way back when.

P.S. Jewish Voice for Peace has issued a statement saying that the Brooklyn College event was a turning point in the US conversation:

Last week’s events at Brooklyn College may have been a turning point for discussion of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) in this country.

Emblematic of the shift in sentiment regarding overkill attacks on free speech, thousands of New Yorkers signed a petition telling Alan Dershowitz and City Assemblyman Dov Hikind  (known for  his homophobic and bigoted statements as well as strong links to Meir Kahane)  that their services as self-appointed spokespersons for the Jewish People, and Gatekeepers of Academia, were no longer required: www.firealandershowitz.org

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director: “From Alan Dershowitz, to Dov Hikind to the Anti-Defamation League, it is becoming more and more clear that people have had it with a small group of bullies trying to impose their political litmus tests about what the rest of us can and can not discuss regarding Israeli-Palestinian politics. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to pressure Israel into being accountable to international law is a non-violent movement modeled on similar efforts against South African apartheid. It’s an increasingly hard sell to tell members of the Jewish and broader community, especially younger ones, that this conversation is beyond the pale.”

The Jewish community is split on this issue, as Judith Butler so eloquently laid out in her remarks.

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i love Rebecca Vilkomerson, i love jewish voices for peace.

New Yorkers signed a petition telling Alan Dershowitz and City Assemblyman Dov Hikind (known for his homophobic and bigoted statements as well as strong links to Meir Kahane) that their services as self-appointed spokespersons for the Jewish People, and Gatekeepers of Academia, were no longer required

gamechanger.

btw it shouldn’t be forgotten that Columbia’s Law School has a Center for Israeli Legal Studies, dedicated to bringing Israelis to the school

it shouldn’t be forgotten that UCBerkeley has an Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society. no doubt they bring plenty of israelis to the school as well.

http://www.law.berkeley.edu/JLILES.htm

“And [Israel] helped create Gaza by ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Jewish state way back when.”

NOT EXACTLY. Israel (or the pre-state Jewish armed forces, militias, terrorists, security forces, armed thugs — whatever the mix) did something else; they helped create Gaza by ethnically cleansing 85% of the Palestinians from that part of the 30%-Jewish, 70%-Palestinian Palestine Mandate which became Israel — way back when.

[All numerical figures approximate.]

Prosor was UK ambassador and when he went back to isr complained that yesha etc was impossible to sell to Europe.

“Here are some of Prosor’s choice views, on Palestinians: ”

These are views on terrorists in Gaza, not on Palestinians.

“Last week’s events at Brooklyn College may have been a turning point for discussion of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) in this country. ”

Oh lord . . . there have been so many turning points in the BDS discussion that I’m beginning to wonder whether the BDS discussion is a maze.

I await Dersh’s campaign against this one-sided event. Whoever wrote the blurb – where exactly did Prosor ‘earn praise for his articulate and forthright defense blah blah in the UK’? He was ridiculed as the water carrier for his masters, many Brits don’t like being lectured by a pumped up sycophant. Maybe Columbia Law School is more credulous and abject in its deferment to the ‘director general’, lol love the job title.