Activism

Official who threatened Brooklyn College funding calls BDS speakers ‘anti-Semitic fools’

BC
Councilman Lew Fidler has threatened funding to Brooklyn College over the hosting of a BDS event.(Photo via CSA-NYC.org)

The City Council member who threatened Brooklyn College’s funding over the school’s hosting of an event on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has called those scheduled to speak at the event anti-Semites.

In a conversation on Facebook, Lew Fidler, the Assistant Majority Leader of the New York City Council, called Omar Barghouti and Judith Butler “anti-Semitic fools.”

The comment came after Kaitlyn O’Hagan, a student at the City University of New York, told Fidler she was “very disappointed” that he was “threatening academic freedom.” Fidler responded by saying: “The anti-Semitic fools who want to speak at the Brooklyn College campus are free to do so….What I will not sanction, is the official impritaur of the college on what I consider to be hate speech. Not on my watch. Not with my tax money.”

After O’Hagan disputed Fidler’s claim that Barghouti and Butler were anti-Semites, Fidler shot back and said that “I define speakers who advocate for the annihilation of a nation because it is a Jewish state as hate speakers.” Here’s a screenshot of the whole conversation:

BC

Fidler offered no evidence to back up his claim that the speakers were anti-Semitic. Both Barghouti and Butler have come out strongly against anti-Semitism and the insinuation that the BDS movement is against Jews.

“The accusation that BDS is anti-Semitic somehow is not just totally, categorically false–it itself is an anti-Semitic statement,” Barghouti told The Guardian in a video recently posted by blogger Andrew Sullivan. “Because it assumes any attack on Israel is an attack against world Jewry, and this equates Jewish communities in the world with Israel, making them all monolithic, as if they all have one mind, one ideology, and that’s a very anti-Semitic and dangerous statement to make…We are completely opposed to all forms of racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism–any form of racism, because we believe that all humans deserve equal rights.”

As for Butler, she wrote on this site why the charge that she is anti-Semitic–and the claim that critics of Israel are anti-Semitic–was “patently false.” Butler also addressed the charge in the London Review of Books.

Fidler’s comments came after he wrote a letter to the Brooklyn College president that threatened Brooklyn College’s funding over the holding of the BDS event this week. The letter, which this site first published in full, also claimed that the event would promote anti-Semitic views, though the Facebook comments were blunter.

“We do not believe this program is what the taxpayers of our City–many of who would feel targeted and demonized by this program–want their tax money to be spent on,” Fidler’s letter reads. “We believe in the principle of academic freedom. However, we also believe in the principle of not supporting schools whose programs we, and our constituents, find to be odious and wrong.”

Fidler has remained steadfast in holding the threat of funding cuts over Brooklyn College’s head. In an interview with the New York Times, Fidler said “that he had supported nearly $25 million worth of capital improvement projects for the college as a council member, but that he would be hard-pressed to do so now.”

The Guardian‘s Glenn Greenwald denounced Fidler’s letter in a column yesterday. “How can anyone not be seriously alarmed by this? These threats are infinitely more destructive than any single academic event could ever possibly be…Plainly, this entire controversy has only one ‘principle’ and one purpose: to threaten, intimidate and bully professors, school administrators and academic institutions out of any involvement in criticisms of Israel,” wrote Greenwald.

Fidler’s letter was signed by a number officials–including progressives like Letitia James and Gale Brewer. But James has now backed off from that letter, as Brooklyn College professor Corey Robin reports. In a statement, James said that she removed her name from the letter because it “would be inappropriate to even imply that the Council use their power over CUNY’s budget to influence what issues are discussed on campus.”

164 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

RE: “Official who threatened Brooklyn College funding calls BDS speakers ‘anti-Semitic fools’” ~ Alex Kane

PETITION: “Support Academic Freedom at CUNY”

We the undersigned write in support of the decision by Brooklyn College’s political science department to co-sponsor a panel discussion with Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti. We urge CUNY President Karen Gould to resist attempts by those who have attempted to intimidate CUNY into canceling, changing, or withdrawing its sponsorship for the panel. We are especially concerned that the New York City Council has threatened to withhold further money for CUNY if it does not either cancel the event or withdraw its sponsorship. This is a grave threat to academic freedom and sets a terrible precedent for the future.

TO SIGN THE PETITION – http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-academic-freedom-at-cuny

RE: “In a conversation on Facebook, Lew Fidler, the Assistant Majority Leader of the New York City Council, called Omar Barghouti and Judith Butler “anti-Semitic fools.”” ~ Alex Kane

THE OPINION OF A PERSON WHO, UNLIKE NEW YORK CITY
COUNCIL MEMBER LEW FIDLER, IS NOT AFRAID TO DISAGREE WITH WHAT IS “POLITICALLY CORRECT”:

“Why I Support BDS”, by Rabbi Margaret Holub, 2/21/13
I find the details of the occupation to be emotionally wrenching and morally challenging to me as a Jew and as a rabbi.

[EXCERPTS] . . . I know that there are policy reasons on the part of the IDF for many individual demolition orders, checkpoints, passbook requirements, segregated roadways, destruction of trees, confiscation of Palestinian farmland, detentions without charge, establishment of “sterile areas” and other particulars of the occupation which may seem defensible when judged in isolation. I understand that high unemployment and deprivation and periodic violence may be seen as collateral damage. But I find the larger project of occupation, viewed as a whole, to be shameful. And I feel very strongly that it needs to end.
Are the occupation of the West Bank and the constriction of Gaza worse than the occupation of Tibet or the incursions of Sudan into South Sudan or other places of oppression of one people by another? I don’t know. But as a Jew, and particularly as a leader of Jews, I feel like I have “skin in the game” with regard to what Jews do in the world which is different than my relationship with other places of inequality and oppression. For me, when Torah is quoted in support of these policies and Jewish politicians and bureaucrats write them and Jewish soldiers impose them, then kol yisrael arevim zeh im zeh (“all Jews are responsible for one another”) and as a Jew I feel responsible to voice my opposition. I am surprised when I hear people say that we who don’t live in Israel shouldn’t judge what Israel does. If that is the case, then we shouldn’t support Israel either.
I also feel some hirhur bi’tshuvah (“inclination to repentance”) as an American about the occupation, knowing that it is supported in such great measure not only by US foreign aid but also American weapons, training and political cooperation. As Americans we are complicit in a whole panoply of oppressions. But US commitment to Israel’s present policy is disturbingly large, even relative to its other malign commitments. . .
. . . There is no joy for me in advocating against the actions of my own people.
I want Jewish business and culture and productivity to thrive in our world. But not at cost of the lives and livelihoods and homes and farms of another people. I hope very much that BDS will be a potent and quickly-effective worldwide movement and that very soon we can all, as South Africa has, turn our attention to the many crises of a just and sustainable aftermath to a cruel chapter in our history.

ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://www.rabbisletter.org/why-i-support-bds/

RE: After O’Hagan disputed Fidler’s claim that Barghouti and Butler were anti-Semites, Fidler shot back and said that “I define speakers who advocate for the annihilation of a nation because it is a Jewish state as hate speakers.” ~ Alex Kane

THE OPINION OF A PERSON WHO, UNLIKE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER LEW FIDLER, IS NOT AFRAID TO DISAGREE WITH THE “POLITICALLY CORRECT” POSITION:

“Why I’m Boycotting SodaStream”, By Rabbi Brant Rosen, Shalom Rav, 1/25/13

[EXCERPTS] Israel’s settlement juggernaut continues at full speed, creating apartheid conditions on the occupied West Bank while making a mockery of any hope of a two state solution. Since no nation or institution seems willing to hold Israel accountable, it seems to me the least any concerned citizen can do is to refuse to patronize companies that directly profit from this brutal and unjust occupation.
At the moment, Exhibit A is SodaStream
– a company that produces home carbonating devices. Promoting its product as eco-friendly, SodaStream is sold in 39 countries in 35,000 stores worldwide, including Macy’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Bloomingdale’s, Sears, and Kmart.
It is also manufactured in the Israeli settlement of Mishor Adumim.
A bit of history: Mishor Adumim is the industrial park section of Ma’aleh Adumim, the largest settlement in the West Bank. The land for both of these settlements originally belonged to the Palestinian towns of Abu Dis, Azarya, Atur, Issauya, Han El Akhmar, Anata and Nebbi Mussa, but was expropriated by Israel in the 1970s. Today, Ma’aleh and Mishor Adumim are a key part of the Israeli government’s plan to create Jewish facts on the ground around Arab East Jerusalem.

The SodaStream boycott is a particularly instructive action since the company actively promotes itself as an environmentally concerned enterprise. This is a tactic known as “greenwashing” – a cynical attempt to hide behind liberal environmental values in order to divert attention away from egregious violations of human rights. . .
. . . And what about the fact that the company says its product is “Made in Israel”, yet is based in the West Bank? . . .
. . . Jordan Ash, writing in the Twin Cities Daily Planet has also recently addressed this issue:

[EXCERPTS] As with the Maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexican border, the high unemployment rate means that many Palestinians are forced to try to earn a living through jobs in the settlements, despite the low pay and harsh working conditions…
. . . At the SodaStream factory, when workers protested that they were being paid less than half of the minimum wage and were forced to work 12 hour days, they were fired. On another occasion, when workers who were fired and were still owed a month’s wages went to the factory to request their pay, SodaStream had them removed from the factory and banned from the entire industrial park. . .

. . . While I certainly don’t have any illusions that this boycott will bring the Israeli economy to their knees, I do believe it provides us with the means to take a public moral stand against the injustices Israel is committing in the occupied West Bank – and to stand in solidarity with those whose lives are impacted by this oppression.
It is a particularly timely action since the company has spent $3.8 million on a 30-second spot during next month’s Super Bowl. Apparently the commercial advocates “setting the bubbles free”. Those concerned with human rights should know that freedom for real, living breathing human beings is what is truly at stake here.

ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://rabbibrant.com/2013/01/25/why-im-boycotting-sodastream/

I would have described him as a ‘lone nut’ but these days you never know.
There’s plenty of crazy from where he came from. He fits all the right criteria:

1. Old
2. White
3. Male

It doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish or not. If you have those three criteria fulfilled, chances are pretty high you’re a piggish bigot. And a lot of the financial clout, both in the Gentile world as well as the Jewish world is sadly dominated by those exact people.

Also, this is slightly unrelated, but interesting in the Israeli context and the whole “this has been our land forever”:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4339595,00.html

Remember how Shlomo Sand was butchered over the Khazar theory? Well, it seems to be settled now. The vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews had their ancestral homeland near the Caucasus mountains near the eastern border of Turkey, and we’re not from Palestine, apparently.

bds speakers?

not antisemitic fools?

they’re leaders?

justice for palestine?

en route to a just peaceful world?