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Brandeis tosses Nusseibeh off board for not condemning militant rally at his school

 

Al QudsTwo weeks ago Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted the above photo from Al-Quds University with the message, “This is a direct result of the wild incitement against the State of Israel. This is not the way to achieve peace.”

The photos on Nazi-like salutes stirred controversy in the U.S. too. Brandeis University has suspended its 25-year-long association with Al-Quds and has now removed Al Quds president Sari Nusseibeh from an advisory board at the school over the demonstration.

Brandeis announced the suspension after finding Al-Quds’ explanation of the incident insufficient:

Brandeis University President Frederick Lawrence announced today that Brandeis has suspended its partnership with Al-Quds University effective immediately. Brandeis will re-evaluate the relationship as future events may warrant….

The Nov. 5 demonstration on the Al-Quds campus involved demonstrators wearing black military gear, armed with fake automatic weapons, and who marched while waving flags and raising the traditional Nazi salute. The demonstration took place in the main square of the Al-Quds campus, which was surrounded by banners depicting images of “martyred” suicide bombers.

Immediately after he received reports of the demonstration, President Lawrence contacted Al-Quds President Sari Nusseibeh and requested that he issue an unequivocal condemnation of the demonstrations. President Lawrence also requested that the condemnation be published in both Arabic and English.

Last night (Nov. 17), President Nusseibeh sent an email to President Lawrence with an English translation of a statement posted in Arabic on the Al-Quds web site.

Unfortunately, the Al-Quds statement is unacceptable and inflammatory.

That original statement, said to be from Nusseibeh, does not repudiate the rally, which it describes as “a mock military display,” and includes these comments:

The university is often subjected to vilification campaigns by Jewish extremists with the purpose of discrediting its reputation as a prestigious academic institution with a unique,
humane calling: to strive to instill noble values in its students; to spread the spirit of democracy and openness toward other world cultures; and to present the genuine face of
the Palestinian people, calling for peace against the extremism and violence to which we ours elves are subjected as a people denied our rights under occupation.
These extreme elements spare no effort to exploit some rare but nonetheless damaging events or scenes which occur on the campus of Al Quds University, such as fist-fighting
between students, or some students making a mock military display. These occurrences allow some people to capitalize on events in ways that misrepresent the university as
promoting inhumane, anti-Semitic, fascist, and Nazi ideologies. Without these ideologies, there would not have been the massacre of the Jewish people in Europe; without the massacre, there would not have been the enduring Palestinian catastrophe.
As occurred recently, these opportunists are quick to describe the Palestinians as a people undeserving of freedom and independence, and as a people who must be kept under
coercive control and occupation. They cite these events as evidence justifying their efforts to muster broad Jewish and western opinion to support their position. This public
opinion, in turn, sustains the occupation, the extension of settlements and the confiscation of land, and prevents Palestinians from achieving our freedom

The news of the Nusseibeh sacking comes from the Jewish Press:

President Lawrence has decided that Brandeis University’s suspension of its partnership with Al-Quds University requires that Dr. Nusseibeh not be a member of the Board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public life. As with the suspension of relations between the two universities, Brandeis will re-evaluate this issue as events may warrant.

In a move reinforcing the basis for its decision to sever ties with Al-Quds University, Brandeis University issued a statement on Thursday, Nov. 21, that Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University, will be removed from his position on the Advisory Board of the Brandeis International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/brandeis-removes-al-quds-nusseibeh-from-ethics-center/2013/11/21/

In a move reinforcing the basis for its decision to sever ties with Al-Quds University, Brandeis University issued a statement on Thursday, Nov. 21, that Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University, will be removed from his position on the Advisory Board of the Brandeis International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/brandeis-removes-al-quds-nusseibeh-from-ethics-center/2013/11/21/

President Lawrence has decided that Brandeis University’s suspension of its partnership with Al-Quds University requires that Dr. Nusseibeh not be a member of the Board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public life. As with the suspension of relations between the two universities, Brandeis will re-evaluate this issue as events may warrant.

Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/brandeis-removes-al-quds-nusseibeh-from-ethics-center/2013/11/21/

Daniel Terris of Brandeis was visiting Al-Quds this month, and the Brandeis president asked him to look into the rally. Terris seems dismayed that Brandeis would end the relationship over this incident:

we were able during our visit to have a number of in-depth conversations with many key individuals, including Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh, Executive Vice President Imad Abu Kishek, and members of the committee whom they appointed to investigate the November 5 rally.

Once all of us return from our travels and have a chance to confer, we will put together a report on what we have learned. The issues on the ground at Al-Quds University are much more complex than has been reported on blogs and in the press. These issues deserve careful consideration and conversation.

What we can say at this point is that nothing that we have learned during this period has changed our conviction – built over many years of experience – that Sari Nusseibeh and the Al-Quds University leadership are genuinely committed to peace and mutual respect. President Nusseibeh’s comments following the suspension of the partnership, published in the Times of Israel, show that he is continuing his commitment to those values and to sustained dialogue even when circumstances are challenging.

In the Times of Israel, Nusseibeh goes further than his original statement:

“Needless to say, the event on the campus by this small group — trampling on Israeli flags and behaving as though sympathizing with Nazi or fascist ideology — in no way represents our university values, and we are constantly trying to prevent this kind of thing from happening.”

Asked directly whether he condemned the demonstration, Nusseibeh said “Yes.”

The questions around this case are, Why is Brandeis ending a historic relationship on the basis of one incident on campus about which there may be some ambiguity? Are other schools held to the same account as Al-Quds?

Sari Nusseibeh is the most moderate figure in the world; why is Brandeis kicking him off a board? That’s nuts.

This is evidence of the growing polarization between the occupation and its enablers in the west. The occupation has gone on 46 years; it is no wonder that Palestinians think, again, of violent resistance to occupation (as so many other peoples have violently resisted occupation). Some Al Quds students have been supportive of Hamas for this reason. The matter reminds me of the murder of Mouloud Feraoun in Algeria in 1962. He was a moderate educator, and was killed by the French right who opposed his call for independence.

Also: On my last visit, I saw an expression of support for Hitler in Ramallah. Though the rally is on its face ugly, it is not entirely clear to me what this militant group at Al-Quds was doing.

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In my experience, the occasional “support for Hitler” meme isn’t some deeply ingrained or seriously thought out ideology. It’s more of a lashing out, a way to try to hurt the feelings of the people who do unimaginably horrible things to you, your family, your land, your past, and your future. (Better than throwing rocks, right?)

It’s almost always done by hot-headed young men who’ve endured some of the worst of the horrors of occupation. It’s a middle finger that’s understood by the recipients of the message as an enduring racial hatred leading toward genocide. Very crossed wires, and sadly easy to exploit because of all the associations most Westerners have toward these symbols.

I condemn these rallies, because they are spiteful and stupid, and it’s not helpful. But condemning them without even more forcefully condemning the many illegal and violent actions of the occupation regime (without which no one would be sending a middle finger like this in the first place) is sheer hypocrisy.

Anyway, I’d be much more concerned about state-sponsored rabbis justifying the killing of gentile babies, personally. Has the president of Brandeis condemned that yet?

“Why is Brandeis ending a historic relationship on the basis of one incident on campus about which there may be some ambiguity? ”

Because there is a deep Orwellian strain in zionism: It’s not enough that Winston Smith minds his own business, he must love Big Brother. Notice what Netanyahoo points to as the impediment to peace: not the oppression, death and destruction that he and his fellow criminal dish out every day to the Palestinians, but a couple of confused goofballs making a fool of themselves WHILE HURTING NO ONE. Lawrence expected Nusseibeh to unequivocally express his love of Big Brother and when he didn’t, when Nusseibeh put the demonstration in full context, well, that’s just not acceptable.

Yes, the Nazis did use this salute, however it may surprise you to know that Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and probably other far east Asian countries use this salute as well.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/134/337148966_e51e1d347d.jpg
http://rexcurry.net/socialism-nationalism-japan-salute.jpg
Before WWII this salute was used in some American schools as well, after which the practice was stopped. Those countries did not take their salute from the Nazis but actually this salute pre-dates the Nazis as shown by the fact that you can find photos of American students saluting the American flag this way, called in America “the Bellamy salute.” The origin of the flag is not actually the Germans but 18th century European ideas of what the Roman salute looked like.

The straight-leg march step was actually created by the English. I believe the Russians got their goose-stepping from the Germans, since at one time Prussia was considered a model for military order, and then the Chinese picked it up from them. An example of admiration for Prussian military order was the fact that Washington used Prussian generals to train his troops.

Forces of the US trained Palestinian Authority ( http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/wz4f3a9046.jpg ) are not the only military that have used a straight arm salute in the Middle East: not only Hezbollah, but the anti-Islamic Lebanese Phalangists do. Iran has a similar one: http://www.bodylanguagesuccess.com/2012/02/negotiation-nonverbal-communication_21.html

Palestinians should stop using it because of modern associations, but before judging them as Nazis I propose that it be looked into further whether this salute developed from other sources than the mimicry of Nazism that it would look like to many Americans and Europeans at first glance. Why not ask the participants themselves if they meant to mimic the Nazis or whether they did it because “everybody does” in Pal. military organizations, which would be part of a wider regional military tradition. The latter would mean that their insensitivity to change their tradition could be comparable to that of Japan, Taiwan, Russia, China, etc.

Personally I think the one that should get the most attention is the Finnish airforce’s reinstitution of the swastika from WWII.
http://globalfire.tv/nj/graphs/fin_officEmblem_swastika.jpg
It’s true that it predated the Nazis’ reign, however the origin of it in its use by early 20th century Finland upper class political figures is the same European occult pagan movement that the Nazis spun out of in that era. The reason I say it should get the most attention is because Finns were on the Nazi side of the war, unlike Palestinians who fought with the British.

Has the President of Yeshiva University denounced Sheldon Adelson’s comments about nuking Iran, or the cheering that those comments evoked?

If not, I hope that Brandeis University will cut any ties it may have with Yeshiva. Maybe there are board members that the two have in common–if so, they should be forced to make a choice.

Hire a moving crew and pack Brandeis University up and move it to Israel where it can decline and whither and go down the tubes of Israeli centric-ness without the American DNA it needs to be a educational institution.