Here is another sign that the discourse of delegitimization post-Gaza that threatens Israel in international circles but which the lobby has succeeded in blocking at the gates of Washington, is nonetheless embedded in American establishment culture. The Harvard Crimson runs an attack on Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren by a member of the Palestinian solidarity group at the school, Abdelnasser Rashid. The piece underlines what the BDS conference at Hampshire last month demonstrated: young Americans know what white phosphorus is; the Palestinian viewpoint is now embraced by many students, and the school newspaper has to express it:
The devastating impact on Gaza’s schools should be of special concern to an institution dedicated to education such as Harvard. Instead, on November 23 Harvard extended an invitation to Michael B. Oren—the Israeli ambassador to the United States—to speak at the Kennedy School. Fittingly, he was rejected by students who attended the event. Oren is a former officer and paratrooper who served as an Israeli army spokesperson during the unwarranted and illegal attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009.
While the university envisioned a warm reception, it must be recorded that the students took a clear stance against impunity for war crimes. During the question-and-answer session, the vast majority of questions and comments leveled at Oren were critical of his actions and statements on the Gaza invasion and the Goldstone report…
It is imperative that Harvard adopt principled guidelines and vetting practices to ensure that war criminals and their official apologists—regardless of country of origin—not be given a platform at our university.
I’m guessing this is the Rashid who wrote the following as an 11th-grader—
Palestine is my land, and I won’t let you take it – and while you put the world to sleep, I try to wake it.
The waking is happening.
