David Green responds to Cary Nelson’s talk in Israel which attacked the BDS movement at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. In short, “The picture Nelson paints regarding pro-Palestinian activism on the UIUC campus is false.”
The video “The Jewish Voices on Campus,” has had nearly 148,000 viewings; David Green debunks its claims regarding pervasive anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Steven Salaita’s book “Israel’s Dead Soul” (2011) merits serious attention and ultimately effusive praise. It contains five critical essays that not only offer brilliant insight into the cultural and ideological practices of Zionism in both Israel and the United States, but implicitly explain why his conscientious efforts would be denigrated and rejected by the ostensibly liberal aspects of this culture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
It’s not all about academic freedom: Steven Salaita is targeted because of what he has said about Palestine. He is targeted because he was to be the first Palestinian voice at the University of Illinois. He’s targeted at a national level because the Israel lobby is afraid that it’s losing its control of the narrative. For even the Jewish community in Illinois has been divided by the Gaza onslaught and leaders hope that the rifts won’t be exposed.
This article serves to provide some first-hand background, context, and references regarding the case of…
Peter Novick. (Photo: Fredric Stein/New York Times) The deservedly esteemed historian Peter Novick died on…
I only recently learned of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s trip to Israel this past summer (2011) for…