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CounterPunch
September
6, 2002
Hanan Ashrawi
at Colorado College
an Open Letter to Richard Celeste
by Sadanand Nanjundiah
Dear President Celeste and Colleagues
on the Faculty of Colorado College,
I wish to commend you for inviting Dr.
Hanan Ashrawi as one of the speakers to your symposium, "September
11:One Year Later", that is to take place on your campus
shortly. Please stand steadfast and firm in your decision despite
the concerted efforts of pro-Israeli groups to seek a reversal
of your invitation to Dr. Ashrawi. It would be a blow to academic
freedom, freedom of speech and the integrity of Colorado College
to cave in in any manner or form to the demands of the blind
and rabid Israel-supporters. Their statements impugning the
scholarship and qualifications of Dr. Ashrawi to speak at your
college on the subject of "terrorism" are utterly
without merit. In fact, they are slanderous and disgraceful
given the historical record. One need hardly point out that
the first recorded incidents of terrorism in the modern world
(post WW II) were carried out by Israeli terrorist groups (led
by people who subsequently became Prime Minister's of Israel,
such as Begin and Shamir) against the British (mandatory power
in Palestine before Israel's creation) and the Palestinians
who lived in the region. And to this day, the Israeli government
carries out state-terrorism against the Palestinian people in
the form of deliberate assassinations and horrific "collateral
damage" (as evidenced again in the brutal killing of women
and children by Israeli tank fire in Gaza and by Israeli helicopter-missile
attacks in the West Bank recently). But yet Dr. Ashrawi has
the honesty and courage to speak out against all acts of terrorism,
Israeli and Palestinian. She has spearheaded a broad-based movement
that calls for a peaceful and just resolution of the internecine
conflict that has devastated Palestinian lives, property, health,
living standards and hope infinitely more than the damage wrought
to Israeli society. She is a remarkable woman who has unhesitatingly
spoken out against violence and corruption in the Palestinian
Authority. In my view, there is not a more suitable person with
experience, knowledge, compassion and spirit who can grace your
symposium and provide the attendees with a meaningful and sensitive
understanding of the root causes of terrorism.
In late July, my colleagues at Central
Connecticut State University facilitated a workshop on the Middle
East to provide school teachers information and analysis on
the history, politics, economics, culture and religions of the
region. They were assailed even before the workshop started
by very shrill and bellicose pro-Israeli, Zionist groups in
the area who also claimed that the workshop was not "balanced"
(i.e. it was deemed to be pro-Palestinian and/or anti-Israeli
without any evidence whatsoever to level such scurrilous charges).
The pro-Israeli groups wanted speakers to "balance"
the presentations of the workshop faculty. They called into
question, without any basis, the credentials and scholarship
of the facilitators, thereby trying to undermine the credibility
of the workshop. Their supporters resorted to hate-mails and
threatening calls besides overloading the e-mail of the University's
President, Dr. Richard Judd, and others involved in the workshop.
But to the immense credit of the organizing faculty and our
President, the program went ahead as planned despite the unceasing
efforts to scuttle, demean and disrupt it by the pro-Israeli
lobby.
The intellectual cowardice of such intolerant
groups has plumbed new depths. Their scare-mongering tactics
are reminiscent of the terrible persecution of people in and
out of academia in the McCarthy-era for the mere suspicion of
harboring "socialist" thoughts. Now, people and institutions
around the country who attempt to foster an open discussion
and debate on terrorism, or on Israel's unremitting, brutal
war against the Palestinian people, are attacked, especially
if they criticize Israel in the slightest degree. They are
called "anti-Semitic" by the new thought-police, as
people were labeled "commies" in an earlier period
in attempts to make them social pariahs. Their sole purpose
is to stifle free expression and silence any criticism of a
country they deem immaculate. Israel's vicious violence against
the Palestinians is "self defence" and beyond reproach.
These are perilous times for freedom
in the country. The executive branch of government has enacted,
with the complicity of the legislative branch, some of the most
restrictive laws ever to collect information on "suspects"
and incarcerate them for endless periods without due process
as "enemy combatants" or "conspirators in terror".
The media cowers under threat of sanction from the pro-Israeli
groups or for seeming to be "not-sufficiently-patriotic".
Politicians are silenced into meekly accepting the Israeli
government's characterization (supported by the U.S. government)
of the relentlessly cruel war against the Palestinian people
as being an integral part of America's war on "global terrorism",
and hence above criticism. If any politician dares to step out
of line, the powerful pro-Israeli groups organize to engineer
his or her defeat at the polls. Just ask Earl Hilliard and Cynthia
McKinney. The last bastions of free speech and open debate are
in the halls of academia and on the grounds of college campuses.
I, and several of my colleagues at Central
Connecticut State University, stand with you in your determination
to withstand the intolerance and hate exhibited by those who
have pilloried your choice of Dr. Ashrawi to speak at the symposium.
Please do not flinch or succumb to the threats and coercive
tactics of the Zionists in Colorado. Your right to have the
symposium of your choice, and host the indominatable Dr. Hanan
Ashrawi as a speaker, is the correct choice.
Sincerely
Dr. Sadanand Nanjundiah
Physics Department
Central Connecticut State University
email: sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu
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September
6, 2002
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Stolen
Trust
Gale Norton, Indians and the Case of the Missing $10 Billion
September
5, 2002
Ben Tripp
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