City University of New York trustee, Jeffrey Weisenfeld, expanded today on his decision to refuse to support a CUNY honorary degree for Tony Kushner. David Mizner's recommended diary of yesterday told this sad tale of CUNY's Trustees bowing to Weisenfeld's pressure to reject the request for Kushner's honor because of Kushner's critical views on Israel. CUNY's decision has been met with derision and protest as an attempt to stifle discussion on the Palestine and Israel tragedy.
Jim Dwyer writes today in the New York Times about his interview with Weisenfeld:
I tried to ask a question about the damage done by a short, one-sided discussion of vigorously debated aspects of Middle East politics, like the survival of Israel and the rights of the Palestinians, and which side was more callous toward human life, and who was most protective of it.
But Mr. Wiesenfeld interrupted and said the question was offensive because “the comparison sets up a moral equivalence.”
Equivalence between what and what? “Between the Palestinians and Israelis,” he said. “People who worship death for their children are not human.”
Did he mean the Palestinians were not human? “They have developed a culture which is unprecedented in human history,” he said. (emphasis added)
Unfortunately, Weisenfeld's racist and bigoted statements against Palestinians are not unique. In fact, this mendacious suggestion that Palestinian do not love their children goes back decades. In 1957, Golda Meir advanced the same ideas when she said, "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us." This propaganda about Palestinian parents has been very effective. After all, it is easier to justify killing and torturing Palestinians when they are viewed as subhuman.
Right-wing supporters of Israel will counter that Palestinians indoctrinate their children to hate Israelis. The Hamas Mickey Mouse cartoon is used to condemn an entire people and strip them of their dignity and human rights. Do these people think that Palestinian children need a cartoon character to tell them that Israelis occupy and kill them? And do they think that Israel is innocent of indoctrination of its children?
Obviously, there is some orchestrated movement to push this line about Palestinians teaching violence to their children. A recent campaign by the Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine sponsored paid advertising on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) lines and was met with counter advertising paid for by the Israel Lobby group Stand With Us.
As the Committee for a Just Peace In Israel and Palestine describes,
[The Stand With US] advertisements, showed a pair of eyes wrapped in a keffiyeh with words, “Stop Palestinian Terrorism.” Below was a photo of children at play and the words “Teach Peace.” The ads listed a website, SayYestoPeace.org, which accuses Palestinians of teaching their children to hate.
We decided to make no statements about their ad but to continue with our message of non-violence and coexistence, handing out pocket cards and raising funds for a second round of ads. But others spoke up, and in response to their complaints, BART removed the counter ads, saying that they appeared “disparaging or demeaning to Palestinians as a whole” and violated the district’s advertising standards.
On February 7th a Stand With Us replacement ad went up for a contracted term of four weeks. It includes no photo but states, “Stop Palestinian Leadership From Teaching Hate and Violence.”
Thankfully BART found the first advertisement sufficiently hateful to remove from its trains.
This orchestrated dehumanization of Palestinians is part of the war of ideas in the United States about this conflict. I'm grateful that the New York Times published Weisenfeld's statements. It is time that these racist tactics be exposed.