Ox Arab Soc present :- Israeli Apartheid Week
jane | 02.03.2010 10:42 | Anti-racism | Palestine | Repression | Oxford
Oxford Arab Society present:-
Israeli Apartheid week
Tuesday, if you haven't heard Ilan Pappe speak then take the opportunity today.
Wednesday there is a film about the Gaza invasion, hard to watch and mustn't be missed.
Thursday Israeli Apartheid and the Land Question.
Friday is Karma Nabulsi who is always an exceptional and uplifting speaker ...and more!
Saturday Palestine Through South African Eyes: A Talk by Professor Farid Esack
See below for the full schedule
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7.30pm Tuesday, 2nd March :- Rethinking the 1967 War
Speaker: Professor Ilan Pappé
Chair: Professor Avi Shlaim (FBA)
Location: St Antony’s, Nissan Lecture Theatre
Ilan Pappé is a leading historian of the Middle East, Chair of the Department of History at the University of Exeter and a co-director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies. He was the academic head and founder of the Institute for Peace studies in Givat Haviva Israel (1992-2000) and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa (2000-2008). Prior to his appointment in the UK, he taught Politics at the University of Haifa. He is the author of numerous books including ‘A History of Modern Palestine’ and ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7.30pm Wednesday 3rd March :- Film - To Shoot an Elephant, and Discussion with Director
Speaker: Alberto Arce
Location: Balliol College, Room 23
“To shoot an elephant" is a documentary film by Alberto Arce and Mohammad Rujailah. They both accompanied a group of foreigners who managed to stay embedded with the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances during the 21 days of Operation Cast Lead launched by Israel against the besieged Palestinian people of Gaza.
Their footage features urgent, insomniac, dirty, shuddering images that reveal the experience of the Palestinian citizens of Gaza. During the Israeli invasion, the international media remained outside of Gaza, denying the world the chance of witnessing what was happening inside. This remarkable film helps redress the balance, giving an eye-witness account from within. Screening will be followed by Q & A session with the director.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7.30pm Thursday 4th March :- Israeli Apartheid and the Land Question
Speakers: Salah Mohsen and Nidal Rafa
Location: Wadham College, Old Refectory
Salah Mohsen is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, human rights advocate, and member of the General Council of the National Democratic Assembly. He is an expert on land issues in 1948 Palestinian areas.
Nidal Rafa is a TV producer based in Jerusalem. She has been covering stories on behalf of international media outlets for the past eight years, joining CNN in 2005. Educated at the universities of Haifa and Bir Zeit, she holds a postgraduate degree in International Relations. She sits on the boards of the English-language publication “This Week in Palestine,” and the al-Hosh gallery of Palestinian art in Jerusalem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7.30pm Friday 5th March :- Until the Return: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Speaker: Dr Karma Nabulsi
Chair: Professor Avi Shlaim (FBA)
Location: St Antony’s College, Nissan Lecture Theatre
Dr Karma Nabulsi is a University Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. From 1977 until 1990 she served as a PLO representative at the UN and in Beirut, Tunis and London. Dr Nabulsi has also been a specialist adviser to the UK parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on Palestinian Refugees and Director of the Civitas Project , a collective research initiated to record the voices and recommendations of Palestinian exile and refugee communities. Dr Nabulsi is a regular contributor to The Guardian. Her publications include ‘Traditions of War : Occupation, Resistance and the Law. ‘
Avi Shlaim is a British-Israeli historian and Professor of International Relations at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a renowned author on the international politics of the Middle East, and a winner of the WJM Mackenzie Book Prize and the David Watt Memorial Prize. His latest book is ‘Israel and Palestine: Reflections, Revisions and Refutations.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7.30pm Saturday 6th March :- Palestine Through South African Eyes: A Talk by Professor Farid Esack
Speaker: Professor Farid Esack
Location: Harris Seminar Room, Oriel College
Dr. Farid Esack is a South African Muslim theologian who cut his teeth in the South African struggle for liberation. He is the author of numerous books, including Qur’an, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective on Interreligious Solidarity Against Oppression (1997), On Being a Muslim (1999), and Islam, HIV and AIDS (2008). He is currently writing a book titled, Palestine Through South African Eyes, comparing his experience as an activist against apartheid in South Africa with that of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. After the fall of apartheid in South Africa, Dr. Esack was appointed by Nelson Mandela as a Commissioner for Gender Equality. Dr. Esack has taught at various universities around the world, most recently serving as the Prince al Waleed bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islam at Harvard University. He currently resides in South Africa, where he is Professor in the Study of Islam at the University of Johannesburg.
Lecture Sponsored by the Oxford Palestine Society
jane
Comments
Hide 1 hidden comment or hide all comments
The apartheid libel
03.03.2010 16:03
By JPOST EDITORIAL
02/03/2010 21:08
Israeli Apartheid Week kicked off on Monday, promising Israel-bashing, mostly on college campuses.
The sixth international Israeli Apartheid Week kicked off on Monday, promising 14 days of Israel-bashing in about 40 cities around the world, mostly on college campuses. Organizers say the events will “educate” about Israel’s so-called “apartheid system” and encourage BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) against the Jewish state. Punishing Israel into submission will lead to the end of “colonization” of Arab land, the beginning of equal rights for Arab-Palestinians, the dismantling of the security barrier, and instituting the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Naomi Klein, the Jewish anti-globalization savant who has in recent years branched out to include demonizing Israel in her repertoire, pointed out in the opening speech of last year’s extravaganza that “serious movements have serious enemies,” arguing that the fierce opposition to Israeli Apartheid Week proved its importance. According to that reasoning, perhaps it would be better to simply ignore the festivities and allow the whole thing to blow over.
Problem is, if left unchallenged, proponents of the apartheid analogy are liable to stifle free speech and trample open debate on campuses by using intimidation and bullying tactics. They recently prevented Ambassador Michael Oren from finishing a speech at UC Irvine, and on the same day in Cambridge they interrupted Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, allegedly shouting in Arabic, “Slaughter the Jews.” Meanwhile, Cambridge University’s Israel Society bowed to pressure from Muslim students to cancel a speech by historian Benny Morris.
CONSIDERING ITS sordid historical roots, it is not surprising that Israel Apartheid Week’s proponents are hostile to free expression.
In his new book, A Lethal Obsession, Robert S. Wistrich shows that the intellectual roots of the apartheid libel can be traced to Soviet totalitarianism. Building on deep-seated anti-Semitism dating from the czarist era, the Soviet Union launched a ferocious anti-Israel campaign in the wake of Israel’s victory in the Six Day War in an attempt to squash Zionism and with it other national liberation movements that threatened to challenge blind loyalty to the Soviet Republic. Equating Jerusalem with Pretoria also served the Soviets in gaining influence in Africa and aligning the Third World against the US and other western states that supported Israel. Interestingly, Trotskyists – with Jews prominent in their ranks – became the most enthusiastic propagators of the Zionist racist mythology, perhaps in an attempt to negate their Jewishness and prove their fidelity to the communist cause.
In the ’70s the PLO and Arab governments, recognizing the political efficacy of latching on to the Soviet-made analogy, joined forces with the USSR to spread lies about Israel. “The apartheid libel transformed Zionism (and by implication Jews and Judaism) into an inhuman ideology and the foundation of a state policy that supposedly divides the world into Jews (a chosen people) and goyim (inferior beings designated to be slaves),” writes Wistrich. Once this was accomplished, dismantling the Jewish state with the use of boycotts, divestment and sanctions could be justified. Even terrorist violence could be forgiven.
Sadly, Soviet propaganda has worked.
While rogue states such as Sudan commit horrendous crimes against humanity, and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other self-proclaimed Muslim states do not even attempt to hide their contempt for non-Muslims, only Israel is singled out for castigation. This is the Israel that translates hostile Palestinian authors into Hebrew; that maintains a Supreme Court that defends the human rights of Palestinians, including its recent ruling to open Route 443 to Palestinians despite real fears that this could lead to drive-by shootings; that keeps its universities open to Arab citizens and grants them the right to vote.
It’s not only Desmond Tutu and former US president Jimmy Carter who make the apartheid case. Even Defense Minister Ehud Barak has stumbled.
“As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said during a speech last month at the Herzliya Conference.
“If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state,” he added, playing into the hands of Israel’s most manipulative detractors and ignoring the facts that Israel is committed to seeking an accommodation with the Palestinians precisely to avoid any such state of affairs, and that it is those who would seek to deny the Jewish nation its only state who are guilty of apartheid attitudes.
Instead of adopting anti-Semitic newspeak, Israel’s representatives need to perfect the craft of hitting back diplomatically – “to delegitimize the delegitimizers,” in the memorable phrase of Canadian law professor and human rights activist Irwin Cotler. Part of that task is knowing the despicable history of the apartheid libel, understanding whose interests it serves and, most importantly, protecting free speech against those who would deny it.
An alternative view
Hide 1 hidden comment or hide all comments