Students for Justice in Palestine hosts journalist for talk on Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Meghan White/Daily Senior Staffer
Journalist and author Max Blumenthal speaks Monday night in Swift Hall on "Sanitizing Apartheid: Exposing the Israeli Peace Camp," an event sponsored by Northwestern Students for Justice in Palestine. Blumenthal focused his talk on what he called the "four myths of Zionism."
October 22, 2012
Students for Justice in Palestine hosted author, journalist and documentarian Max Blumenthal on Monday night for a speech about the state of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Blumenthal's talk in Swift Hall, "Sanitizing Apartheid: Exposing the Israeli Peace Camp," focused on his belief that there are four key myths in liberal Zionism, including that it is no longer feasible to create a separate Palestinian state. Blumenthal said he disagreed with that notion and noted he believes policy makers have been saying that for decades.
"We always hear that time is running out," he said. "I decided to Google (that phrase) and I managed to create 44 pages of quotes going back to 1985."
SESP senior Lafayette Cruise, events chair of Students for Justice in Palestine, said when the group heard Blumenthal was in Chicago to speak at DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago, it asked him to visit Northwestern. Nearly 40 students attended the speech, in addition to several community members and one of Blumenthal’s aunts.
Blumenthal also spoke about the presidential foreign policy debate that took place later in the night and expressed doubt that what he sees as the plight of the Palestinians would be mentioned.
During his remarks, Blumenthal criticized what he referred to as the “paradoxical ideology of liberal Zionism.” He argued that Zionism, the movement for the preservation of the Jewish state in Israel, is an ideology that privileges one group over another and therefore cannot be liberal.
The bigger picture of Blumenthal’s speech was the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that originates largely from the formation of Israel as an independent nation in 1948. Blumenthal said he believed this occurred at the expense of the Palestinian way of life and addressed the perception that his positions may be controversial. He said Jewish youth have attended his talks before and told him that they were shunned by their families for doing so.
Blumenthal criticized the idea that between 1948 and 1967 Israel was a liberal state. He said the Israeli army is called “the most moral army in the world," but he believes this boils down to the motto that, “as long as (the soldiers) shot, they could cry.” Blumenthal also addressed the idea that more liberal Zionists may be sympathetic to Palestinians.
"The relationship between right-wing Zionism and left-wing Zionism is symbiotic,” Blumenthal said, because both groups work to preserve the Jewish state.
As part of his criticism of liberal Zionists, Blumenthal said, “the most principled left-wingers in Israel are anarchists” because the leftist Zionists work more with the government than against it.
"Liberal Zionists are the only liberals in the world who are committed to engineering a demographic majority," Blumenthal said.
After Blumenthal finished the structured part of his talk, he took questions from audience, during which one student said she strongly disagrees with Blumenthal’s characterization of Israel as an apartheid state. However, several other students, many of Palestinian heritage, agreed with much of what Blumenthal said and offered their perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When Blumenthal’s aunt asked him what his solution to this problem would be, Blumenthal said he favored a one-state solution in which all citizens would have equal rights.
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Wow, this author is clearly on another planet than the one in which this "discussion" took place. Why didn't you include the fact that when the speaker took questions from the audience, and the student "strongly disagreed" with his foolish, gross misuse of the word "apartheid," he couldn't answer her question and he couldn't even give one good reason to justify his use of the word because her arguments were exactly right. All he could do was immaturely interrupt her and attack her and put words in her mouth. Max Blumenthal is clearly an immature speaker and human being; his speech was embedded with lies; and he twists the facts to serve his own purpose (which I'm not really sure what that is), and it's an embarrassment that a Northwestern student group brought him to campus. And shame on this university and the students here for not being able to foster a respectful conversation that acknowledges all opinions and points of view. I thought the university was a place where diversity of opinion and enlightened discussions were promoted, not silenced.
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MaxIsCorrect Reply:
October 23rd, 2012 at 12:22 pm
"gross misuse of the word "apartheid,"
Yes, quite the "gross misuse" of a word that Israelis themselves now embrace:
"Survey: Most Israeli Jews would support apartheid regime in Israel"
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/survey-most-israeli-jews-would-support-apartheid-regime-in-israel.premium-1.471644#.UIbJOi4dxf9.twitter
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@ "student"
you said "I thought the university was a place where diversity of opinion and enlightened discussions were promoted, not silenced"
Then you clearly haven't read the Zink editorial from last week. Or, more to the point, the comments following the article.
It would seem that, at Northwestern, if you hold a position that is not in line with the majority opinion on any given topic, your view will not be respected. At all. And, in fact, you will be ridiculed and personally attacked into embarrassment and/or silence.
I have come to the sad conclusion that the Northwestern community only cares about physical diversity (race, gender, sexual orientation), but when it comes to opinions and viewpoints, the community is extremely hostile to anyone who doesn't tow the party line, whatever that happens to be.
It is a real shame, and as someone who recently graduated, something that profoundly saddens and disturbs me.
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The lack of civility at this event both surprised and disappointed me. Mr. Blumenthal was rude, immature, and not worthy of speaking at the institution of higher learning that Northwestern is. As a self-proclaimed blogger, Mr. Blumenthal was not familiar with the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including the causes of both the the War of Independence and the Six Day War. In addition, his opinion that "Liberal Zionists are the only liberals in the world who are committed to engineering a demographic majority" is both a libel and on the vege of antisemitism. To imply that Zionists will do whatever it takes to achieve a majority in Israel, which one would assume includes murder, brings upon horrific memories of the Nazis engineering a majority in Germany and many other instances in which Jews and Zionists have been persecuted.
I can only hope that in the future, SJP invites speakers with more knowledge of the conflict, more credentials to back up his/her opinion, and a speaker who is willing to engage with students who disagree with him/her.
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Doremus Jessup Reply:
October 23rd, 2012 at 5:12 pm
You're embarrassing yourself, "Student", by saying Max isn't familiar with Palestinian history and demonstrates your own ignorance. Clearly you are also ignorant of the very real actions the government of Israel is perpetrating which amount to ethnic cleansing
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Very courageous man, every word he says is true.
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