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Georgetown University and Palestine Solidarity Movement
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Comments
1
.
Will
said:
Bill doesn't have a freaking clue. I know every individual he slanders in this piece and none of them even so much as touched a gun in their life.
To link them with acts of terrorism because they haven't allegedly condemned suicide bombings is spurious at best. This is utter nonsense.
Ironically, he associates activists pushing a NON-VIOLENT approach to Palestinian rights with violent tactics their work undermines. Instead of wasting his time launching unsubstianted and defamatory accusations against a conference held for the 5th annual time at a major university, maybe he should be promoting NON-VIOLENT solutions to Israel's oppression, such as divestment.
The absurdity of these charges will do nothing -- the precedent is set and free speech is a right even Bill cannot impede.
Posted by: Will on January 10, 2006 06:15 PM
2
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Bill Levinson
said:
Will deliberately attempts to confuse the issue by contending that none of the people I named "ever touched a gun in their lives." No ISM member needs to handle a gun or any other weapon to help a terrorist do enormous damage in Israel or, for that matter, the United States. As the Susan Barclay incident shows, the ISM is quite capable of giving a bomber or hijacker "safe house" assistance, i.e. providing him with a place to stay and hide from law enforcement or Homeland Security. I remind the ISM people in the United States that "concealing terrorists" is a felony punishable by up to ten years in case any are contemplating anything of this nature.
Also, ISM rank-and-file members and groupies should be VERY circumspect of doing favors like putting up unknown people in their apartments and dormitories, or showing them around American cities. You may not be told that the person you are assisting is a terrorist who plans to kill dozens or hundreds of innocent people, including possibly yourself.
With regard to free speech, I'm always the first to defend it. The right to speak is not, however, a right to the use of private property (Georgetown University facilities) and GU will be totally within its rights to tell the ISM to hold its event elsewhere. I can meanwhile exercise my own First Amendment rights to expose the ISM's advocacy of terrorism, Susan Barclay's alleged facilitation of terrorism by concealing a terrorist, Rishmawi's saying that it is useful to get naive peace activists like Rachel Corrie killed, and so on.
If Will thinks my statements are "defamatory," "spurious," and/or "inaccurate," he and any ISM member who thinks they were "defamed" needs to argue with the cited sources and not me. The one that "defames" Shapiro and Arraf is http://www.freepalestinecampaign.org/attacks_on_ISM.htm, i.e. a source friendly to the ISM as opposed to a "Zionist" or "Bush neocon" publication. The Rishmawi quote is attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, an impartial source.
Posted by: Bill Levinson on January 10, 2006 11:20 PM
3
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Jan
said:
Nadeem Muaddi is a spokesperson for the ISM/PSM. He is Christian. He wrote an article that calls for Christians to be Martyrs. The article can be read in full at:
http://www.jerusalemites.org/articles/english/july2005/30.htm
http://www.hcef.org/hcef/index.cfm/mod/news/ID/16/SubMod/NewsView/NewsID/1331.cfm
http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=2257
Some quotes:
Contrary to popular belief, Younan claims that martyria is about life – not death. However, “It is about living fully in such a way that death is the outcome”. Elaborating upon this, Bishop Younan states that there are three necessary and equal components to martyria: word, deed, and suffering. To speak about an issue, but hypocritically not act upon it – to act upon a matter without educating others about it – or to simply inflict suffering upon one’s self or others without proper justification and explanation are all incompatible with the concept of martyria. Indeed, to become a true martyr, one must contribute equally to “witnessing in word, witnessing in deed, and exposing oneself to danger, whatever the cost”. If this “cost” so happens to be death, then one will have become a martyr.
The ISM/PSM is another Palestinian organization allied with the Cult of Death.
Posted by: Jan on January 11, 2006 06:40 AM
4
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Lori Lowenthal Marcus
said:
Bill:
Glad you pointed out the distinction regarding Free Speech. As a former First Amendment lawyer I am constantly reminded how little most people know about the rights enshrined in our Constitution and its Amendments, yet how eager those same people are to invoke the right as if it is an all-purpose protection for anything, anywhere. It isn't.
So, Will, you are wrong, and simply sound foolish, when you whine that your "rights" are being violated when others try to stop you from having your hatefests hosted anywhere you want. Check the precedents - you are wrong. I hope you are not a lawyer.
Telling Bill that he and others should seek non-violent solutions when you appear to be supporting the ISM/PSM is truly - as we JEWS like to say - chutzpadik.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Posted by: Lori Lowenthal Marcus on January 12, 2006 08:06 AM
Georgetown University and Palestine Solidarity Movement
by Bill Levinon
It is now ON RECORD that Georgetown University's administration has been notified of the agenda and background of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which has planned its annual divest-from-Israel conference at GU in mid-February. The following information was sent to president "at" georgetown.edu (President DeGioia) as well as gucomm "at" georgetown.edu (Georgetown Communications). The Risk Management and Public Safety Departments also were copied on most of the information.
To: President DeGioia, Dr. Erik Smulson, Communications Department
cc: The Hoya
I saw the following on Georgetown's official Web site.
"The Georgetown University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will sponsor the fifth annual national conference of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement on the campus of Georgetown University from February 17 to 19, 2006. At Georgetown, any student organization with access to University benefits, such as SJP, may reserve available facilities for its events. In 2004 the conference was held at Duke University. In 2003 it was held at the University of Michigan, in 2002 at Ohio State University, and earlier in 2002 at the University of California at Berkeley."
This letter's purpose is to put it ON RECORD that Georgetown University has been advised of the Palestine Solidarity Movement's true nature and history. These include advocacy and facilitation of terroristic violence, an openly-stated stated willingness to get student volunteers injured or killed to get international media attention, and use of violent hate speech at another university. GU can verify the following information by doing independent Google searches for the items in question and need not (and should not) merely rely on my statements. The Palestine Solidarity Movement, also known as the International Solidarity Movement:
(1) Openly advocates terroristic violence
(2) Has facilitated terroristic violence abroad
(3) Has engaged in violent hate speech contrary to GU's own Code of Conduct
(4) Has stated openly its intention to recruit American college students for the purpose of getting them hurt or even killed in confrontation with Israeli security forces (like Evergreen College student Rachel Corrie)
(1) ADVOCACY OF TERRORISTIC VIOLENCE, INCLUDING SUICIDE BOMBING
Adam Shapiro, who is going to be one of the Divestment Conference's speakers, has personally advocated terrorism as shown here.
(Quoting Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf): "The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics -- both nonviolent and violent. But most importantly it must develop a strategy involving both aspects... [W]e accept that Palestinians have a right to resist with arms, as they are an occupied people upon whom force and violence is being used. The Geneva Conventions accept that armed resistance is legitimate for an occupied people, and there is no doubt that this right cannot be denied."
Charlotte Kates, the organizer of the New Jersey Solidarity Movement -- an offshoot of the International Solidarity Movement -- has refused to condemn homicide bombings and other means of “armed resistance.”
(2) FACILITATING, AIDING, AND ABETTING TERRORISM
ISM personnel have committed actions that, if done in the United States, would probably constitute serious felonies (e.g. aiding terrorists, material support to terrorists) as defined in U.S. Code Section 18. Not legal advice as I am not a lawyer.
Susan Barclay, the ISM organizer deported by Israel after she hid Islamic Jihad terrorist Shadi Sukiya in the ISM office in Jenin, told the Seattle Post Intelligencer that, "she knowingly worked with representatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- terrorist groups that sponsor suicide bombings and exist, according to their charters, to demolish the Jewish state entirely." (Seattle Post Intelligencer, Thursday March 20, 2003, Activist's death focuses spotlight on Mideast struggle, By Sam Skolnik, Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter.
Days before a British suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt in Mike's Place, a bar in suburban Tel Aviv, the bomber and an associate took tea with members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian group that promotes non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation.
(3) A HISTORY OF VIOLENT THREATS, CONTRARY TO GU's CODE OF CONDUCT
(4) RECRUITMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF GETTING THEM HURT OR KILLED IN CONFRONTATIONS WITH ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES
Georgetown University's Code of Conduct's Preamble states, "Especially intolerable in view of the University's commitment to respect for the person are offenses against persons because of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation." However, ,
"Recently, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the recruitment of American student volunteers is useful to the Palestinian Movement because 'if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.' When the Solidarity Movement met at the University of Michigan, delegates chanted 'Kill the Jews.'"
The first part of this statement, recruitment of American student volunteers for the purpose of getting them hurt or killed for media exposure, is backed by a Hamas terrorist's statement about peace activist Rachel Corrie, an Evergreen College student who was killed in an accident with an Israeli bulldozer:
"'Her death serves me more than it served her,' said one activist at a Hamas funeral yesterday. '...Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs.'" Making of a Martyr by Sandra Jordan, Guardian Newspapers.
Rachel was working with the ISM/PSM at the time and, although several other ISM members were standing nearby, none made any identifiable effort (as shown by their own testimony on Web sites friendly to the ISM/PSM) to pull her out of the slowly-moving bulldozer's path when it became obvious that the vehicle, for whatever reason, was not going to stop. If I were a GU parent, these are not the kinds of people with whom I would want my son or daughter to become involved.
The ISM/PSM's First Amendment right to express ideas does not entitle it to the use of Georgetown's privately-owned facilities to advocate terrorism, recruit students to support terrorism, or advance the goals of the Palestinian Authority (which is on record as sanctioning violence against women, gays, and lesbians as well as persecution of Christians in areas under its control). I assume that Georgetown would refuse to allow the Ku Klux Klan to hold a rally on GU property even if no crosses were burned in places off limits to open fires, and the same standards of decency ought to apply to hosting an organization with terrorist connections.
Regards,
Bill Levinson
Posted by Bill Levinson at January 9, 2006 07:13 PM