U of Illinois Excluding Israeli Voices and Platforming Vile Propagandists (guest post)

(Guest post from someone who prefers to remain anonymous)

Various departments and programs within the University of Illinois (UIUC), including Women & Gender in Global Perspectives (WGGP) and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies (HGMS), have gone through extreme and sometimes dishonest lengths in order to repeatedly propagate pro Hamas voices from some of the most notorious and vile propagandists, and to avoid allowing any alternative voices, since October 7^th.

 Here are some examples:

   On October 27^th, WGGP and HGMS (along with the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) hosted a “Teach-in” panel with Josh Ruebner (who was recently Managing Director of American Muslims for Palestine and the Policy Director for US Campaign for Palestinian Rights), Hasan Ayoub (Al-Najah National University in Nablus/Member of Global Network on Question of Palestine), and anti-Zionist Israeli Ayelet Ben-Yishai (University of Haifa). As will be a running theme, the session consisted strictly of lies, misrepresentations, and double standards geared toward condemnation for Israel.

 

On November 8^th, Zachary Foster (ubiquitous pro-Hamas historian at unaccredited Academia.edu) led a “Gaza Teach In” sponsored by WGGP. It was entirely a twisted historical backgrounder on Hamas and rationalization for recent and current Hamas activities.

 

WGGP was approached by locals and staff requesting a balanced panel that offers perspectives from both sides. WGGP agreed to sponsor, in collaboration with HGMS, a panel on December 7th that would consist of Israeli Professor Yifat Bitton and Palestinian activity Hyam Tannous (former Senior Supervisor in Counseling for Women Wage Peace). Promotional material was drawn up (see below) for these two to discuss, but without the knowledge of the panelists or others, WGGP invited 2 additional (and notorious) Palestinian panelists, Susan Abulhawa and Laila El-Haddad, who are both known for supporting terror (Abulhawa has repeatedly celebrated October 7th). The original panelists and those who solicited WGGP for a balanced panel found out about the additional activists only when new promotional material was added. Disappointing as this was, those wanting a voice for Israel were still content to go through in order to have a voice heard. But then Abulhawa sent a letter refusing to participate on a panel with a Zionist. It’s unclear whether El-Haddad was still intending to participate. In any case, instead of following through with the event as planned, WGGP canceled it. When locals objected, WGGP responded to each person with a form letter that stated WGGP and HGMS couldn’t hold the event due to “an incredibly complex series of events which led to one of the panelists canceling.” WGGP then suggested reaching out to Jewish orgs CUJF and Hillel to host an event. Would they suggest Palestinians go to their local Muslim orgs to host an event? Ultimately, they were not willing to allow an Israeli voice unless it was almost entirely drowned out by extreme voices in support of Hamas terror.   

 

·       In addition, a panel event was organized by Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) under the title, “A Panel to understand the historical roots of recent events in Palestine and Israel.” The audience included some pro-Israel students and community members who were hoping for a dialogue. According to a number of attendees, the panel never referenced the October 7^th massacre or the hostages, which apparently were not part of “recent events in Palestine and Israel.” Instead, the following were some key comments:

     Ø  Prof. Augustus Wood (, Labor and Employment Relations, UIUC):

-          “This violence (of Hamas) is not merely strategic in their war for liberation, but also a cleansing of oneself, of anxieties, of the occupation, of exploitation.”

-          “Despite what the propaganda is saying, none of this violence (of the Hamas) is unprovoked.”

-          “The armed resistance (Hamas) should not be referred to in crude inhumane terms such as terrorists.”

-          “The US and Israel began to publicize Hamas’s calls for truce and new borders for a free Palestine as anti Jewish, essentially creating a new weaponized form of antisemitism, to demonize anybody who calls for independence.”

-          “The state of Israel proved their worth, and the US swept in (to Israel) like the vampire it is, to extract as many resources as possible.”

-          “We need to dismantle the oppression, and put the humanity back in the discussion.”

 

Ø  Sara Hijab (SJP):

-          “Herzl chose Palestine for various reasons. All those reasons go back to anti-Arab rhetoric and bigotry.”

-          “I hope you realize the evil that Zionism is, and that it has no place anywhere in the world.”

-          “Israel has no interest in creating a safe haven for Jews. It only sees it for its financial gain, as does America.”

-          “We must all become anti-Zionists, the world needs nothing short of that”

 

Ø  Justin Holmes (PhD Candidate, Dept. of Sociology, UIUC)

-          “When we say “from the river to the sea,” we are not talking about genocide, or ethnic cleansing. We are talking about the elimination of a dominating structure and the equal protection and the enjoinment of rights and privileges.”

 

Ø  Prof. Corinna Mullin (John Jay College, CUNY - Labor for Palestine)

-          “In Gaza the armed resistance refuses to submit to Israel’s designs for ethnic cleansing.”

-          “It’s amazing how in their statements and resolutions and protests, students are unapologetic about the Palestinian national liberation by any means necessary.”

 

Ø  Prof. Bikrum Singh Gill (Political Science, Virginia tech):

-          “We need to begin by strongly and loudly saying that currently Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza.”

-          “There is a genocide happening, and the Palestinian armed resistance is fighting against this genocide”

-          “We need to be very clear: On one side we have a genocidal war. On the other side we have armed resistance against genocide, against colonization, which is essentially a liberation war. There are 2 wars right now – the war of genocide, and the war of liberation.”

-          “As we formulate tactics and strategies to oppose this genocidal war, it’s imperative that we do not throw the armed resistance under the bus in Palestine.”

-          “We cannot play the game that the Zionists are playing, trying to distinguish between the so called humanitarian civilian space and the political power of the armed resistance in Palestine.”

-          “What the armed resistance in Palestine is challenging is the primal, the fundamental equation that underpins colonialism.”

-          “I heard the first speaker speak about violence and the way it can be cathartic and a means to decolonize, but there is also a much more direct purpose to armed resistance, as it hits at the core, at the heart of colonial power.”

-          “From southern Lebanon, Hezbollah uses armed struggle to end the occupation from southern Lebanon.”

 

The moderator concluded, saying that: “We heard of the role of the armed resistance in fighting a war against genocide, a war of liberation, even that terminology is just extremely important. I appreciated the analysis of the root causes of the problem, and provided historical context of Zionism I think was particularly important”.

 

Local supporters of Israel raised questions regarding the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries, and noted that many Jews lived in Israel for generations. They asked the panel if it would denounce Hamas, and whether the panel seeks a peaceful and equal solution (something Hamas does not seek). And they asked why the organizer of the panel did not offer any alternative voices other than those siding with Hamas. And finally, they asked why events of October 7th were not mentioned.

 

The panel answered as follows:

-          Jews were not cleansed from Arab countries (and that it is propaganda to say so).

-          “What happened on October 7th did not happen in a vacuum. It did not start any new war, any new deaths. Palestinians have been relentlessly murdered and relentlessly bombed since 1948 and so we should talk about what happened before October 7th. The reason why Hamas launched their reaction is because Jewish settlers went and harassed Muslim worshipers in their mosque, in one of the holiest sites for Muslims.”

 

When pressed on what happened on October 7^th, the response was: 

-          “On October 7^th, Hamas went and made paragliders, and then flew to where Israelis were holding a concert, a festival, right next to Gaza, an open air prison. They took Israeli settlers as political pieces, to exchange for all the Palestinian prisoners who are wrongfully imprisoned with no basis.”

 

The panel stopped the discussion when asked how many were murdered on October 7^th, and whether a 9 months-old baby is a political prisoner. They did not answer the questions about the composition of the panel, and reiterated that Hamas should be referenced only in terms that make clear it represents justified armed resistance. 

Beyond this, the Jerusalem Post published a story of another Jewish UIUC student who attended an interfaith dinner wearing her Jewish star necklace and one of the men said he refuses to sit next to a Jew. 

There is a serious problem at UIUC.

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