Campus Coalition Unanimous 'til Mort Got to Aish
JTA reports:
The Israel on Campus Coalition will not kick out the Union of Progressive Zionists for sponsoring a program that accuses the Israeli army of human-rights abuses.
In a unanimous decision, the ICC’s eight-member steering committee rejected a request from the Zionist Organization of America to expel the union for sponsoring “Breaking the Silence,” a program that brings army veterans to campus to speak about alleged Israeli abuse of Palestinians.
The committee — whose rotating membership currently includes the Anti Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — also elected not to establish a mechanism to monitor programming of coalition members or to revise the coalition’s membership criteria and mission statement.
Hooray! Or, not so fast…
JPost reports:
In a statement circulated to Jewish organizations, Aish Hatorah apologized for “not clearly stating our position during the official vote on the proposal. We should have known all the facts at that time. But since we didn’t, we now are stating that our official viewpoint is that programs and organizations that support such programs that demonize and cause hatred for Israel should not have a place on the Israel on Campus Coalition. For that reason, we vote to remove the UPZ from the Coalition for its support of the ‘Breaking the Silence’ program.”
ZOA’s National President Morton Klein hopes to convince the entire steering committee to change its mind.
“I am not denying anyone the right to free speech,” said Klein. “As far as I am concerned, let UPZ bring Nazis to college campuses. But there is no way they can continue to be part of a pro-Zionist coalition. Breaking the Silence is precisely the type of program that the ZOA’s college campus activities try to combat.”
Yeah, you read that right: Mort Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, just likened anti-occupation IDF reservists to Nazis.
Can anyone actually take this man seriously anymore?
Hold on there. I’m no fan of Mort Klein, but he did not liken the anti-occupation reservists to Nazis. To demonstrate that he was not trying to stifle speech, he used the easy, all-too common example of Nazis as a group whose presence on campuses he would accept in the name of free speech. I think his efforts to bar the Union of Progressive Zionists are disgraceful, but he is not likening them to Nazis. Rather, he’s saying (albeit very untactfully) that, like Nazis, Communists, or anyone else, the progressive zioinsts have their place on campus, but he thinks they should not have the backing of ICC.
Let’s not demonize people like Mort Klein as quickly and instinctually as he demonizes people like us.
I love american zionists. If they’re so zionist, how about they buy a plane ticket and leave the US?
Because Amit, Zionism is the belief in Israel as our homeland – that doesn’t mean I have to live in my homeland, it means I respect her and fight to maintain her as the Jewish homeland.
Uh yeah. Mort Klein did not at all “liken” those soldiers to Nazis at all. You really ought to choose the words you use more carefully.