GW Hillel director brands Palestinian activist a “terrorist”

by Mobius [➚] · Sunday, April 9th, 2006

Upheaval on the GW campus: Fadi Kiblawi, a Palestinian rights activist, is threatening to sue GW’s Hillel chapter after its director Robert Fishman branded Kiblawi a terrorist/terror supporter in an e-mail distributed to the Hillel listserv. An advocate of divestiture and “the one state solution,” Kiblawi has previously been arrested by Israeli security forces for participating in ISM demonstrations within the occupied territories.

In a rebuttal to Fishman’s allegations, Kiblawi (who is also contributes to the Arab group blog KABOBfest), wrote:

The damage that the Hillel e-mail has caused to my reputation and my personal life has been debilitating. However, I am not a vindictive person. I believe that Hillel is an important social and spiritual center for Jewish students on campus. My principal concern at this point is to have my name cleared of the entirety of Hillel’s public allegations, which have now gained much currency on blogs and sites throughout cyberspace. I therefore ask Fishman to send a mass organizational e-mail repudiating his erroneous claims and apologizing immediately. However, if he declines to do so, he has left me with no choice but to pursue other options to exonerate myself – i.e., via legal means.

Some Hillel members have echoed Kiblawi’s concerns, including Will Dempster, senior editor of The Hatchet (GW’s campus paper), who labeled Fishman’s remarks “repugnant.”

I’ve contacted both Fishman and Kiblawi for further comment…

[Update] See, sh*t like this looks pretty ugly (even if the “journalist” is a nutjob). If anything, Kiblawi comes across as a monumental dick whose passion for his cause gets the best of him time and again. However, I don’t know if Fishman’s got any evidence to support his claim that Israel considers Kiblawi a terrorist. Getting arrested for civil disobedience does not make you a terrorist.

Further, Rick Dorfman (whose campus Zionist group is funded by Aish HaTorah and the ZOA) did indeed file a lawsuit against U Mich with the assistance of everso-psychotic Frontpage contributor Debbie Schlussel (who is currently crusading against cleavage). In it he cited an affidavit submitted by one David Herz claiming to have heard conference participants chanting “charad al-yahud.” However apart from his, and one other biased pro-Israel activist’s testimony, there is no evidence to support the charge — or specifically the claim that Kiblawi himself was involved in, let alone led the chanting (a claim which neither Herz or Dorfman make, but Fishman does). Which is not to say the chanting didn’t happen — it may very well have happened. There’s just no solid evidence to prove it and is thus an irresponsible charge to make.

While Kiblawi is mentioned in Dorfman’s lawsuit, it is only for his essay “A Perspective on Palestine while High on Vicodin,” the title of which conveys, if anything, the impression that the contents were expressions of a drug-addled imagination. You wouldn’t read the fantasies of Burroughs in Naked Lunch or Thompson in Fear & Loathing literally. Even if troublingly consistent with Kiblawi’s other statements and behavior, it can not be taken as a serious expression of his desire.

Finally, Kiblawi did cover for USF professor Sami Al-Arian claiming, in a debate with Dorfman on CNN, that Al-Arian had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the FBI. Shortly thereafter Al-Arian was indicted for helping Islamic Jihad orchestrate terror attacks which took the lives of over 100 civilians, including two American students. He was ultimately cleared of those charges (as were his codefendants) and now remains in custody awaiting trial on additional charges that he organized US fundraising operations for Islamic Jihad. This, however, was not actually a crime until 1996, when Islamic Jihad was officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, and therefore he cannot be prosecuted for any activities prior to then. Yes, I know better, you know better, we all know better — we’ve seen what Islamic Jihad hath wrought on the Israel. But in a free society, a man is innocent until proven guilty, and Kiblawi cannot be considered a supporter of terrorism for stating the inconvenient fact that Al-Arian is not a convicted terrorist.

Therefore, in essence, all of Fishman’s claims are erroneous. And while that shouldn’t exactly let Kiblawi off the hook, because I get the feeling he’s not the Jew-friendly pascifist he claims to be, Fishman should apologize, and campus Israel activists across North America should take notice. Slander may be effective in marginalizing Israel’s opponents among some audiences, but it can have the opposite effect in others, as it legitimizes claims of Zionist bullying. Fishman’s rallying cry should have focused, not on Kiblawi as a personality, but on divestiture and why it is both discriminatory and diplomatically ineffective. Fight the position, not the person. Do it with humility and grace, calmly and coherently, and you just might win the argument. Otherwise you’re going to be embarassed. And Fishman should feel embarassed right now.