February 4, 2013
Dear Fellow Brooklyn College Faculty,
Students, and CUNY Community Members,
It is with disappointment that I cannot be
on campus to take part in this week’s Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS)
talk. As a scholar of Ottoman Palestine, and as an activist working for a just
solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I support discussion and dialogue
from all camps, and draw a clear line not to support or to give a hand to sides
promoting violence. It is certainly the right of the BDS to set their agenda, which
promotes reaching their goal through peaceful means, such as sanctions of the
Israeli state.
Attempts by students, faculty, alumni, or
other outside factors, to silence opposition to Israeli policy brings me back
twenty years when as a student at Haifa University, I received punishment
(thirty hours of labor) for exercising my right to free speech (under Israeli
law). Despite my punishment, Palestinian students (with Israeli citizenship)
were expelled from campus for sometimes more than one semester. Even then we
realized that they were punishing the wrong people, as we were promoting
peaceful resistance; just two years later the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak
Rabin, was shot by a radical right-wing Jewish man.
Now as an assistant professor (on leave) at
Brooklyn College, I have learned that there are those trying to silence the BDS
talk. This is a shame. During my classes on Israel/Palestine conflict, I
encourage all voices, and encourage my students to learn about all sides to the
conflict. As we know, there are no easy solutions to the conflict, and if BDS
thinks that they offer a genuine way out of this conflict, then more power to
them, and let the audience members be the judge of this. Perhaps, more
outrageous than trying to silence the voices of the BDS, is silencing Brooklyn
College students who invited the speakers, and found departments to support
them in organizing their events.
Therefore, I would like to take this
opportunity, to express my support of faculty members, who are ensuring that
the students’ wishes are heard. I would also like to express my sincere support
of the Political Science Department, and its chair, Professor Paisly Currah,
who has had to endure a great amount of pressure. Lastly, Brooklyn College
should be proud of the fact that their president, Professor Karen Gould, has
stood firm in her support for free speech on campus. She has my unwavering
support.
I hope others who support freedom of speech on US campuses will spread the word!
I hope others who support freedom of speech on US campuses will spread the word!
Yours,
Louis Fishman
