|
‘Palestine
Awareness Week’ speech cause for debate
By Daniel Linck Savino
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant Opinion Editor
Palestine Awareness Week came to a close
last Thursday with two speeches by controversial
speaker Abdel Malik Ali.
A noontime speech titled "Zionism:
The American Disease" drew close to
90 spectators from both sides of what ended
as a far more civil extension of a battle
that has been fought for millenia.
The two-hour event was sponsored and promoted
by the Muslim Student Association. The audience,
however, was packed with members and supporters
of both the MSA and Hillel, a campus group
promoting Jewish identity.
Half a dozen University Police officers
stayed on the walkway outside the room on
the third floor of the University Student
Union for the duration of the event.
Ali’s speech covered a number of issues,
especially focusing on racism, the efforts
of Palestinians to reclaim land under Israeli
control, and Israeli injustice towards Palestinians.
"Despite all the propaganda, the majority
of American people believe [Palestinians
should have a free state]," Ali said.
"We want people to hear Zionism, because
then they will see it as racism."
Zionism is a political movement that espouses
the right of the Jews to have an independent
nation in the Middle East.
Ali also described Zionism as having an
"arrogant mentality of white [supremacy]
and chosen people. " The latter references
Biblical interpretations that see the Jews
as being the chosen people of God.
A notable subtext to his speech was the
need to dismantle Israel.
"In order for there to be peace in
the Middle East, the Muslims have to be
in control [of the region]," he said.
"Just like we controlled it before,
we have to control it again, the two-state
option is no longer on the table."
Though he was not specific about the structure
of any Palestinian state, he touched on
the ideology of such a nation.
"I guarantee you this, we’re
not going to have people living in refugee
camps, we’re not going to bulldoze
homes...it’ll be about justice,"
he said.
Throughout his speech, Ali described Israel
as being unjust, racist and imperialist.
He alluded to segregation and Jim Crow laws
in America, as well as apartheid, and their
parallels in Israel. "Israeli-only"
roads and the wall being constructed along
the edges of Israel were specifically mentioned.
The wall is described by the Israeli government
as a "security fence" designed
to ensure Israeli safety. Twenty-five feet
high and up to nine feet thick, it is being
built approximately on the Green Line, a
borderline established by the United Nations
in 1949 when Israel was created.
It has been surrounded by heated controversy,
prompting court cases, protests and a number
of violent clashes.
In places, the wall goes beyond the Green
Line to surround settlements built beyond
the borderline. Those extensions have led
to accusations of land-grabbing on the part
of the Israelis, and has sparked violence
ranging from sniper attacks to bombings.
Ali said there was nothing wrong with Arabs
fighting against the Israelis in the Middle
East.
"Allah makes it very clear in the Quran,
those who are fighting oppression are not
to blame," he said.
"The problem is, [the Israelis] know
that when you’re dealing with a people
who are ready to die, and are coming to
die, and [the Israelis] want to live, that
you can’t defeat a people like that."
Oppression was a recurring theme of his
speech. He invoked images of the Holocaust,
sometimes specifically mentioning it, to
illustrate that theme.
"[The Jews] don’t even recognize
other people’s suffering," Ali
said. "They have now become like the
people who oppressed them... The way they
treat Palestinians, you’d think the
Palestinians built the gas ovens."
Because of the variety of injustices in
Israel, he said, the tide is turning against
them.
"The Zionists are going to be sorry,
because they’re going to be on the
wrong side of history," Ali said. "This
could make the [civil rights protests of
the] ‘60s look like a dress rehearsal."
After his speech, a moderator from MSA opened
the floor to questions. The event quickly
devolved into a heated dispute between the
two sides.
The first person to question Ali was Allyson
Rowen Taylor. She asked him what justice
there was in suicide bombings that kill
children, specifically refering to the bombings
of a pizza parlor and a dance hall.
"When children are killed in the apartheid
state [of Israel], that is never the intention,"
he said. This was almost simultaneously
met with responses of "it’s a
lie" from several audience members.
The bombings, he said, are aimed at soldiers
who were at those locations. He then referred
to Israeli attacks against Palestinian targets
in which children died.
"When you do it, that was collateral
damage," he said. "When we do
it, that’s deliberate."
Taylor answered by saying, "I’m
sorry for every Muslim that was killed...I’m
sorry enough that I want peace."
Ali quickly responded, saying, "Then
give back the land you stole."
The question and answer session then briefly
took a turn into an argument over whether
the Arabs or the Jews were the first occupants
of the region, and who had the right to
the land.
Ali argued that European Jews, being foreign,
needed to leave. Taylor and another woman
insisted that Jews were historically descended
from the region and had a right to be there.
Next, another member of the audience asked
where gays could live if Muslims had control
of the area.
"A homosexual can live in any Muslim
country in the world, as long as they keep
it inside their doors," Ali said.
He qualified this, saying that in the Islamic
faith, homosexuality is sinful. He also
did not want to let the matter become the
focus of the talk.
"We should not look at homosexuality
as right...and we should not make that the
No. 1 issue," he said.
The last person in the audience to speak
was Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, the adviser to
Hillel.
Over the course of several minutes, Bookstein
sharply and passionately disagreed with
the speech, describing it as "spreading
lies, filth and demagoguery." He also
urged Ali to use his charisma and speaking
abilities towards different ends.
"If you really wanted there to be goodness
and kindness in the world, you would focus
your energies and your amazing talents on
healing the sick and feeding the poor,"
Bookstein said.
He previously protested Ali’s presence
on campus at Wednesday’s Associated
Students Senate meeting. There, he described
Ali as using hate speech, and objected to
paying out AS funds for him.
Vice President Erik Joliff stated that no
AS funding is used for such events. Senator-elect
Amin Km, of the MSA, later said that no
AS money was used for any part of Palestine
Awareness Week.
|
