A great deal has been said about last Thursday’s Harris School–sponsored lecture by former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert. The talk was slated to last 20 minutes; due to repeated interruptions by audience members, it stretched for more than 90. These disruptions, which ranged from allegations of war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon to personal attacks on the prime minister, ultimately resulted in some 25 protesters being pulled from the audience. By all accounts, the talk was defined not by what Olmert said but by his effective inability to say very much at all.
The Editorial Board weighed in on the controversy in today’s issue:
Olmert’s actions, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in general, engender fierce emotions on all sides of the issues. But surely any effort aimed at righting injustices and resolving conflicts must begin with an open and honest dialogue. A major role of academic institutions is to provide forums for such exchanges. Students who oppose Olmert’s opinions can and should speak up; what they should not do, however, is disrupt a planned speech with tactics designed to make dialogue impossible.
Now, President Zimmer and Provost Rosenbaum have taken a stand of their own in an e-mail to all faculty, staff, and students:
To: Faculty, Staff, and Students
From: President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum
Date: October 20, 2009
Re: Freedom of Expression and ProtestAt the height of attacks on the University of Chicago in the 1930s as a “hot bed of radicalism” by politicians and the national press, President Robert Maynard Hutchins responded by proclaiming our core values, asserting that “… free inquiry is indispensable to the good life, that universities exist for the sake of such inquiry, that without it they cease to be universities, and that such inquiry and hence universities are more necessary now than ever.”
This culture of inquiry and informed argument is a cherished hallmark of the University of Chicago. It flourishes in an environment where what matters is what you say, not who you are. We believe that in the open clash of ideas, progress is made and understanding emerges. But like any cultural conviction, an environment of informed argument and critical inquiry must be nurtured. It creates for the faculty, students, and staff of the University of Chicago the fundamental right and responsibility to foster and protect rational discourse in an environment marked both by the rigorous challenge of ideas and by tolerance for the expression of multiple viewpoints.
Speakers invited by faculty and students should have every expectation to be treated in accord with the highest ideals of the University. There is also a reciprocal obligation to hear from those who wish to express dissent, but not in a manner that prevents the speech of those with whom they disagree. At institutions without our strong tradition of free inquiry, speakers have been prevented from freely presenting their ideas. We had such an event occur on our campus last week. It is in this context and given the particular history of our institution that the repeated disruption by audience members of the views presented by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at the invitation of the Harris School, is disturbing. Any stifling of debate runs counter to the primary values of the University of Chicago and to our long-standing position as an exemplar of academic freedom. It is a rupture of the sort that is rare on our campus because of our shared views of the importance of inquiry, discourse, and informed argument.In the tradition of President Hutchins, his predecessors and successors, we remain committed to fostering an arena for the free expression of ideas because it is the essence of our existence as a great University, and we as a community will continue to defend the rights to free expression on our campus.
Them’s fightin’ words, President.
Let Olmert, who publicly threatened to assassinate a democratically elected leader, be heckled.
The UoC would prefer to stay completely oblivious to the aura of lawlessness that pervades US and Israeli politics. Olmert and many top current and former IDF officials have been warned not to travel to the UK, Spain and several Scandinavian countries, where they could face war crimes charges. It is shameful that that they face no consequences here, more so for a University to honor such officials. This is no way to show respect for international law.
Let these men have their day in court in the Hague, where they will not be able to gloss over their crimes. I have nothing against rational discourse, but in a democratic society, grievances so severe should be addressed in a court.
Intellectual rigor does not exist in a vacuum of theories, as the UoC would like it to, but also attends to practical implications. The “rupture” that accompanied Olmert’s speech is a result of the chasm between the crimes at hand and the response that is needed. The time for academic schmoozing is over.
Zimmer has taken this as an opportunity to discourage a culture of protest, and simultaneously snub those “institutions without our strong tradition of free inquiry” that do, such as Berkeley, NYU, and Columbia, just to name a few.
If this is a community that defends free expression, then I look forward to the University of Chicago’s invitation to Ismail Haniyeh, a democratically elected leader as well.
“Avak”, you mentioned Columbia? Do you mean the place that invited the holocaust denier and wicked leader Ahmadinejad?
So let me understand this, Ahmadinejad who threatens to destroy Israel, who has no regard for the Human Rights of his won people let alone those of others, should be able to speak freely at Columbia, but Olmert who after 12,000, 12,000 rockets landed on Israel decides to take military action, should not.
The fact is that while you think the Gaza war was criminal I think it was a heroic life saving operation. In the past 8 months, Sderot has not had a rocket land on their town.
If you disagree we can discuss it. Isn’t that what the UofC is all about?
Joe–check again, there have been rockets fired at Sderot. As Israel’s generals admit, the Cast Lead campaign was a through and through FAILURE. It achieved nothing much murder of civilian population. Or do you only keep up to date on the conflict when the propoganda machine tells you to?
So, let me make sure I have this straight. We should be able to invite anyone we want?
Therefore, Saddam Hussein should have spoken at the U of C in 2003. And the administration would have been very happy with that.
Milosevic should have spoken in 1998.
Stalin right after World War II?
Hitler in 1940? Maybe even Darth Vader for kicks?
A. Turman, In 2008, over 3,200 (!) Palestinian rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. Since Cast Lead over 200 were fired from the Gaza Strip. Truth be told, one is too many. So what would you suggest they do to protect the Sderot population? Gaza is in the hands of the Palestinians?
Israel can’t win it seems. Prior to 1967, when Gaza was in the hands of Egypt and the West Bank with Jordan there were constant terror attacks.
Basically, the Palestinian leadership and most Arab counries don’t really want peace, they want the destruction of Israel as stated in the Hamas charter and as taught to Palestinian children, or as Arafat the murderer said, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean.
One needs to bear in mind, that the Muslim world in the Middle East is, for the most part living in the Dark Ages. There is endemic unemployment and poverty in most of these countries despite many having huge oil reserves and wealthy tyrannical governments with no respect for human rights of their own citizens let alone anyone else. They have no expectations of living in freedom and so fighting and blowing each other up is a norm. It makes it very hard to expect these people to think in terms of peace when essentially they are living in a tribal mindset with a rigid honor system where the strongest man wins. I suggest you read “A Closed Circle” and you will understand why military action is the only language they understand.
Joe, your comments not only prove your ignorance, it also shows how mis-informed you are. The rockets from Gaza are wrong, because I don’t believe in the killing of innocent people. HOWEVER, you seem to have no clue why they are fighting, why they are resisting… Israel is occupying land ILLEGALLY. Maybe it seems as though Israel “cant win” because of their entire illegal takeover. The root of the problem starts in the early 1900′s when they began immigrating and taking over land that DID NOT belong to them. Which brings me to your point of Arabs not wanting peace and the supposed Hamas charter.. ever heard of the “Iron Wall”, read it… its a book that completely encourages the zionists that the only way to achieve their goals is by brute force… So it seems as though the Arabs are taking a page from the zionist book. By the way, it was the Israelis that completely annihilated an entire nation and wiped out a country and spread the most organized propaganda machine against Palestine, its history and its people. So don’t preach about Hamas or Arab countries wanting the destruction of poor Israel. I believe its Israel that has done enough destruction for a lifetime. And please, to call Arafat a murderer without acknowledging Rabin, Peres, Sharon & Netanyahu in the same vein is completely way off and shows how biased you are. And how dare you judge any Arab country for having “endemic unemployment and poverty” when our own country hasn’t pulled itself out of the mud with poverty, unemployment, and foreclosures… just to name a few of our problems… And corrupt government? Seriously, you want to go there? “He who casts the first stone…”?
The Palestinians are just fighting for what they lost and the thing that pisses people like you off, is that they’ll never give up. No matter how long it takes. And they’ll fight, to you they may seem barbaric, but they are indeed heros… I wonder what u would do if placed in the same predicament…
I suggest you read “Palestine: Israel and the US Empire”… then maybe you’d understand more of the truth than the crap you just posted.
He’s not saying invite anyone, he’s saying don’t act like an ass just because they are. You could also get a life and stop worrying about Gaza with all your waking hours.
Nihaya, the Israelis did not annihilate an entire nation. As soon as the State of Israel was declared after the Arabs rejected the partition plan (approved by the UN) the Arab nations went to war and told the Palestinians to leave their homes. While it is true that in the War of Independence many Arabs lost their homes, most left on instructions of Egypt and Syria. The problem was that miraculously the fledgling army of Israel won. Well you know what, too bad.
And in 1967, the same thing repeated itself. Jordan was warned not get involved and instead aligned itself with Nassar and they lost and as a result lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem which Jordan controlled.
If the Arab states truly cared about the Palestinian people like they claim they do, they would treat them as full citizens of their countries. A Palestinian born in Lebanon or Egypt or Jordan is basically a second class citizen.
Joe, you’re wrong, again. They started their immigration long before any partition plan, the plan of the zionists was to completely take over and get rid of its ORIGINAL NATIVE inhabitants. And I think you’d reject a partition plan too if you were in their position, while we are on the subject…. And why the hell would they give the offer to the Arabs, and then not try to negotiate? No once they tunred it down, they said to hell with you and took it by force? What kind of “democracy” is that? And the myth about Egypt and Syria telling people to leave their homes is a PURE MYTH made up by zionists to try and justify their wrong doings. Haganah, Irgun, Stern Gang…etc… all executed people who didn’t leave their homes, or outright did it to scare people into leaving and making an example of people. There were plenty of massacres, Israelis have A LOT of blood on their hands. And their ‘Flegdling Army” won because they got support from the zionist West… trust me… till this day they couldnt stand up to the Arabs if it wasn’t for the unconditional support of the west, so please take your argument somewhere else. I’m not saying the other Arab states care about Palestinians, they are sell outs… all they care about is money and power. Its the Palestinians suffering second class status everywhere, even in the “only democratic country in the middle east”, your beloved Israel, which is a COMPLETE AND UTTER TERRORIST state, and is illegal!!
How would the university treat a guest speaker who is a former Nazi general? Would they allow him to speak for the sake of “open dialouge”? As Olmert is a war criminal we should look at the issue from this perspective.
It’s very ignorant for one to say that interrupting a speech is “disturbing,” when inviting a war criminal to speak at an American University is what’s disturbing!
Why would a distinguished university like the University of Chicago invite a war criminal to speak in the first place? Would they have invited Milosevic? What about Sadam Hussein? How about Charles Taylor? The entire point of the cultural and academic boycott of Israel is that Israel is committing war crimes against a people that it occupies. Israel drove 750,000 Palestinians out in 1948, 300,000 Palestinians out in 1967, and Israel continues to massacre Palestinians with impunity. We Americans PAY for all of this mayhem. The least the U of C could do was refuse Jordan’s money (which indirectly comes from American anyhow) and do the right thing… deny apologists for Israeli war crimes a podium. Bravo to the people who interrupted.
We always hear Israel’s defenders complain about a lack of “faculty balance” and student protests that “demonize Israel” and viewpoints that make Jewish students feel “unsafe”. But now suddenly they LOVE free speech!
I’m calling my friends in the Bay Area to remind them to try and outdo Chicago, heckle away!
And the letter. Interesting, it’s selective free speech. I wonder if they would be amenable to having other war criminals speak….oh, I forgot, you can speak only if you’re an Israeli war criminal or murderer of children, showerer of White Phosphorus …and user of illegal chemical weapons, and lover of wanton and indiscriminate slaughter. Next on the speaking tour at U of C: Tzipi ‘Tipsy’ Livni, Ehud Barak, known to have murdered Palestinians with hs bare hands, and after that, the ultimate master racist himself, speaker with a forked tongue, Bibi Netanyahu. What a repugnant lot of sorry excuses for human beings.
So the students need to be silent for a man who cheats from the people he claims to represent and justifies the dropping of white phosphorus on children? Even if the question and answer session created an open forum, how does one even begin to frame a question about human rights violations to this man? Or better yet, why does the University of Chicago think Olmert is an authority on the Israeli Occupation? The man accepts bribes and justifies murder- he clearly doesn’t care for either Israel or Palestine.
This was clearly a silly stunt to rile up students against Olmert so that another “defensive” position could be assumed. What Olmert and the University faculty who planned this poor stage performance fail to realize is that the students no longer care if you see them as monsters or public aggravators. Nothing trumps the human rights violations this man has committed- So the students protesting could do their worst and still be saints compared to this man.
U of C is a disgusting institution for inviting a war criminal to lecture their students about Public Policy..all he is doing is spewing out more rhetoric and propaganda!? Why would students attend a university who supports oppression, injustice, and hosts war criminals? I’m glad the Pro-Palestinian activist disrupted Olmert he is a war criminal, he doesn’t belong on a speaking tour but in Hague being charged with war crimes!
You people are stupid. All of you.
The UN Human Rights Council has taken a bold step by endorsing eminent Judge Richard Goldstone’s report despite all of Israel’s efforts to smear this distinguished Jewish person of conscience. Of course, it is understood that some of the states that endorsed this Report have questionable human rights records but so what as the reality still is the same, namely, that Israel, under the so-called leadership of Ehud Olmert, has committed war crimes against th people of Gaza?
Instead of spending all their efforts trying to distract away from the war crimes that Israel has committed against Palestinian civilians but particularly children, Israel supporters do have the choice to write about other issues that they say concern them so much such as Darfur, the Congo and Iran and so on. Instead Israel supporters continuously harp about others needing to write on issues of concern to them!!!! As such, I say to Israel supporters that they do have the power to stop wasting their time defending Israel’s documented war crimes against Palestinians and instead take action on those other causes that they say say “concern” them so much. That would be time better served than demanding that others do so all the while complaining about others’ efforts to bring Israel to justice for crimes against humanity.]
Since Israel’s occupation began, thousands of Palestinian civilians including children have been killed by the Israeli military.
Israel always claims that it was a “tragic accident”
The Israeli military has had thousands of so-called “tragic accidents” in which thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and tens of thousands of additional Palestinians injured These so-called “accidents” have happened over and over and over again over decades without cease.]
These so-called “accidents by the Israeli military have happened with every type of weapon platform conceivable including Merkava tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, remotely piloted drones armed with Hell-fire missiles, fighter aircraft, artillery strikes, and even snipers
The State of Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid from western nations and yet it still keeps on having these so-called “tragic accidents” leading to one of two conclusions:
1. That the Israeli military is made up of incompetents who can’t shoot straight and upon whom billions of dollars in western aid have been wasted
OR
2. That the Israeli military and civilian leadership think that they have carte blanche to methodically murder Palestinians.]
You be the Judge!!
Moreover, Israel supporters keep on saying Hamas hides behind civilians as if this allows it to murder civilians without cease methodically as already illustrated. ]
My question though is why does Israel hide and, indeed, encourage its soldiers to eat in public cafes and restaurants, ride in public buses to go to and fro from military bases and so on.
In fact, why is the Ministry of Defence even located in the heart of the civilian population of Tel Aviv if Israel is so concerned about its civilians as it keeps on saying? Are Israeli soldiers cowards that they need to hide hide themselves among Israel’s civilian population despite all the massive firepower at their disposal? Are Israeli soldiers cowards that they need to hide behind Palestinian civilians as they attacked Gaza as illustrated here:
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2006/08/hiding_behind_c.html
Just asking a these are valid questions…..
I hope a lot of these comments are from non-UofC students. Would be sad to see what has become of us otherwise.
March 16, 2010 5:00 AM
by Khaled Abu Toameh
What About The Arab Apartheid?
How come the Lebanese students who recently talked about Israel’s “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip during Israel Apartheid Week on many North American college campuses had nothing to say about the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred in Lebanon over the past four decades?
Dozens of refugees were killed and hundreds wounded in the three-month offensive that also destroyed thousands of houses inside the refugee camp. Reporters said it was the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the civil war that hit the country between 1975-1990. And just three years ago, the Lebanese Army used heavy artillery to bomb the Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon.
Yet who has ever heard of a United Nations resolution condemning Syria or Lebanon for committing horrific atrocities or discriminating against the Palestinians?
The Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian students and professors who took part in the anti-Israel events on campuses have clearly “forgotten” that their regimes probably have more Palestinian blood on their hands than Israel. In the early 1970s, the Jordanians slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in what has become known as Black September. Can somebody point to one United Nations resolution condemning that massacre?
And where was the United Nations when Kuwait and several Gulf countries expelled more than 400,000 Palestinians in one week? The exodus took place in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Ironically, the first week of March is being celebrated on university campuses as Israel Apartheid Week with no reference to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Gulf.
Although there are more than 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in twelve refugee camps — which human rights organizations and Palestinians say have the worst living conditions of all the refugee camps in the Middle East — as in most of the Arab countries, these Palestinians have been assigned the status of “foreigners,” a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education.
Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery.
Can somebody imagine the outcry of the international community if Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed a law today prohibiting Arabs from working in certain professions or receiving medical treatment? Ironically, the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights in the Jewish state than their Palestinians brothers do in any Arab country.
The same applies to Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries. While Israel has never stripped its Arab citizens of their citizenship, Jordan has begun revoking the Jordanian citizenship of thousands of its citizens who are of Palestinian descent. Jordan was the only Arab country that has ever granted Palestinian Jordanian citizenship. In recent years, however, the Jordanians appear to have regretted that decision.
As for the rest of the Arab countries, Palestinians can only dream of obtaining citizenship. It is almost impossible to find a Palestinian with Egyptian or Moroccan or Kuwaiti citizenship.
Is it not absurd that Jordan and Egypt have been arresting Palestinians who demonstrate in support of their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or collect donations for them while Israeli citizens hold almost daily protests inside Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians?
And is it not ironic that the government of Binyamin Netanyahu is doing more to boost the Palestinian economy in the West Bank than any Arab country? .
At first glance, it looked as if the students who were distributing leaflets and posters that depicted the suffering of Palestinians inside Israel and the Palestinian territories, particularly those living in refugee camps, were actually talking about the suffering of Palestinians in their own countries – Lebanon and Egypt.
How come there was no talk on these campuses about the plight of Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries, where they have been subjected to discrimination, massacres and intolerance?
Perhaps the time has come to start paying attention to the plight of the Palestinians in the Arab world.
Perhaps the time has come for these students and professors behind Israel Apartheid to consider holding not Arab Apartheid Week, but a year-long seminar to discuss repression and discrimination against Palestinians living in various Arab countries. Of course one week would not be enough for this topic and that is why there is need for a whole year.
We have heard enough how “awful” Israel is. Let us take a look now at what is happening to the Palestinians in the Arab world. Or is something the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week do not want to hear about?