From February 11th-15th, organizers have planned "Palestine Awareness Week" events for The University of Michigan campus. The events at U of M are taking place at the same time as "Israel Apartheid Week" events at other colleges and universities internationally. Even though U of M's "Palestine Awareness Week" has a different name than "Israel Apartheid Week," the two are clearly related, as evidenced by the timing, and the agenda. The aim of both is to demonize Israel, bash the Jewish State and its friend America, condone Palestinian terrorism, and provide a skewed view of reality and a total distortion of facts on the ground.
The U of M organizations involved in putting "Palestine Awareness Week" together include:
Readers of Anti-Racist Blog will remember that the student group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), which is the main sponsor of "Palestine Awareness week," openly condemns Israel while ignoring terrorists actions against the Jewish State. SAFE also brought anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic extremist Joel Kovel to campus to preach about the necessity of destroying Israel.
SAFE has posted a flyer for Palestine Awareness Week on its website. Speakers slated for the anti-Israel hatefest include:
Anti-Racist Blog readers will recognize Wayne State University professor Thomas Abowd, who is notorious for his anti-Israel ideology and confrontational style. You may remember that Mr. Abowd was the only Wayne State professor to speak at a rally organized by the anti-Israel/anti-America group ARA/WSU (whose members have openly praised Hezbollah, picked on Jewish students, and permitted a swastika to be displayed during one of their events). At least one University departmental investigation into Professor Abowd's conduct at the ARA/WSU rally has taken place, or is still ongoing (details to follow).
Marxist political scientist Neve Gordon is well known internationally as an anti-Israel Israeli, whose articles are so filled with hatred that they have been published on a Nazi operated website. Ali Hasan Abunimah is co-founder of the racist anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada, which is viewed by many as encouraging terrorist violence against Israel. Rima Hassouneh is a lecturer in Near Eastern Studies at Michigan, who apparently doesn't mind associating with the bottom feeders SAFE has dredged up for the week's events. As if that wasn't enough to satisfy any and all Jew and Israel hatred, there are "many more" speakers to look forward to.
SAFE writes that the goals of "Palestine Awareness Week" include:
You can see that one of the major goals of the week is to make people think Israel is like South Africa. In reality, Israel does not practice Apartheid, but apparently the truth does not matter to the sponsoring organizations, or the speakers. Clearly, the goal is to advocate for the destruction of Israel, rather than to advocate for peace.
It is laughable that a student group such as SAFE - which promotes racism, hatred, and the destruction of Israel - plans to talk about peace at all, a concept which is contrary to most of the group's actions and ideology. The co-sponsors clearly are no better than SAFE. The anti-Israel ideologues planned to speak also have no business talking about peace, let alone claiming to spread awareness when they are purveyors of disinformation.
It is a "safe" bet that these events will turn into "Bash Israel Week." Stay tuned for much more coverage.