Friday, September 16, 2016

Let's Have a Course on Startup Nation Instead

Zionists simply cannot tolerate dissent from the party line, whether in politics, the media... or on campus.

Academics have been smeared, and some have even lost their jobs as a result of Zionist pressure tactics. Pro-Palestine students too have been smeared and suspended merely for exercising the rights of assembly, protest and free speech. But I'm not sure if anything quite like this has happened before: 

A proposed University of California Berkeley course Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis has been dropped because of Zionist pressure, on the grounds that it is an example of "the misuse of the classroom for political indoctrination."

Here is a description of the course:

"This 1-unit lecture and discussion-based course will examine key historical developments that have taken place in in Palestine, from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of settler colonialism. First, by utilizing a comparative approach and engaging with existing scholarship, we will gain a broad understanding of settler colonialism. Second, we will explore the connection between Zionism and settler colonialism, and the ways in which it has manifested, and continues to manifest, in Palestine. Lastly, drawing upon the literature on decolonization, we will explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine, one in which justice is realized for all its peoples and equality is not only espoused, but practiced."

In fact, it is those raised on the false historical narrative of Zionism, with its myths of a golden age of Jewish political sovereignty in Palestine, a forced expulsion, a dark, centuries-long exile, and an eventual, triumphant return to the 'Land of Israel', who have been politically indoctrinated. And it is they who resist tooth and nail any subjection of their narrative to critical scrutiny by historians.

Mind you, the early Zionists had no problems with the 'c' or 's' words. A few examples suffice:

There was Baron de Hirsch's Jewish Colonization Association and its successor, Baron de Rothschild's Palestine Jewish Colonization Association.

There was the call in the first Zionist Congress's Basel Program (1897) for "the settlement of Jewish farmers, artisans and manufacturers" in "Eretz Israel."

The were early descriptions such as this of Zionist settlers in Ottoman Palestine: "We found the graves of the great Talmudist Rabbi Meir and two of his pupils in a school of the Ashkenazim, which, for the nonce, was serving a very useful purpose as hospice for a number of German Jews travelling to a new colony farther south." (In a Syrian Saddle, A. Goodrich-Freer, 1905, p 305)

There was the July 1917 first draft of the Balfour Declaration, which called on the British government to establish "a Jewish National Colonizing Corporation."

And there was Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann with his "plans for immigration, irrigation [and] colonization." (Trial & Error, p 316)

1 comment:

Grappler said...

Courtesy of MW, here's a link to the story.

https://academeblog.org/2016/09/15/berkeley-bans-a-palestine-class/

The student facilitator said:

I complied with all policies and procedures required for creating the course. The course was vetted and fully supported by the faculty advisor, the department chair, and the Academic Senate’s Committee on Courses of Instruction (COCI).

The university suspended the course without consulting me, the faculty sponsor, the chair of the department, or the Academic Senate’s COCI, which is responsible for approving all UC Berkeley Courses. The university did not contact us to discuss concerns prior to suspending our course.


And this from the InsideHigherEd article:

The dean will now work with the Berkeley Academic Senate to review the course and examine whether it meets the university’s academic standards. The review process will also determine whether it complies with Berkeley’s intolerance policy, which was revised in March to condemn anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

So anti-Zionism is now classed as intolerance! It is now not politically correct to oppose continuing colonialism of the worst kind in UC Berkeley. This was the focus of the anti-Vietnam war protest movement and of the protests against the anti-communist loyalty oath of the 1950s. Sic transit gloria!