Once again the Israel Lobby Abuses the Holocaust to support Racism and Apartheid
It is a familiar tale. A heroine of
the Black struggle expresses their support for the Palestinian struggle and the
Boycott of Israel and the Zionist lobby immediately uses the memory of the Jewish
dead of the Holocaust in order to plead the cause of Israeli Apartheid.
The same people who have nothing to
say about Trump’s war against migrants or Netanyahu’s cosying up to anti-Semitic
rulers such as Hungary’s Orban,
Brazil’s Bolsinaro
or Poland’s Mateusz
Morawiecki and who either turn the other way when Steve Bannon is in town or
who positively
welcome him, are up in arms when a Black woman, a legend in her own
lifetime, a former Black Panther, prisoner and member of the US Communist Party,
is honoured.
When the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
awarded the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award to Angela Davies, who has
been a symbol of the fight against racism and oppression, these miserable Holocaust
hucksters immediately cried ‘anti-Semitism’.
Of course Angela Davies hadn’t uttered even one word that was hostile to Jews
as Jews.
This didn’t stop the Zionist Birmingham Holocaust Education Center writing
to the Executive of the BCRI saying that it found Angela Davies’s support for BDS
‘very troubling as it targets the Jewish
people excessively.’ Well yes, it’s probably true that those who are the
primary targets of BDS are Jewish. This is not surprising as it is Israeli Jews
who are practising a form of Apartheid.
However they are no more targeted because
they are Jewish than South Africans were targeted because they were White.
The actions against Angela Davies have produced an immediate reaction and
caused Israel to be even more associated with White racism. When the cowardly corporate Directors of the
BCRI withdrew the Award they were immediately deluged by an avalanche of
protests. The Zionist Holocaust centre began backtracking and the Directors
were forced to resign including their Chairman, Mike Oatridge, a former Honda Executive.
As Palestine Legal, said
the rescinding of the Award put Davis on
"a long list of
scholars and activists who have been censored, fired, de-funded, defamed,
harassed and targeted with frivolous litigation because of concerted efforts by
the Israeli government and anti-Palestinian organizations in the U.S. to
silence debate."
The Zionist attempts to humiliate and
ban Angela Davies and the reaction to them are a sign of the increasing weakness
of political Zionism in the USA. Following on from their inability to promote a
Bill in the Senate making support for BDS akin to a crime and the recent
election of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a supporter
of BDS, the Zionist hold is beginning to weaken in the USA as the Jewish community
itself becomes more divided. For this we can thank, at least in part, Donald
Trump. Indeed according to Netanyahu, Evangelical
Christians are Israel’s best friends. For American Jews that isn’t true.
Tony Greenstein
January 10, 2019
 |
| Angela Davis, Photo Source: Courtesy of Columbia GSAPP. Creative Commons license // Birmingham Watch |
Birmingham City
Council
Contact: Chiara
Perry
Phone:
205-254-2036
The BCRI issued a statement saying “supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision,” and claimed Davis did not meet the criteria for the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.
It has since been reported that Davis’s long-time support of Palestine and calls for a boycott of Israel was seen as an issue for the BCRI board.
Councilor Steven Hoyt issued this statement during today’s City Council meeting regarding the matter (he later called for a resolution of support that was unanimously approved):
“I want to say something
about what we’ve experienced in the last couple of days since we learned on
Saturday that the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute decided to withdraw an
award that was to be given to Dr. Angela Davis.
It is absolutely embarrassing to withdraw an
award and it’s disingenuous that we would be selective in our measure of one’s
humanity without considering the totality of their lives. We are products of
our experiences, so where is the grace in this matter? She didn’t nominate
herself. The nominating committee deemed her worthy and now she’s not. All
money isn’t good money, especially if it’s contingent on a partial view akin to
“don’t shout until I tell you to shout.”
Where is the inclusivity? The Birmingham Civil
Rights Institute was founded principally to embrace all cultures and all people
from all walks of life. In the academic community, professors like Dr. Davis
have freedom. Colleges like UAB don’t agree with everything that every professor
says. But we are to respect their opinions because sometimes their teachings
can provoke new thoughts. So to judge someone by a portion of their work and
not the body of their work is just not right.
Here we are in a society where banks owned
slaves. Do we stop using those banks? We have former presidents who owned
slaves and yet do we not honor them as founding fathers of the United States of
America? So where is the grace? It’s disheartening and embarrassing that you
would judge a person by a segment of their life.
This woman lived it. A bomb couldn’t have gone
off at Center Street and she not experience it and yet we’ve forgotten about
that part. We let a few people decide how we celebrate the black community.
That’s an indictment. We all should be outraged because this was the epicenter
of civil rights. Her influence is international and this makes it look like
everyone respects her but us. She’s a champion for women’s rights, race
relations and here she has an opportunity to be honored by her hometown and
this is how it get’s handled. I’m embarrassed to serve in a city that would
support this.
George Wallace said “Segregation now,
segregation forever,” but he said he changed his heart. We accepted that and
there were a whole lot of black folks that voted for him to be governor.
But now we have this woman — I want to
emphasize, this woman, because they wouldn’t treat a man like that — and you
treat her wrong. It’s not right. You can’t mischaracterize a person for one
part of their life when their work is so broad and their heart is inclusive.
There are some things that are in the works
where the city still plans to honor her. She’s one of our daughters. It’s
important that young people know the body of her work. Not just a piece of it.
Sometimes it takes an outside voice. She’s gone into communities around the
world to bring awareness to humanitarian issues. Her entire life has been about
bringing civil rights to all people. And for that we must honor her and
celebrate the life of one of our own.”
This
press release was written by Cody Owens, Public Information Officer, in the
Birmingham City Council Office of Public Information. For media inquiries
please contact the Interim Director of Public Information, Chiara Perry at
205.254.2294.January 9, 2019
Birmingham Watch
 |
| Retired federal judge U.W. Clemon spoke during a Birmingham Committee for Truth and Reconciliation press conference in support of Angela Davis. Jan. 9, 2019. Source: Solomon Crenshaw Jr. // Birmingham Watch |
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s controversial
cancelation of its plan to honor civil rights icon Angela Davis continues to
generate aftershocks.
A grassroots collection of civic, religious, legal,
educational and business leaders announced Wednesday that it will honor Davis
in a day that will conclude with an evening event – A Conversation with Angela
Davis.
Earlier in the day, three members of the BCRI board of
directors announced their resignation from that body. Chairman Mike Oatridge,
first vice chairman Walter Body and secretary Janice Kelsey stepped away,
effective immediately.
In a joint statement, the three said it was an honor
to be associated with the institution, its leadership, staff and supporters.
“As members of this board, we regret the
circumstances surrounding the selection process regarding the 2018 Reverend
Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award and the dissension this has caused,” the
release read. “We care deeply about this
institution and its continued success. … It is hoped this move will enable the
City of Birmingham to create a board structure that will best enable the BCRI
to continue its critical mission in the future.”
The BCRI had chosen Davis to receive the Shuttlesworth
award during its annual gala next month. But several days ago, the institute
rescinded that offer and canceled the gala, saying in a statement that Davis “does not meet all of the criteria on which
the award is based.”
Standing in the middle of Kelly Ingram Park and across
the street from BCRI on Wednesday, members of the Birmingham Committee for
Truth and Reconciliation said it will honor Davis, a Birmingham native, on Feb.
16.
The committee, reconstituted from a civil rights group
active in the 1960s, includes 31 persons. Among its members are former
Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, retired federal judge U.W. Clemon,
Birmingham Times founder Jesse Lewis and Woke Vote founder DeJuana Thompson.
During the press conference, Thompson read excerpts
from an open letter to Davis, their “shero.”
“We want you to know that Birmingham stands
with you,” she read. “Dr. Davis, we
will not allow any denial of your life, legacy and impact around global human
rights to persist because we love you, we honor you and we will fight with
you.”
Clemon said later he did not know why BCRI had revoked
its invitation to Davis. He added that he thought the move was completely
inappropriate “and I so expressed it to
everyone that I know.”
“To the
extent that it was revoked, it was because of her position on the Palestinian
situation,” he said. “Her
views are identical to mine. I believe there is a longstanding injustice in the
Palestinian relationship with the state of Israel.”
AL.com reported having obtained a Jan. 2 letter from
Birmingham Holocaust Education Center to the board of directors of the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, expressing “concern and disappointment” with BCRI’s honoring activist Davis
with the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala and urging
the Institute to “reconsider your
decision.” AL.com reported that BHEC cited “recent outspoken support of the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
Reading from a prepared statement at the press
conference, retired circuit judge Houston Brown said Birmingham Committee for
Truth and Reconciliation believes,
“There can be no healing or
reconciliation of our deep divisions without truth and honest dialogue. We look
forward to celebrating Dr. Davis and honoring a true icon who once called
Birmingham home.”
Details of the Feb. 16 events will be released later.
“As far as the committee is concerned,
the events will be open to the public,” Clemon said. “We don’t anticipate there will be any charges to the public for contact
to Miss Davis.”
Birmingham Institute’s recission of Angela Davis award over BDS becomes an embarrassment to pro-Israel groups that applied pressure
There are two big stories involving Israel and BDS in
the American news this week. One is the Senate Republicans pushing a bill to
punish supporters of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and thereby divide the
Democratic Party.
The other is the uproar over the decision by the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to rescind an award to Angela Davis because
of the activist/scholar’s support for BDS, which one Birmingham Jewish group
claimed “targets the Jewish people excessively.”
Davis was to receive the Fred Shuttlesworth prize on
February 16. The BCRI changed its mind about the award, and canceled the gala,
because of what is being reported as pressure from the Jewish community.
The story is proving to be a giant embarrassment to
both the Civil Rights Institute and those Jewish organizations, showing the
overreach of the Israel lobby. Angela Davis is now being showered with praise
and the Institute is being condemned internationally; so much so that the top
three officers of the organization resigned
within days of rescinding the award (the chairman is a former Honda
executive). And one Jewish organization that applied pressure on the BCRI has
tried to back away from its own letter to the Institute!
Roy Johnson, a reporter for AL.com, summarized
the scandal on Roland Martin’s show.
This has been a big blow to the institute, it’s been a
black eye that certainly extends around the world, the coverage has been
global. You had to see some heads roll… The board is in the crosshairs of a lot
of people in this city.
Both the Birmingham City Council and the Birmingham
School Board made statements in support of Angela Davis, a native daughter of
the city. Davis will be honored at a “grassroots” event on February 16, Johnson
said; and it sounds like that event will be a gala of its own. “Organizations around the city are coming out
in favor of honoring Angela Davis.”
Johnson stated bluntly that the decision was a
mistake. He is still trying to determine “how
they came to this extremely bad decision, and what were the factors, what were
the pressures… and how they could not see this fallout coming.”
As for those pressures: “It came… due to pressure from Jewish organizations, from many Jewish
organizations in the city.”
Two of those organizations are the Birmingham
Holocaust Education Center and the Birmingham Jewish Federations. The executive
director of the Federations publicly
condemned the award on the organization’s Facebook page (a post later
removed, according to NPR). The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is surely
sensitive to the Federations because, according to federal nonprofit filings,
the Institute has received many gifts over the years from people who also give money
to the Federations.
As for the Holocaust Education Center (BHEC), Roy
Johnson reported at
AL.Com that on January 2, its board sent a letter to the Institute, in
which it “expressed concern and
disappointment” over the award and urged the Institute to “reconsider your decision.”
In the letter, obtained by AL.com, the organization cited
“recent outspoken support of
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, [which] is
very troubling as it targets the Jewish people excessively.
“We do not suggest that
Israel should be immune from criticism,” it continued, “but
BDS ignores gross human rights transgressions by other countries around the
world and focuses solely on Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.”
Johnson reported that the BHEC’s entire executive
committee and its director signed the letter but they are now trying to walk it
back.
“Our intention
was to go on record about our concerns in a private letter sent to BCRI
leadership,” [Board President Deborah Layman] said in an email to AL.com, responding to query about the
BHEC’s letter. “We had no further part in
the decision made by BCRI to cancel the event, and we were surprised at their
decision.”
Regrets they’ve had a few: “I haven’t run across anyone in the Jewish community that expected that
BCRI would comply with their request and then cancel their event,” Johnson said on
Roland Martin’s show.
The award had also been slammed in Southern
Jewish Life magazine, which headlined its story: “Prominent BDS activist Davis to receive Civil Rights Institute’s
Shuttlesworth Award,” and referred to Shuttlesworth as a “towering” figure in the civil rights
movement.
The embarrassment is resonating in terms of
black-Jewish relations, of course. The two groups were allies during the civil
rights struggle, but BDS is evidently pushing the mainstream Jewish
organizations apart from black institutions. And people are making the
connection between Davis’s rebuke and CNN’s
firing of Marc Lamont Hill because he had said at the U.N. that Palestine
should be free “from the river to the
sea.”
The list of casualties is a long one. I’d add history
teacher Joel
Doerfler’s resignation from the Riverdale Country School last spring after
he came under an onslaught of pressure for his pro-Palestinian views, mounted
by donors to the school who met privately with the American Jewish Committee to
coordinate their campaign. And of course the firing of Steven Salaita at the
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign after he had tweeted his outrage over
the Gaza massacre of 2014 and
the school’s chancellor sought to “appease
among others, pro-Israel donors.” The chancellor later resigned from UIUC
largely because of the embarrassment that case caused. But Salaita’s career was
in the process derailed.
The Angela Davis case looks to be different because
the pushback is so instantaneous, the embarrassment so keen, and the damage is
being experienced by the bad guys, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the
Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, and the Jewish Federations.
On that Roland Martin show, Joe Madison of Sirius XM radio says,
“It takes you back to the
60’s and even the 50’s… I’m just so glad that Fred Shuttlesworth is not alive
to see this.”
Rina
Shah Bharara says what Rashida Tlaib
says
(and is being unfairly maligned for saying), this is about the American
interest:
“Last I checked this is the
United States of America, it’s not Israel. This whole idea of defending Israel
at all costs is so confuses me on so many levels. I see it happening most out
of the right. It’s coming out of the left as well. The conflict between Israelis
and Palestinians… why we can’t inject our American ideals into this… and say
this is wrong.”
While William Spriggs, an economist at Howard
University says something we are bound to hear more and more as BDS breaks up
the Democratic Party’s traditional affiliation with Israel:
“It creates division within
the progressive community when we don’t need division.”
More responses. The NPR story on the case quoted Jewish
Voice for Peace:
To argue that Angela Davis is unworthy of a civil
rights award is beyond shameful. And to dance around the fact that it’s due to
her outspoken support of Palestinian rights makes it outrageous.”
A JVP Academic Advisory Council letter in support of Davis–
“The decision seems to stem
from a misinformed view that to advocate for Palestinian human rights is
somehow offensive to the Jewish community” —
has over 350 academic signatures. JVP is also
collecting signatures from non-academics.
And here is a National Lawyers
Guild statement:emphasizing the ways that the civil rights movement
inspired BDS.
it
is appalling that the award would be rescinded due to Dr. Angela Davis’s
support of Palestinian political prisoners, and the nonviolent Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The
BDS movement is part of a long tradition of freedom movements using economic
pressure as a non-violent tactic. This legacy is particularly strong in the
American South. In fact, Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the movement, points
out BDS was“ inspired partly by the American civil rights movement.” The
well-documented and internationally recognized violations of Palestinian human
rights by the Israeli government and military are an intentional consequence of
ideological, political, legal, economic, and military systems known better as
Zionism. BDS is not, and should never be
confused with, anti-semitism. Rather, it is our moral consciousness put into
action. Suggesting that BDS is synonymous with anti-semitism invisibilizes
Jews, including members of the NLG Southern Region, who oppose the state of
Israel’s human rights record and support BDS as a non-violent resistance
strategy. Palestine matters because
ending colonialism matters. Palestine matters because we must stand up and say
that all people have the right to dignity, and self-determination. Palestine
matters because the fight against global white supremacy won’t be over until
the structural inequalities throughout Israel/Palestine are addressed and made
right.
The NLG makes the obvious connection to the Republican
Party’s efforts to go after BDS, an effort many Democrats will surely join
after the shutdown ends!
This
week the US Senate attempted to bring bill S1 to the floor that
would attempt to silence the BDS movement and chill our freedom of speech. Dr.
Angela Davis has always spoken truth to power, and devoted much of her lifelong
activism to international solidarity. By
connecting U.S. grassroots campaigns against state violence and racism to
movement struggles in other parts of the world, Dr. Davis helps the world
become more intimate. She brings us closer to understanding the nature of
justice, and that the collective work needed to dismantle systemic injustice
requires that we call out all oppression.
I’d note that Alabama Senator Doug Jones was one of
four Democratic senators to side with Republicans on that BDS measure in a vote
two days ago. And Doug Jones is a former vice chair of the Birmingham Civil
Rights Institute. He surely feels much of the pressure that the BCRI did. I
imagine donors
are a concern for him.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please submit your comments below