According to Rector Professor Timothy van der Hagen’s Lackey I Posed a Threat to Delft’s ‘open and inclusive’ community unlike Lockheed Martin’s Admiral James O Ellis
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The
Rector’s anonymous lackey was curt, short and to the point
‘The
views of the invited speaker goes against the values that TU Delft stands for:
an open and inclusive community where everyone feels safe.’
There
was of course no explanation. The Rector’s lackey merely referred to the guidelines
for demonstrations on the TU Delft Campus and the Code of Conduct. ‘gatherings on the TU Delft premises in
which these values are violated are not permitted.’
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Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
There
was of course no explanation as to which parts of the Code had been infringed
nor why. This is how bureaucracies work. I was banned for being a Jewish
anti-Zionist. We could of course guess that my presence was as welcome at a university
liked Delft as a ham sandwich in a synagogue! But this is mere speculation.
Admiral James O Ellis, a warmonger extraordinaire is welcomed to Delft by its Administration
Two
weeks before I spoke Admiral
James O Ellis, who was on the Board of Lockheed Martin (2004-2024)
was invited to speak at Delft. Lockheed Martin is one of the largest arms
companies in the world, whose fighter aircraft have been prominent in the shredding
of children in Gaza and in committing genocide.
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Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
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Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
Ellis
was considered a suitable speaker whose presence was quite compatible with the ‘values’ of their code of conduct. Clearly
the code
of conduct which I was held to be in potential breach of had nothing to say
about warmongers and supporters of genocide.
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Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
I
was only travelling to The Netherlands because an old friend, Sue Blackwell,
who had been prominent
in the launch of the Academic Boycott in Britain in 2005, was getting married
to Egbert Harmsen.
Both are involved in The Netherlands BDS. I let it be known that I was happy to
speak to meetings while I was there and one was arranged at Delft
University of Technology, the largest technical university in the country, ranked
no. 49 in the world’s rankings.
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Activists
in the Palestine Collective at Delft therefore faced a dilemma, whether or not
to go ahead. Understandably some were worried about attempts to victimise them
but in the end it was decided that I would speak on the steps of their
impressive library and that is what I did to a crowd of about 100 students.
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Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
In
his profile
the Rector of Delft, Professor van Der Hagen, stated:
The most
important task of TU Delft is to make a contribution towards building a better
society.
I
felt sure that despite being professor nuclear physics he had a broad mind and
would countermand his flunkeys. It was
not to be.
When
I learnt that I was banned from speaking I decided to write Hagen an Open
Letter which students distributed around campus. I’ve always believed in going
to the organ grinder rather than the monkey.
I
explained that there was a genocide taking place in Gaza with the murder of 16,000+
children about which Israeli
soldiers have boasted. I also explained that the Netherlands
has a long history of colonial war crimes and in banning speakers exposing Israel’s
war crimes, in which his university is intimately involved, given its
collaboration with Israeli universities, he wasn’t setting a good precedent.
I
pointed out that I had recently brought out a book Zionism During the Holocaust which explains the relationship of the
Zionist movement towards anti-Semitism and the Nazis during the holocaust.
It is this which Delft’s thought police are trying to suppress. Genocide in Gaza does not come from nowhere. Zionism has always been a movement of racial supremacy.
I
pointed out that my book carries blurbs from Ilan Pappe, Professor of Middle
East History at Exeter University; Richard Falk Professor Emeritus of
International Law at Princeton University and Professor of Global Law at Queen
Mary College, London; Moshe Machover, Emeritus Professor at King’s College,
London as well as Ken Loach, twice
winner of the Palme d’Or. All the aforementioned academics are Jewish and
two of them are Israeli.
I
felt sure that the good professor would take note and rescind my banning. I
also pointed out that famous Jews such as Einstein, Hannah Arendt and Sigmund
Freud had opposed the nationalist madness of Zionism in their time and warned
of the consequences.
Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University
I
also pointed out that contrary to the usual jibe of ‘anti-Semitism’ which is
directed against opponents of Zionism, it is the anti-Semites themselves who
are the best friends of Zionism. Indeed it was leading Nazis who were most
fulsome in support of Zionism, because they both shared the belief that Jews
did not belong in Germany. I quoted Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi
Party’s theoretician, who was hanged as a war criminal
at Nuremberg, who wrote in
1919 that
‘Zionism must be vigorously supported in order to
encourage a significant number of German Jews to leave for Palestine or other destinations’
Mientje Meijer - the leader of the sewing girls strike
I
pointed out that in Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, 75% of the Jewish
population was exterminated. This was despite the fact that in February 1941 Dutch
workers staged the Amsterdam
General Strike, the only strike in Nazi occupied Europe against the
deportations. The working class of The Netherlands was magnificent but not so
the Dutch state. The strike was savagely repressed with 389
being deported to Mauthausen concentration camp where most died.
Dutch Nazi Collaborators from the NSB
The
Dutch state, the Blue Police and its academic functionaries, collaborated
extensively with the Nazi occupiers. The Dutch civil service produced
an identity card which was almost impossible to forge making the life of Jews
in hiding extremely difficult. The Dutch
State adopted
the Aryan Paragraph which deprived Dutch Jews of citizenship and allowed the
deportations to be legally carried out. Jewish Supreme Court judge Lodewijk
Visser was removed without protest from fellow judges
from the Court by the Nazis.
In
The Netherlands the Nazis set up a Jewish Council, the Joodsche
Raad, under David
Cohen, a leading Zionist official and Abraham Asscher. They assiduously
compiled lists on Jews to be deported and carried out the Nazi instructions
faithfully.
After
the war Willy Lages, Commander of
the German Security Police, was asked ‘How
was the Jewish Council used?’ to which he replied, ‘In every possible way.’ To the question
‘Did you find them easy to work with?’
he responded, ‘Very easy, indeed.’
By
way of contrast in France, where the Communists led the resistance and
organised the rescue of Jewish children in particular, 75% of the Jews were
saved. In Belgium half the Jews were saved. In both of these countries the
Judenrat were forcibly prevented from operating and in Belgium its leader Robert
Holcinger was executed by the resistance. Tragically the Joodsche Raad was not terrorised.
The Rector of Delft Professor Timothy van der Hagen
I
explained all this to Rector van der Hagen but to no avail. I pointed out that
his own University, Delft had a magnificent record.
Its
students were the first to protest and strike on 25 November 1940 against the
Nazi order 1940 barring the employment of 6 Jewish professors. When Professor Joseph
Jitta was barred from giving his final lecture, the students decided to boycott
his replacement. But as this report
explains
‘While the Rector tried to prevent the strike
the next day, the lecture hall seats on 25 November were virtually empty.’
It
seems that the current Rector at Delft has a predecessor who did everything in
his power to prevent solidarity by the students with a Jewish professor. The
parallels go even further. His worthy predecessor did all he could to bar Jews from
Delft’s campus and Prof. Hagan has approved the banning of a Jewish anti-Zionist.
A plaque to Frans van Hasselt, a Delft student murdered by the Nazis in Buchenwald - the present Rector has ignored the history of the anti-Nazi struggle at Delft in favour of wining and dining arms merchants
Most
Jews in Europe before the holocaust were anti-Zionist. One of the reasons that
the Zionists say little about Anne Frank is because in her diaries she didn’t
dream of going to Palestine but living in a free Netherlands.
One
of the University’s students, Frans van
Hasselt, who inspired the strike with a rousing speech, was arrested by the
Nazis the following April. He was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where
he died.
Dutch fascist leader Geert Wilders is welcome at Delft
I
also asked Van Der Hagen whether in view of the ban on me he would also ban Geert
Wilders from campus. But I guess not as it would appear that it is only Jewish anti-Zionists
and supporters of the Palestinians, not fascists who are banned.
I
also explained to Professor Hagen that the Nazis began with ethnic cleansing
and ended with genocide and that is now the path that the Israeli state is taking
with the complicity of the Dutch State.
I
quoted
Heinrich Heine who once remarked that ‘those
who burn books will in the end burn people.’ It turned out to be prophetic
and I offered to send him a copy of my book in order that he might have the
opportunity of burning it.
I
ended my letter by thanking Rector Magnificus Van der Hagen for what he and his
flunkeys had done.
If I had been
allowed to speak on campus perhaps 50 people would have heard me. As a result
of your actions hundreds if not thousands will.
On
Monday morning I arrived early on campus to meet with the organisers and have
lunch. At close to 1 pm the meeting began on the steps of the library since we
had been barred from any meeting rooms. About 100 students stopped to listen to
this hastily organised meeting, literally at one day’s notice. I was introduced
by Sue Blackwell who also finished the meeting. I took questions from anyone
who wanted to ask one. Unfortunately so far only half an hour of the meeting
has been caught on film though more may be available later on.
Tony Greenstein speaking from the steps of Delf's library
I
also sold over 20 of my books to students who were interested in learning the
history of the holocaust that is not taught in the Dutch or Western education systems.
How the Zionists, who never hesistate to use the Jewish holocaust against the Palestinians
and their supporters, were a quisling movement who betrayed the Jews of Europe.
I
ended my speech to the students by saying that although Israel claims it
inherits the memory of the Jews who died in the holocaust in reality it
inherits the memory of those who killed them. That today, just as in the past,
it is the anti-Semites above all who love Israel – from Geert Wilders in The
Netherlands, to Marine Le Pen in France to Germany’s Alternative for Germany.
After
the meeting two Jewish Zionist students came up to me. They didn’t seem
particularly afraid for their safety and asked me the usual Zionist talking
points – why there were no Arab democracies and about the collaboration of the
Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler. My
response was simply that US imperialism which backs Israel has done its best to
ensure that democracy doesn’t exist in the Middle East as their main interest
is oil. Israel has helped them in that task. As for the Mufti, well he was appointed
by Britain’s Zionist High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel in 1921 despite
coming fourth in elections.
It
wasn’t the Palestinians who elected him but the British and the Zionists!
Nonetheless it was a common feature of the struggle against colonialism that
the resistance adopts the position of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ although
in fact thousands of Palestinians did serve in the British army during the war,
unlike the Zionists who until near the end abstained from the war effort.
I
also asked how it was that the Zionist terror organisation, the Stern Gang made
not one, but two offers
of military co-operation to the Nazis?
One of their leaders, Yitzhak Shamir twice
became Prime Minister of Israel and today the pro-Nazi leader, Yair Stern, is
honoured in Israel. Postage stamps in his honour, streets are named after
him. There is even a town, Kochav
Yair.
However
this meeting was important because it said that come hell or high water we will
not allow the Dutch state and its academic servants, who collaborated so
willingly with the Nazis during the war, to prevent our right to speak out. I
have made it clear that I am happy to come back and speak if the students wish
me to and to speak at other universities in The Netherlands too.
What
the determination of the students at Delft proved was that the enemies of free
speech on Palestine will back off when they are confronted because they have no
arguments. They refer to codes of conduct and peoples’ safety all the while
entertaining US Generals and Admirals and others who profit from death and
destruction. Our message should be that
The racists and the imperialists will not silence us
My
thanks go out to the students at Delft University and all those who helped make
this meeting a success. Now let
Professor van der Hagen live up to his words about making the world a better
place by cutting his ties with Israel’s complicit universities and its
military-industrial complex. Actions
speak louder than words.
Tony
Greenstein
