Chris Hedges is blackballed by Penn after likening ISIS to Israel
Philip Weiss
Chris Hedges was invited to speak at the University
of Pennsylvania. Then he likened Israel to ISIS, and got disinvited. At
Truthdig (12/21), he reports this latest scandal:
of Pennsylvania. Then he likened Israel to ISIS, and got disinvited. At
Truthdig (12/21), he reports this latest scandal:
I had been invited to talk next April 3 at the University of Pennsylvania at a peace conference sponsored by the International Affairs Association,
but last week after Truthdig published my column “ISIS—the New Israel”
the lecture agency that set up the event received this email from
Zachary Michael Belnavis, who is part of the student group:“We’re sorry to inform you that we don’t think that
Chris Hedges would be a suitable fit for our upcoming peace conference.
We’re saying this in light of a recent article he’s written in which he
compares the organization ISIS to Israel (here’s the article in question). In light of this comparison we don’t believe he would be suitable to a co-existence speaker based on this stance he’s taken.”Being banned from speaking about the conflict
between Israel and Palestine, especially at universities, is familiar to
anyone who attempts to challenge the narrative of the Israel lobby.
This is not the first time one of my speaking offers has been revoked
and it will not be the last. However, the charge of Belnavis and the
International Affairs Association that I do not believe in coexistence
between the Palestinians and Israel is false. I oppose violence by
either party. I have condemned Hamas rocket attacks as war crimes. And I
support Israel’s right to exist within the pre-1967 borders.
Here’s a portion of Hedges’s December 15th piece titled “ISIS–the new Israel”:
Its quest for an ethnically pure Sunni
state mirrors the quest for a Jewish state eventually carved out of
Palestine in 1948. Its tactics are much like those of the Jewish
guerrillas who used violence, terrorism, foreign fighters, clandestine
arms shipments and foreign money, along with horrific ethnic cleansing
and the massacre of hundreds of Arab civilians, to create Israel.
Antagonistic ISIS and Israeli states, infected by religious
fundamentalism, would be irreconcilable neighbors. This is a recipe for
apocalyptic warfare. We provided the ingredients.
