Perplexing...

Engage, the British academic website that was set up to fight antisemitism and foil boycott attacks against Israeli academics, put up a post yesterday, titled:

Peace Now lecture banned from Hillel in Texas for opposing the occupation.

I read the short message that followed but found no information whatsoever about a lecture being banned due to any reason at all, let alone the ominous anti-democratic motive implied in the title. I left a comment to that effect in the comment thread but my comment was garbaged, (as anticipated).

I googled about for a bit but could find no useful information that could shed light on the mystery. This morning I sent an email to the Hillel Texas organization, asking them why the event was cancelled. A few hours later I received the exact same email message published (later, in the Update section) on the Engage website.

I understood from the email that the event was cancelled due to timing problems. I couldn't figure out why they waited for the last minute to find out about the timing problem, but I would attribute this more to incompetence than to some nefarious motivations. Especially since I know that Hillel is a mainstream organization, supportive of Israel and Jewish students in campuses.

The Hillel Texas response reiterates the organization's position that "Peace Now was not banned from Texas Hillel, and would not be. We are here to serve a diverse group of students with many opinions about how to keep Israel strong and safe."

Why would the Executive Director of Texas Hillel make that statement, if a day earlier he had banned the event for its political message? Why would he emphasize a commitment to diversity of opinion if he did not endorse this diversity? Does it take only a few emails from some anonymous readers and some British blog to change his mind and his organization's policies?

Why was the event represented by Engage as an exercise in silencing anti-settlements policies in Israel, when the majority of Israelis support this position anyway?

BTW, Rabbi Komerovsky's stated position of commitment to a diversity of opinion among pro-Israel advocates tallies with what Martha Nussbaum stipulated when she was "in charge of the "Civility Project", sponsored by [her university's] Hillel, whose purpose is to improve the climate of discourse on issues involving Israel and Palestine. ":

"... it's important, here, to construct fora for respectful public debate that include a wide range of positions, and, preferably, show that this range of positions cuts across the Jewish-Arab divide. The huge differences among Jews on this topic should surely be manifested, so that nobody can equate Jewishness with a particular political position".

It is quite distressing that a website so dedicated to fighting "antisemitism and the demonization of Israel" in all its forms, hues and nuances, should contribute to a baseless denunciation of an organization dedicated to the well being of Israel and to promoting peace with the Palestinians.

Engage's concluding "conciliatory" statement:

'It looks like things will be better at Texas Hillel in the future. It looks like an anti-occupation event will not, again, be cancelled at short notice for political reasons. " stands behind its title thesis in spite of having failed to support it with any kind of evidence. Perhaps such evidence exists, and is concealed from the readers, for whatever reason. In this case, it should be stated that the title draws on verifiable information which for certain reasons cannot be divulged. In absence of such mitigation, it is hard to know what to make of this whole post, why it was put up in the first place, and how it serves to fight antisemitism in Britain, or elsewhere.
__________

Update: Jewcy blog also reported this story in the same way, here.

When I asked in the comments: "What was the reason given for the Hillel's pull out?" I got this reply:

In correspondence forwarded to me a few hours ago from Texas Hillel, they say: "The entire program was scheduled "at the last minute," within only a few weeks of the event. A room was booked at Texas Hillel but not as part of our Israel group. Peace Now was not banned from Texas Hillel, and would not be."

The reason they originally gave, I don't know.

In any case, sounds like the future is bright(er). (My highlight)

So I guess my perplexity is doomed to remain unanswered. No one seems to know what was the reason for the cancellation. And still they speculate. I wonder who first circulated the report.