USG-funded speaker event draws criticism
Posted March 10, 2010 at 11:48 pm in News
Students from a variety of ideologies are coming together in protest of the Undergraduate Student Government’s decision to provide funding to help bring a controversial speaker to campus Thursday.
Students for Justice in Palestine has arranged to host Norman Finkelstein as part of Palestine Awareness Week. Finkelstein has argued that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust and his appearance on campus has raised eyebrows. Students are more concerned, however, about the source of funding for the event than about the event itself.
SJP submitted an application to USG’s Discretionary Funding Board for money to help bring Finkelstein to campus. The application met USG’s guidelines, and SJP was granted the requested funds. The Discretionary Funding Board money comes from the student programming fee — the $55.50 fee each student pays every semester.
Student organizations, including ’SC Students for Israel, College Democrats, College Republicans and several others, wrote and submitted a letter to USG expressing concern that USG was using student activity money to fund as controversial a speaker as Finkelstein, who they called a Holocaust-denier outside the realm of academia.
“We’re very opposed to him receiving USC money for his visit,” said Lauren Korbatov, director of public relations for College Republicans. “It’s like bringing a guy that said slavery never happened in the United States.”
Korbatov and others noted that they are not against freedom of speech; they simply disagree with the use of student funds in sponsoring some events.
“We support freedom of speech but we don’t support funding a speaker like this,” said Aaron Perman, vice president of College Democrats.
Shanel Melamed, president of ’SC Students for Israel, echoed this sentiment.
“My concern is that we go to a truly amazing school,” she said. “The money that we pay for the school and the student activity fee should be going toward civilized academic discussion … how can the school fund a speaker that supports violence against Israelis?”
Ashwin Appiah, USG’s treasurer, said USG makes funding decisions based on a set of guidelines, and Finkelstein’s visit met all the requirements.
“We stay neutral in the events that we fund,” Appiah said. “We do not judge on content. Every student deserves this money as much as the other.”
The issue was brought to the attention of the Office of Student Affairs, but Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Jackson said he was not involved in the decision to fund the event.
“It is not up to me, for example, to censor a program that our student government has agreed that they want to support,” Jackson said. “I’ve never censored a student event, and I’m not going to start now … Students would be very mad at me.”
Marwa Katbi, a member of SJP, said the group considered a number of speakers before choosing Finkelstein.
“He’s a speaker who can provide students with a different perspective on the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflicts from what people normally hear,” she said.
Finkelstein will speak about the contents of his latest book, This Time We Went Too Far, about the most recent massacre in Gaza and the different pressures within the Jewish community that challenge racist policies in Israel. Katbi said she hopes students will come out to hear the talk.
“With issues of controversy, it would be unfortunate if this opportunity to learn was bypassed for the comfort and convenience of the community,” Katbi said.
SJP expects about 100 attendees and has talked to university officials about preparing for any protests or acts of opposition, Katbi said. Though Finkelstein requests security not be present at his lectures, Department of Public Safety officials are aware of the situation and are prepared to intervene as needed.
Students not involved in the event or the protest expressed mixed feelings about whether or not USG should use the student programming fee to fund controversial events and speakers.
Melissa Gish, a junior majoring in chemistry, suggested that USG sponsor a debate to ensure views on both sides of the issue are heard.
Others, however, said they do not think USG should judge the content of events looking for funding.
“I think you can’t discriminate based on a person’s opinion,” said Swade Geiger, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering. “It’s up to us whether or not we listen to what he says. We give [USG] our right to decide who comes.”
USG has since responded to the letter from the student groups, explaining in an e-mail USG’s procedure for granting student organizations funding. But Melamed felt the e-mail was an “informal response” to their letter and did not address her concerns.
“For the school to fund an individual who is going to stand there and say that it’s OK for me to be killed is really, really scary, and I myself, I’m getting scared for my security,” Melamed said.
Correction: The original version of this article included an unattributed claim that Norman Finkelstein is said to be a Holocaust denier. Finkelstein has argued that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust, but he is not a Holocaust denier.
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This article is tagged: ashwin appiah, normal finkelstein, palestine awareness week, USG
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Before everyone continues to blast the lack of journalism ethics that may or may not exist in this article, before anyone continues to blast the author of this post, try reading Mr. Finklestein’s chapter in The Holocaust Industry, in which he himself without support calls Bernard Lewis on Page 69 of his new 2003 version a mainstream Holocaust denier..Lewis was fined one franc, after he wrote in a 1993 article that he believed the 1915 Armenian Massacres were mass murderers but not publicly sponsored by the government itself. .However he was not fined for his opinions, rather withholding the other side of the argument…Finklestein, a man for which many of here have decided to hold in such high esteem failed to a) share Lewis’ remarks from the article or his quotes after the proceedings and b) falsely reported why the French courts actually fined Lewis…So while this article may seem opinionated and biasis at its core, in your attempt to fight back you have defended a man, who in his most famous publication, committed the exact same offense of libel as you claim Ms. Stepney did.
“In fact, the one truly mainstream holocaust denier is Bernard Lewis. A French court even convicted
Lewis of denying genocide.” (p.69)
Wow, so its okay when the ‘SC Students for Israel and the College Republicans invite and get funding for David Horowitz, the same David Horowitz who ran an ad saying “the Muslim Student Association is a radical political group that was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring the jihad into the heart of American higher education.” and blaming blacks for slavery but its wrong when SJP invites a JEWISH scholar to talk about how people are talking advantage of the suffering of others.
You know, I didn’t care when they invited david horowitz, and I don’t care about this man either. I also don’t care if you oppose both of them coming to USC. But to glorify one and call the other a terrorist is hypocritical.
It’s refreshing that so many have spotted and jumped on the boring, trivial ‘Holocaust denier’ smear against Finkelstein. Free thinking is not dead at USC.
This libel is standard operating procedure for the organized Zionist ‘hasbara’ propagandists. They churn out these prefabricated attacks on every Jew who dares to question the way Israel treats the Arabs cooped up in its concentration camps in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Shoah has been so used and abused by these mouthpieces (many of them ridden with guilt because they feel safer in the USA than in the Zionist paradise, and will NEVER make aliyah) that it is ceasing to be a valuable bludgeon in their hands. Also failing is the equally tedious screeching of ‘antisemite’ at every American who dares to question our governments’ slavish devotion to the interests of one small foreign country.
The Founding Fathers warned America not to play favorites overseas, and to shun ‘entangling alliances’. How right they’ve been proved.
This is just really poor journalism.
It’s obvious now that this is astroturfing (“fake grassroots” in other words). The SJP loons are flooding the zone with pages and pages of PR messages meant to try and make anti-semitism seem like a mainstream view. Notice how Taylor (above) repeatedly insists that accusing the jews of racist massacre is “mainstream” and “uncontroversial”.
I’m sorry that you’re unable to distinguish between the claim that “the Jews committed a racist massacre”, a deliberate misrepresentation of the actual claims being made, and the claims that “the recent events in Gaza constitute a massacre” and that “racist policies exist within Israel, policies that Jews themselves, Israeli and American, are beginning to question”, and, in fact, have questioned for a long time. Again, if the mainstream is defined as views in line with the overwhelming international consensus, then, yes, the latter views are perfectly within the mainstream. If you have a better definition, I’d like to hear it.
Thank you to the editors of the DT for acknowledging that student funds should not be spent to fund a man that calls for violence against Israelis and has on numerous occasions denied the Holocaust. Imgaine if the USC College Republicans received USG funding for their Horowitz event – the outrage that would ensure would not even pale in comparison. Whereas Horowitz simply has strong opinions that he supports in facts, Finklestein denies one of the darkest chapters in human history. The double standard is disgusting and infuriating. On another note, I don’t know when it became politically correct to marginalize jewish and pro-israel students but we are headed down a very dangerous road when a univeristy such as USC funds a holocaust denier. SJP claims that they are not anti-semestic but when you hate a country full of Jews as much as SJP does, you are anti-semetic. Their hosting of Finklestien only further solidifies the virulent anti-semitism SJP perpetuates at USC. Shame on those who approved the funding. We say “Never again”…but do we really mean it?
Finkelstein does no such thing.
Many students at USC appear to be condemning Norman Finkelstein as a holocaust denier without ever having read any of his books or even looked at the evidence regarding what he says. These supposedly educated minds, the leaders of the College Democrats and College Republicans write letters to the USG just to reveal complete ignorance? I challenge any one of them to come to Finkelstein’s lecture and ask him any question. To be sure, the Students for Israel may be trying to promote ignorance, a couple of others I notice in the blog are promoting racism. They should stay away, they already have their minds closed. But what’s the excuse for the College Democrats and Republicans? I’m terribly embarrassed for this school, which should be a place of learning.
In response to Jack: ““For the school to fund an individual who is going to stand there and say that it’s OK for me to be killed is really, really scary, and I myself, I’m getting scared for my security,” Melamed said.
What..?”
Jack, he supports armed resistance against Israel, whether against civilians or military, and this is what he said about the rockets to Sderot
“what were those rockets but a message to a world “sos” we’re dying.”
That is justifying attempted murder. His justification is that it has a larger purpose, and that palestinians supposedly have no other choice. But essentially, really, Shanel is right. Finkelstein is saying for the sake of this “sos” message, hamas would be justified in firing rockets at her.
Now what happens when an idiot (many are displayed on this comment section) that says, O arms resistance is fine, but wait I’m not in Palestine right now, so what’s the closest thing—O, the head of students for Israel.
That’s laughably hyperbolic, and you know it.
“He is a Jew and if that is not enough I have no idea what is.”
Are you really that stupid? Do I even have to argue this?
Boycott, Divestment and Sanction for justice and peace!
How much do you want to be that the above commentator”James Cohen” is just a plant for anti-Semites to trash Jewish names. I mean at least make it SOUND real!
Idiots.
“For the school to fund an individual who is going to stand there and say that it’s OK for me to be killed is really, really scary, and I myself, I’m getting scared for my security,” Melamed said.
What..?
I have never had much esteem for DT in terms of journalistic professionalism since many of the writers are students, but this heinously disinformative piece shattered the last minuscule hope I had for DT to improve. Whether this horrendous disregard for factuality comes from the sheer unawares of the publisher on this highly sensitive subject or its bias par excellance towards alternative views on IPC, DT has hit the bottom with this “article.”
The real problem might be allowing ignorant people who say things like “Arabs should be removed from not only USC, but the United States altogether” into this university.
Joe,
I’m sorry, but, in form, both statements you address are identical, in that they are factual statements about things that have been said. The recent massacre in Gaza is, in fact, the topic of Finkelstein’s most recent book, and the fact that this is the topic of Finkelstein’s most recent book is the only claim being advanced. Similarly, the writer notes that Finkelstein is “said to be a Holocaust-denier”, and the fact that this has been said is the only claim being advanced. In this respect, they are both factual statements, and no one is disputing that; however, the claims are both lent legitimacy by their presence in the article, whether or not the writer made the statements themselves, and they, therefore, ought to be held accountable for that. One is a statement that is plainly false, completely unsupported by any evidence, and completely un-sourced, making it impossible to find such evidence even if it existed. The other is a statement on which the speaker has written an entire book, meticulously supported with credible well-sourced evidence, not to mention a prolific output of related material over the course of an entire career, and a topic that the speaker intends to expand upon in the course of his lecture. If you’d like to find out more about the legitimacy of his claims, you can attend the lecture and/or read his books, then decide for yourself; however, no such option is presented for determining the legitimacy of the claims that he is a Holocaust-denier or that he wishes harm to innocent Israelis. Still, this is considered an appropriate statement for the opening of the article, while the actual substance of Finkelstein’s argument is relegated to the end of the article. You ought to be intelligent enough to understand why the need is felt to object to this kind of sleight-of-hand.
Taylor, the DT refers to the “massacre” by the “racist” Jews without setting those words in quotation marks. The sentence in question takes it for granted that Israeli “racists” are out “massacring” people. They don’t say “it is said that…” — they just say the Israelis are murderous racists, and Finkelstein has written a book about it. Period.
This article, and the DT’s other writing about the Israel issue, all display a noticeable anti-Israel bias. Yet whenever they are called on it, it seems that half a dozen students for jew-killing in palestine (SJP) show up to denounce the DT as shamelessly pro-Israel. I don’t know if this is evidence of a desperate anti-semitic bias in their minds, where any article that doesn’t overtly call for a second Holocaust is seen as “pro-Israel”, or if it is a deliberate “astroturf” operation, where the SJP have decided to flood the internet with fake opinions to try and make people feel like their kooky views are mainstream.
Joe, this is called a paraphrase, and quotation marks aren’t needed, as it’s quite obvious that the author is merely describing the subject of Finkelstein’s book. Furthermore, the recent events in Gaza clearly constitute a massacre, uncontroversially so, and there are many explicitly racist policies within Israel, as Finkelstein meticulously documents in his book as well as many other publications throughout the course of a prolific career. Still, even if you have trouble accepting these views, despite the lack of any real controversy, it’s very easy to investigate further, assess the evidence which forms the purported basis of said views, and decide for yourself, whereas this is not an option for those wishing to investigate the claim of Holocaust-denial.
SJP has never called for “jew-killing in palestine” and a cursory review of their mission statement would indicate that such an appeal would directly contradict their most basic goals. Also, their views are squarely within the mainstream, assuming that the mainstream is defined as the overwhelming international consensus codified in international law for decades now.
Also, neither Finkelstein nor the writer of the article suggest that Israelis, in general, are murderous racists. The claims, attributed very clearly to Finkelstein, are that a massacre has occurred in Gaza, and that racist policies exist within Israel, policies now under scrutiny within the Jewish community. I’m sorry if you can’t understand the difference between this position, nuanced, well-supported, and uncontroversial, and the suggestion that “the Israelis are murderous racists”.