Brown trans activists chased away because of anti-zionists

[Melech 9,900]

"This month, a student group at Brown University launched a petition to pressure Janet Mock into canceling her scheduled lecture on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus.

That the event was not about Israel or the Middle East, or that its sponsorship by other progressive groups on campus—including the Brown Center for Students of Color, Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, LGBTQ Center, Sexual Assault Peer Educators, Office of the Chaplains, and the Rhode Island School of Design’s Office of Intercultural Student Engagement—didn’t sway these students from arguing that Mock’s appearance would be implicit support for… some Zionist conspiracy?

The petition posted on Change.org—which Brown’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) later identified themselves as at least partially responsible for when defending it in a Brown Daily Herald opinion piece—argued that Mock shouldn’t speak at the event because Moral Voices (although privately funded) operates through the Brown-RISD Hillel. According to these students, “Hillel as a corporation has consistently defended and even advocated for the Israeli state’s policies of occupation and racial apartheid. Israel’s violent policies center on colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of native Palestinians,” and charges that it “has guidelines set in place to ensure that no speaker hosted by Hillel is allowed to rigorously critique Israel.”

Curiously, the last allegation actually links to a part of the Hillel International website that specifically states:

Hillel welcomes a diversity of student perspectives on Israel and strives to create an inclusive, pluralistic community where students can discuss matters of interest and/or concern about Israel and the Jewish people in a civil manner. We encourage students’ inquiry as they explore their relationship with Israel. We object to labeling, excluding, or harassing any students for their beliefs and expressions thereof. As an indispensable partner to the university, Hillel seeks to facilitate civil discourse about Israel in a safe and supportive college environment that is fertile for dialogue and learning.

Sadly, Mock caved to the pressure. Though the petition drew just 160 signatures, Mock canceled days before she was expected to speak on March 21 because, “We feel the focus of Janet’s work was lost leading up to the proposed event,” her representative reportedly told the Moral Voices organizers.

Way to go, student activists at Brown! You succeeded in creating a hostile environment that led to a trans woman of color being discouraged from sharing her voice and opinions. This all helped the Palestinian people how, exactly?

Brown President Christina Paxson expressed disappointment. “I respect her decision to avoid having her talk be overshadowed by an issue unrelated to her work. However, I am disappointed that a valuable learning opportunity was lost,” she said in a Sunday email to the student body.

In that same email, Paxson also referred to campus housing facilities that had been defaced. According to the Brown Daily Herald, “Gay will die” and “Holocaust 2.0” were written on hallway walls.

“I want to emphasize that there is absolutely no evidence that the cancellation of the Mock event is related to the homophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti that appeared,” Paxson wrote. “However, taken together, these two events are deeply troubling. They come at a time when the nation and colleges across the country are grappling with concerns about injustice against individuals based on religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender expression.”

Part of the arguments that these students used to dissuade Mock suggested that speaking at the Moral Voices campaign would ultimately hurt the LGBTQ community, serving as “part of Hillel’s [and Israel’s] pinkwashing campaign.” Confused about the connection? Many critics have tried to flip Israel’s record on LGBTQ rights, claiming that it touts these accomplishments as a way to distract from its treatment of Palestinians, aka “pinkwashing.” To that regard, James Kirchick wrote in Out in 2007 that, “The harassment and torture of homosexuals is a tried-and-true practice of the Palestinian Authority, and a burgeoning gay underground of refugee Palestinian homosexuals thrives in Tel Aviv, the gay capital of the Middle East.” So, make of the pinkwashing claim what you will.

Aside from the fact that pinkwashing is too often invoked when it is convenient for critics of Israel—the same ones rarely point out that many of Israel’s neighbors jail people for being gay—there’s an unhelpful, forced quality to tying all social movements together. “If you support X, then you must support Y” doesn’t always work, especially with nuanced social issues. For example, last year, students at New York’s Barnard College argued that full sexual-assault advocacy necessitated holding SJP’s highly critical view of Israel. As The Daily Beast’s Lizzie Crocker wrote, “The implication is that to be anti-sexual assault at Columbia, one must also be anti-Israel. Conflating those issues under a larger umbrella of oppression waters them both down individually.”

Read full here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/25/brown-students-shut-down-trans-activist-s-speech-because-israel.html

 

Nice, way to go to shut down trans woman of color 

[Melech 9,900]

@River @Dolev "Anti-Zionism is not harmful" 

[River 127,328]

@Simon if there is an "anti" before, it's always harmful.. except for antibiotics of course

Poor woman.. A Zionist and trans is a really bad combination that bringing more hate against her..

But what can you expect from people who only hates? they are anti peace, anti love.. anti everything that is not thinking the same as them..

[lego 44,165]

Very messy article and the title.

 

 

This was full petition

 

 

Accept Brown Students' Invitation, Not Hillel's

 

"As Brown students, we are very concerned about Brown/RISD Hillel’s sponsorship of Janet Mock’s lecture at Brown. Janet Mock, a Black & Native Hawai’ian trans woman, is a prominent advocate for queer people and people of color, which stands in stark contrast with Hillel and the Israeli state’s politics in two important ways:

1. Hillel as a corporation has consistently defended and even advocated for the Israeli state’s policies of occupation and racial apartheid. Israel’s violent policies center on colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of native Palestinians. Further, the Israeli government has been ignoring (and actively perpetuating) waves of anti-African violence in the past few years, recently including the mob shooting and lynching of an African asylum seeker and anti-African state-supported police violence.

2. Hillel’s Moral Voices campaign has chosen the topic of LGBTQ rights this year. This hides the fact that for decades, the state of Israel and Israeli advocacy organizations (like Hillel) have been engaging in pinkwashing, a strategy that tries to improve Israel’s image and rebrand it as a liberal, modern, and ‘hip’ country. By shifting the focus to a very narrow definition of LGBTQ rights (exclusively for queer Israelis and not for queer Palestinians), Israel uses pinkwashing to deflect attention from Israel’s colonization and occupation of Palestine, and the violence that is being carried out against Palestinians.

Currently, Hillel International has guidelines set in place to ensure that no speaker hosted by Hillel is allowed to rigorously critique Israel. This guideline is an incredible violation of the standards of free speech and academic freedom that is valued at Brown, and places restrictions on Janet Mock’s ability to engage with students.

We are asking that students sign this petition to remove Hillel’s sponsorship from the event. We are not asking for students to boycott the event, but simply do not want Janet Mock’s invitation to Brown to be part of Hillel’s (and Israel’s) pinkwashing campaign. We therefore ask Janet Mock to accept Brown students' sponsorship instead of Hillel's. 

 

***We would like to emphasize that Brown is also a colonizing force in its occupation Native land, specifically that of the Narraganset and Wampanoag people. Our aim here is to address the issue of pinkwashing: we do not condone the use of queer people of color as props to hide occupation.***

More information on Israeli pinkwashing: 

https://www.change.org/p/janet-mock-janet-mock-accept-brown-students-invitation-not-hillel-s

 

[Melech 9,900]

3 minutes ago, River said:

@Simon if there is an "anti" before, it's always harmful.. except for antibiotics of course

Poor woman.. A Zionist and trans is a really bad combination that bringing more hate against her..

But what can you expect from people who only hates? they are anti peace, anti love.. anti everything that is not thinking the same as them..

I mean surrounding countries are really LGBT* -friendly,right? 

[Melech 9,900]

4 minutes ago, YourSweet666 said:

 

2. Hillel’s Moral Voices campaign has chosen the topic of LGBTQ rights this year. This hides the fact that for decades, the state of Israel and Israeli advocacy organizations (like Hillel) have been engaging in pinkwashing, a strategy that tries to improve Israel’s image and rebrand it as a liberal, modern, and ‘hip’ country. By shifting the focus to a very narrow definition of LGBTQ rights (exclusively for queer Israelis and not for queer Palestinians), Israel uses pinkwashing to deflect attention from Israel’s colonization and occupation of Palestine, and the violence that is being carried out against Palestinians.

 

 

 

How dare Israel to have gay rights? How dare they? They should be rather homophobic, transphobic and sexist like the surrounding countries right? Israel is so mean that it granted asylum of an Iranian gay poet!!

Homophobia, transphobia is the new cool of anti-zionists. 

 

[lego 44,165]

1 minute ago, Simon said:

How dare Israel to have gay rights? How dare they? They should be rather homophobic, transphobic and sexist like the surrounding countries right? Israel is so mean that it granted asylum of an Iranian gay poet!!

Homophobia, transphobia is the new cool of anti-zionists. 

 

 

You might wanna stay on topic next time you quote me.

How convenient to leave out these important parts

"Further, the Israeli government has been ignoring (and actively perpetuating) waves of anti-African violence in the past few years, recently including the mob shooting and lynching of an African asylum seeker and anti-African state-supported police violence."

...

"petition to remove Hillel’s sponsorship from the event. We are not asking for students to boycott the event,but simply do not want Janet Mock’s invitation to Brown to be part of Hillel’s (and Israel’s) pinkwashing campaign. We therefore ask Janet Mock to accept Brown students' sponsorship instead of Hillel's."

 

 

Petitions like these are made all the time for all kinds of reasons, they didn't issue threats nor call for violence, read the petition again.

They just asked to "accept Brown students' sponsorship instead of Hillel's."

 

[Melech 9,900]

1 minute ago, YourSweet666 said:

 

You might wanna stay on topic next time you quote me.

How convenient to leave out these important parts

"Further, the Israeli government has been ignoring (and actively perpetuating) waves of anti-African violence in the past few years, recently including the mob shooting and lynching of an African asylum seeker and anti-African state-supported police violence."

...

"petition to remove Hillel’s sponsorship from the event. We are not asking for students to boycott the event,but simply do not want Janet Mock’s invitation to Brown to be part of Hillel’s (and Israel’s) pinkwashing campaign. We therefore ask Janet Mock to accept Brown students' sponsorship instead of Hillel's."

 

 

Petitions like these are made all the time for all kinds of reasons, they didn't issue threats nor call for violence, read the petition again.

They just asked to "accept Brown students' sponsorship instead of Hillel's."

 

I know Hillel very well. It also sponsors jewish college groups here. Hillel is by far not bad. I guess you didn't read this part: 

Hillel welcomes a diversity of student perspectives on Israel and strives to create an inclusive, pluralistic community where students can discuss matters of interest and/or concern about Israel and the Jewish people in a civil manner. We encourage students’ inquiry as they explore their relationship with Israel. We object to labeling, excluding, or harassing any students for their beliefs and expressions thereof. As an indispensable partner to the university, Hillel seeks to facilitate civil discourse about Israel in a safe and supportive college environment that is fertile for dialogue and learning.

 

On the first point. Yeah that is a problem but almost every non-African country has those problems. It's not only an Israeli problem. 

[TiphEret 1,320]

Well it's lucky that the USA has fixed all its issues with First Nation because otherwise no American association could sponsor that woman, they would distract people from the treatment of Native Indian in the US... oh but wait the US has not fixed these issues... 

For sure Israel should be criticized for the way they deal with Palestinian but automatically being against everything coming from them is a bit too much and stupid. Some should check themselves, they aren't the only country having issues like that.