ZIONIST INSPIRED WITCH HUNTS CONTINUE AT AMERICAN COLLEGES

January 22, 2011 at 10:31 (Academic Freedom, Censorship, DesertPeace Editorial, Education, zionist harassment)

Mr. Kristofer Petersen is an active partisan of Palestinians in Gaza. As a recent graduate student, he has published his views in one of the most virulent pro-Palestinian forums and elsewhere, and I have found little else in his online record displaying either balance or a wider scholarly understanding of Israel and the Palestinians… His writings and associations point to an apparent one-sidedness with regards to the Middle Eastern issue of Israel and Palestinians.

One- sidedness? That accusation coming from folks who don’t even recognise the existence of the ‘other side’. How could atrocities be committed against a people that do not even exist?

In Kristofer’s own words…. Outside the academy, I worked for some time as a human rights activist in Gaza and the West Bank and I still maintain close contact with the Palestinian activist community.

Does it sound like he was trying to hide anything when he applied for his teaching position at Brooklyn College? The zionists make it sound like he did. One of them went as far as to write to the Department Chair of Middle Eastern Politics saying that; The key question is whether Mr. Petersen is capable of wide scholarship, balance, and presentations that will bring credit to Brooklyn College and not legitimate criticism from students, alumni or the public. I think it appropriate to have sympathy for Palestinians. However, there is much more to the complex story, as you must be aware. That is why careful and sober scholarly analysis and presentation is so needed. From Mr. Kristofer Petersen’s writings available online and his associations, it appears that this may not be what the students at Brooklyn College can be assured to receive.

Careful and sober scholarly analysis? In other words, the zionist point of view ONLY. For example, they continue with;

An indication of Mr. Petersen’s more supposedly serious work is the chapter Petersen recently co-wrote, Retooling Peace Philosophy: A Critical Look at Israel’s Separation Strategy in the book Peace Philosophy in Action. It is a polemic masquerading as scholarship. Petersen’s co-authors, Johannes Schmidt and Jacques Hirsh, are Danish academics. Hirsh is avidly anti-Zionist, writing in the Marxist periodical Monthly Review: “As the focus on the Holocaust evolved, it came to be seen as related to the transformation of the struggle for a secure Israel into one of an expanding and conquering state.” Schmidt is active in the international “peace” movement.

Petersen’s chapter presents Israel’s Zionism as a “philosophy of separation” and “ethnic separation” creating an apartheid state and so treating Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. “This chapter argues that the philosophy of separation is a logical extension of Zionism’s exclusionary ideological history and that its implementation in the Gaza Strip has not reduced the level of violence against Israeli civilians.” The chapter goes on this “has led some to draw comparisons with South African apartheid, a parallel that has become increasingly justified…”

Now, many within Israel forecast and most now see that Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from occupation of Gaza would allow the most violent among Gazans to take control, as Hamas did, and imperil Israel, as homemade rockets and the Iranian arming of Hamas has done. But, Petersen’s chapter treats the cause of Gazan violence against Israel as if it is Israel’s fault, somehow a consequence of ensuing Gazan poverty: “…Israel’s general security situation has actually worsened, roughly commensurate with the plummeting humanitarian conditions in Gaza.” There’s no exploration of the murders by Hamas of its Palestinian political foes, its authoritarian control of Gazan society, pocketing or use on arms of hundreds of millions of dollars a year of international humanitarian aid from the West, other Arab states avoidance of support for Hamas, or Hamas dedication from its inception to eradicate Israel.

Peace is a concept alien to the zionist ‘mind’, a threat to their very existence, therefore someone like Kristofer Petersen is a threat to them as was a Norman Finkelstein before him. Hopefully Brooklyn College won’t follow the example of DePaul University or be influenced by anything a Dershowitz might have to add to this particular situation.

I have personally known Kris for a number of years through his solidarity work in Gaza and the West Bank. His first hand knowledge of the situation here makes him the perfect candidate to teach in the Department he is connected with. His thoughts are there for all to see on his HomePage. He hides nothing about himself or his activities.  He is the type of friend that one can be proud of having. He is the type of teacher that a student can actually learn something from.

The report from Campus Watch can be seen HERE.

It is they that should be watched, not those that teach the truth.

Kristofer Petersen