A Zionist Goes to the University of Michigan Divestment Conference

An on-site reporting of the nefarious gathering of imbeciles who met at the University of Michigan for a divestment conference which seems more from the discussion like a war room to topple Israel. This report from elitzur and was found at Not A Fish

The propaganda in the lobby:
As expected, lots of loony stuff was on display. Publicity for the World Socialist Web Site, Larouche for President ("The UN Should Declare Bush Insane"), and various other conspiracy theories about the assassination of Malcolm X and some incoherent things about Zapatistas.

The first two speakers: "Tactical lessons from the struggle against apartheid"

(A) Colin Powell is not sufficiently in touch with his blackness
The first speaker was Mahdi Bray, an African-American activist who worked in the anti-apartheid movement during the '80s. He said that the American media equates all criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism, and that Israel is an "oppressive, racist, apartheid state." Then he said that Israel is a democracy, but that doesn't mean anything because America was too when it had slavery and Jim Crow. The occupation is all about economics and Israeli exploitation of cheap Palestinian labor, and thus the Palestinians are "the new nigg@#s" of the Middle East. Bray spoke to Colin Powell just before Powell made his last trip to the Middle East in April, and he told Powell that "we know the face of apartheid and racism in the American South, and I know you know that." He claims that Powell smiled and replied "it's complicated," which Bray said he accepts, but then he disregarded that by asking, "what's so complicated about freedom? Shouldn't everyone have that?" Then he told some stories about the suffering of African-Americans in the South during the '50s and '60s and said that eventually, rage builds up and people fight back. He did not mention suicide bombings, either the Palestinians' use of them or the African-Americans' non-use of them.

(B) Divestment will defeat the all-powerful state of Israel
Next was Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian activist and professor of Islamic law and history at UC-Berkeley. He started off by thanking the pro-Israel protestors of the conference for all the free publicity, such as the President of the U. of Michigan who publicly stated that the university will not divest from Israel. He called her "an obedient servant" without specifying whom she serves. Then he claimed that Israel "stands alone" in "legitimizing torture, assassination, ethnic cleansing" and many other nefarious things without mentioning that they are practiced widely around the world, particularly in the Arab and Muslim part. He said that Israel's supporters emphasize its similarities with America (democracy, free speech, etc.) in order to fool people into not scrutinizing its policies. Then he claimed, like the speaker before him, that Israel's being a democracy means nothing because America was a democracy when it oppressed its women, and also that Hitler was elected. He said nothing about whether Hitler's election led to a lack of scrutiny of Nazi policies or not. Bazian then claimed that Israel's supporters charge Palestinian supporters with anti-Semitism in order to close off access to civil institutions, but failed to mention exactly which institutions he had in mind (I can't think of any). He claimed that Al Gore used to be one of the leaders of Israel Bonds, which I don't believe. He praised the boycotts of Israeli academics going on in Europe and confidently predicted that the anti-Israel divestment campaign will succeed. He also said it was unjust that people who make donations to Israel can claim a tax write-off, but said nothing about tax write-offs for non-Israel-related donations.