Update on the Ilan Pappe Speaking Issue with California State University

 Reference is made to my previous post regarding the objection of the AMCHA Initiative to California State University sponsorship of speaking appearances of Ilan Pappe at three CSU campuses on behalf of the pro-Palestinian /anti-Israel point of view.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-california-state-university-system.html

In response to a letter to CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, a letter has been issued in defense of the appearances by the presidents of California State University campuses at San Luis Obispo, Fresno and Northridge.

Below is an e-mail response to AMCHA Initiative  from John Welty, President of CSU, Fresno followed by the aforementioned letter signed by three CSU campus presidents.




"At California State University, Fresno, non-state funds were used to provide support for the program.   Sponsors are:  Middle East Studies Program, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Reedley Peace Group and Fresno Center for Nonviolence." 

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Here is my take. As the AMCHA Initiative has pointed out, they do not take issue with the right of Mr Pappe to come and spout his opinion of the issue at the three campuses. What they object to is the use of state funding by the universities to sponsor his appearances. The above letter sanctimoniously talks of free speech.  That is well and good, but hardly the issue.

Mr Welty, in his email, says that non-state funds are being used and lists four organizations who are sponsoring the Pappe talks. Yet one of them is the Middle East Studies Program at CSU-Fresno.  Perhaps, I am misinformed, but it seems to me that a Middle East Studies program at any university is state/tax-payer funded.

Or should I say that it is funded by Saudi Arabia?

At any rate, the above letter, sanctimonious as it is, talks about how universities are charged with providing the free exchange of opposing ideas and all that stuff, yet what they really do is provide the pro-Palestinian point of view.

With all due respect to the three university presidents, all your talk of "teaching students to think for themselves", "hearing all points of view", "tolerating a wide range of views", etc, is a bunch of BS. You and your colleagues at other CSU universities are engaged in a one-sided narrative that favors the Palestinian narrative and demonizes the Jewish state.

The fact is that the Ilan Pappes of the world are free to come to American university campuses and say what they want-as it should be. Does that same right and courtesy extend to those who speak in favor of Israel, such as the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, when he came to speak at the University of California at Irvine?