Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker
By Bob Small
We went to the Peace and Conflict Studies Speaker Series on Oct. 24, at Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore College.
There was conflict, though, and it was not peaceful.
The topic was Israeli Security Policy. The attempted speaker was Dr. Barak Mendelsohn from Haverford College and the Israeli IDF
However at the beginning, members of various protest groups left en masse chanting loudly. though not always in sync. Then continued chanting outside of the auditorium.
They did not have identification on their handouts. It’s not like we did it in the sixties, eighties, or even this century. The chants were incomprehensible but they made speaker in comprehensible too.
We worried about Jewish students in the audience, who might of felt fearful.
We learned some background from the Swarthmore College Phoenix;
The three listed organizing groups for and Oct. 12 event, and we assume, the Oct. 24 event were Swarthmore Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) which is the campus section of Democratic Socialists of America; and Swarthmore African-American Student Society (SASS)
There were three other unlisted groups implied.
Dr Sa’ed Atshan, the chair of Peace and Conflict series responded by e-mail, to my query about the disruption.
“Thank you so much for being present and for this feedback. We’d love to have you with us again in the future,” he wrote.
He was not present during this event. Frankly, we didn’t see any Swarthmore Public Security either albeit we were later told that they were there.
Now, being nothing if not thorough, I emailed Visualizing Palestine, which was named on the sign expressing my concerns. Visualizing Palestine. The conversation led to a contact with Visualizing Impact.
The best way to explain Visualizing Impact is that they provide the signs for Visualizing Palestine and would equally provide signs for a visualizing Israel group. They seem not to have any agenda except profit. For one of many critiques of this kind of group, see Pros & Cons of Data Visualization: the Good, Bad, & Ugly
Lastly, read Our Protests Should Be More Thoughtful in The Phoenix.
This said everything that I felt. Including “ But working to silence someone is never an avenue towards justice.”
I wanted to hear the questions to Dr. Mendelsohnn from the protesting group.
Swarthmore Protest Silences Israeli Speaker