Michael Oren – Sixteen Minutes to Palestine

Thoughts on the message U of Chicago administration sent to students affected by Israel’s invasion of Gaza

November 17, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 2 Comments

Administrators at the University of Chicago sent the following message to select students on campus following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip:

The Campus and Student Life division of the Office of International Affairs messaged a number of students on campus, including myself, urging us to take advantage of the University’s resources and support networks during these trying times. As the death toll tops four dozen, with so many children and one pregnant woman being among the fatalities, families in the Gaza Strip are calling for an end to Israel’s invasion and ongoing blockade of the territory.

From a campus body that can best be defined with one word — apathetic — and an administration that, quite frankly, hasn’t ever and probably won’t ever present the Palestinian narrative the way it does when Ehud Olmert and Michael Oren are free to speak on the work they’ve been doing to force Palestinians into submission (see: Operation Cast Lead, 2008-9), this is an unexpected and exceptionally thoughtful move that I’m sure many will appreciate. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Commentary, News Tagged With: Ehud Olmert, Gaza Strip, Israel, Michael Oren, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense, University of Chicago

UC Irvine student gov’t unanimously passes divestment bill challenging Israel’s human rights abuses

November 13, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 7 Comments

Almost two years after the Irvine 11 unprecedentedly faced criminal charges for verbally disrupting a speech by Israel ambassador Michael Oren, the student government at the University of California, Irvine passed a divestment resolution with a 16-0-0 vote.

The resolution, penned and proposed by UC Irvine students, requires the university to divest from corporations and businesses profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its systematic abuse of human rights. These companies include Caterpillar, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, among others.

The elected undergraduate student representatives also see the resolution as an opportunity for the university to engage and mobilize students to “protect human rights on a global scale,” according to Traci Ishigo, President of the Associated Student of UC Irvine.

UC Irvine is now the first university in California poised to divest from Israeli apartheid and occupation. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, News Tagged With: BDS, California, Irvine 11, Loyola University Chicago, Michael Oren, New York University, TIAA-CREF, UC Irvine, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago

Eighteen e-cards about occupation and apartheid

June 26, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 3 Comments

Parodies can be valuable when they force people to consider reality from a different perspective. But most of these e-cards aren’t parodies. It’s what millions of people have to live through every single day.

Families who come from both sides of Israel’s apartheid wall are not always permitted to be together. Husbands and wives are kept apart by concrete walls, checkpoints, soldiers, and residency laws aimed at subsiding a “demographic spillover”.

That’s what happened at the University of California, Irvine when the Orange County district attorney filed charges against eleven Muslim students for protesting and disrupting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech. Oren was attempting to justify the murder of over 1,400 civilians in Israel’s 2008-2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The last few times Israel and the Palestinian Authority met at the negotiations table, among Israel’s many preconditions (continuing settlement building, maintaining control over the West Bank, maintaining the Gaza blockade, etc.) was that the PA not have any preconditions of its own. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commentary, Miscellaneous, Visual Arts Tagged With: Avigdor Lieberman, Desert Bloom, Irvine 11, Michael Oren, Occupation, Parody, Settlements

U of Chicago SJP’s Oren protest makes newspaper’s front page

April 3, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 1 Comment

The caption is straightforward enough. “Student and community protestors gather[ed] outside International House, where Israeli ambassador Michael Oren spoke Monday afternoon about a global response to Iran’s nuclear program, settlements in the West Bank, and his country’s standing abroad.”

After one particular campus administrator attempted to cage protestors behind something to the equivalent of a plastic Fisher Price playpen and after at least two other administrators unsuccessfully tried to keep protestors from utilizing public sidewalks, it comes as quite a surprise to see this photograph on the front page of the University’s newspaper.

The best part of it all is that the posters, at least the two on the right, are easily readable and pretty much sum up the point of the protest. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Local Events Tagged With: Michael Oren, Protest, SJP, University of Chicago

‘U of Chicago wanted us to protest behind a cute little playpen’: Report-back from Oren protest

April 2, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 6 Comments

On Monday, April 2, the University of Chicago hosted Israeli ambassador Michael Oren to speak to a crowd at the International House about how Israel and America share parallel struggles and how relations between the two countries will determine whether or not the Middle East will ever see peace.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Chicago worked with students and community leaders to organize an emergency protest. The following is a report-back of what took place.

Before the event

The event was scheduled to begin on a Monday at 4:15 pm before the 9-to-5 workday even ended. The inconvenient timing of the event could have been a glaring sign that administrators and event organizers had consciously attempted to outmaneuver any expected protests. Nevertheless, SJP members and protest participants gathered at the appropriate location and at the appropriate time.

We were met by two UCPD officers, one uniformed and one plainclothed. Eric, the plainclothed officer, directed our attention to a plastic yellow fence across the street and all the way at a corner of a public park. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Local Events Tagged With: Michael Oren, Protest, SJP, University of Chicago

U of Chicago, Oren’s newest propaganda playground

April 2, 2012 By Sami Kishawi 1 Comment

After inviting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to speak about leadership and peace just months after authorizing a brutal invasion of the Gaza Strip, it comes as no surprise that the administration at the University of Chicago welcomes Israeli ambassador Michael Oren with open hands.

At this university in particular, discourse concerning Israel’s occupation of Palestine is typically circumvented or distastefully kept under the radar. Instead, campus administrators feign objective neutrality and, for once afraid to challenge the status quo, make it a point to “show both sides” by presenting students with state-sponsored propaganda that virtually absolves Israel of any regional responsibility.

We saw this firsthand in October 2009 when the University invited Olmert to speak about moral leadership even though he faced indictments for criminal corruption charges. Asked about his idea of a lasting peace, he failed to mention that he had recently called for “disproportionate” assaults against the Palestinian people.

We saw this again earlier in the week when the University invited Oren to solicit American support in his campaign to whitewash Israel’s abuse of Palestinian rights.

Oren is currently on an extended tour of college campuses. His purpose at each campus is to draw parallel’s between U.S. democracy and Israel’s Jewish democracy and to stress the importance of the U.S. as a staunch ally and military financer. Organized by Israel’s Consulate General, his talks are blatant attempts to put Israel in a favorable light without ever considering its policies towards Palestinians under its occupation. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Local Events, Opinion Tagged With: Apartheid, Ehud Olmert, Gaza, Hebron, Human Rights, Michael Oren, University of Chicago, West Bank

Was Oren really denied a voice? SJP responds to Irvine 11 convictions

September 25, 2011 By Sami Kishawi 1 Comment

Students for Justice in Palestine has released a statement in support of the Irvine 11 students charged with conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. What makes this statement particularly impressive is not just SJP’s understanding of its responsibility as a model awareness organization on college campuses but also its ability to rush to the sides of other activists while allocating almost all of its resources to the organization of a national conference.

The statement, which can be found in full here or at the end of this post, makes a number of important points. My personal favorite deals with the claim that Oren was kept from delivering his message.

It is inconceivable to suggest that Ambassador Oren, who has published four opinion-editorials in the New York Times alone and can easily command the attention of newspapers and television crews, has been denied a voice. On the other hand, it is routine for Palestinians to be silenced by the military and government that he represents without any media attention. The Irvine 11 shed light on the Palestinian voices constantly excluded from the media and public discourse.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism Tagged With: Irvine 11, Martin Luther King Jr, Michael Oren, SJP

Irvine 11, FBI raids, and the end of a civil rights era in America

September 23, 2011 By Sami Kishawi Leave a Comment

On September 24, 2010, the FBI raided the homes of almost two dozen activists in Chicago and Minneapolis as part of an investigation into alleged links to terrorist groups in the Middle East and South America. Needless to say, most of the suspected activists were involved in prominent grassroots campaigns for Palestinian rights.

Almost an entire year later, on September 23, 2011, an Orange County court in Southern California found ten more activists guilty of conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California – Irvine a year before. After months of disputing the undisputable right to free speech, the Irvine 11, as the students are popularly called, were each sentenced to three years of probation, 56 hours of community service, and an assortment of fines.

Although the two cases appear at face value to differ in magnitude — one being a federal terrorism case and the other being a misdemeanor case of sustained verbal interruptions — they share a common thread: the strategy to silence those brave enough to overturn the establishments that legitimize injustices abroad, nonviolently of course.

There is no need to play the victim card when there can be absolutely no doubt that Palestine, its supporters, and the very essence of justice are all under siege in the United States. Solidarity workers for a free and secure Palestine are typically demonized as rogue, reactionary, and ill-intentioned “activists”. Campaigns for Palestinian rights and liberties are regularly perceived as institutionalized attempts at destroying any hope for Jewish existence. Within the context of American foreign (and now domestic) policy, being pro-Palestine has become synonymous with being anti-Israel — or worse, being anti-humanity. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Commentary, News, Opinion Tagged With: Civil Rights, Ehud Olmert, FBI raids, Irvine 11, Israel, Michael Oren, Palestine

All of the different Irvine 11 verdicts

September 23, 2011 By Sami Kishawi 1 Comment

A verdict has been reached. All ten of the Irvine 11 students have been found guilty on two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California – Irvine in February 2010. The ten students have each been sentenced three years of probation, roughly $200 in fines, and 56 hours of community service, according to reports.

But that wasn’t the only verdict reached today.

The court’s decision complements traditional American policy towards Israel and its supporters. The excuse that Israel is forever under existential threat has embedded itself within the framework of the Constitution of the United States. First Amendment rights are no longer guaranteed if an individual is tried for being on the wrong side: for not supporting Israel’s policies in the Middle East, its occupation, its abandonment of the most fundamental form of justice, or its perception of public nonviolent dissent as institutionalized death-wishing festivities. So in a very obvious sense, the real verdict is that Israel’s interests stand above the right to express, to speak, to engage, and to openly challenge the injustices legitimized by Oren’s words.

In another relevant and disturbing perspective of the verdict, the court’s decision reflects that “Muslims are permanent foreigners, at least in Orange County,” according to Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. In yet another blow to Muslim freedoms and civil liberties here in the United States, the ten students have been publicly denied their right to free speech. The Muslim Students Association chapter at UC Irvine will continue to face both legal scrutiny and a heavily watchful eye — unnecessarily and undeservedly, of course — from campus authorities and anti-Muslim groups in the area. This entire case has become a breeding ground for the most virulent and bigoted anti-Islam sentiment enthusiastically shielded by the courthouse’s roof (and, ironically, the principle of “free speech”). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Activism, Commentary, News Tagged With: Free Speech, Irvine 11, Michael Oren, Muslim Students Association, UC Irvine

Special ‘thank you’ to Michael Oren

August 26, 2011 By Sami Kishawi 2 Comments

Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren hosted an iftar on Thursday for Muslim American leaders in an attempt to bridge what he sees as a growing divide between Israel and America’s Muslim community. Says Oren, “Israel is a country with a large and respected Muslim minority. I just got back from Jerusalem two days ago and it’s all decorated for Ramadan. They’re an important part of our society.”

I assume he expects to be applauded for being one of the first international politicians to quell Islamophobia once and for all. That said, we must give him due credit.

Thank you, Mr. Oren, for inviting Muslims to a dinner in America as your way of combating anti-Muslim sentiment in Israel.

Thank you, Mr. Oren, for seeing through the smoke and realizing that the illegal military occupation of Palestinian land is really just the result of a misunderstanding between American Muslims and Israeli Jews.

Thank you, Mr. Oren, for studying the Qur’an in graduate school and being qualified enough to dictate how Muslims should respond to Israel’s actions. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Commentary, News, Opinion Tagged With: Iftar, Jerusalem, Michael Oren, Ramadan