Laura Flanders: Tony Kushner Denied Honors Over Palestine

[marmar]

via CommonDreams:



Published on Friday, May 6, 2011 by The Nation
Tony Kushner Denied Honors Over Palestine

by Laura Flanders


This week, the news hit that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, perhaps best known for his Angels in America, was being blocked from receiving an honorary degree from the City University of New York because of his views on Israel.

Kushner, who also has an honorary degree from Brandeis University, told Salon's Justin Elliott that this was an “unprecedented and pretty ugly experience."

Sadly, though, it's not that rare for academia to balk at support for Palestinians. Elliott notes that just this January, a Brooklyn College adjunct professor was fired—and later reinstated—after students and an assemblyman complained about his views. Last summer, GRITtv guest and fellow Brooklyn College professor Moustafa Bayoumi was the center of a controversy around his book, How Does it Feel to Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. And back in 2009, Joel Kovel visited us at GRITtv to discuss his termination from Bard College, which he believed was over his pro-Palestinian views.

It's notable that the same cast of characters turns up again and again in these stories. Bruce Kesler, a Brooklyn College alum, caused a stir in both Brooklyn College cases, and Jeffrey Wiesenfeld is the CUNY board member who blocked Kushner's honor. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/06-3

[karnac]

1. Ah speech has consequences,

That being said it is a travesty that a tiny vocal minority has so much pull. they essentially blackmailed the majority into acceding to their wishes.

All because a Jewish man refuses to adhere a doctrinaire z1onist line and take a more rational/humanist approach. the vast majority of Zs still admire the person..

[Ken Burch]

2. Tony Kushner supports Israel's right to exist.

That should be enough. And really, he shoudn't even have been required to support THAT.

It's inappropriate to use honorary degree awards to suppress dissent.

[trud]

3. Now who's the bigot?

"Mr. Wiesenfeld, who told The Times’s Jim Dwyer that some Palestinians are not human"