American Association of University Professors knowingly lies about Zoom, loses its credibility

The NYU - American Association of University Professors issued a statement about Zoom denying PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled on their platform.

10/23/2020

Today, Zoom unilaterally shut down a webinar hosted by the NYU chapter of the AAUP, and co-sponsored by several NYU departments and institutes. The webinar was scheduled to discuss the censorship, by Zoom and other big tech platforms, of an open classroom session last month at SFSU, featuring the Palestinian rights advocate Leila Khaled.

Of course, we recognize that it is an act of sick comedy to censor an event about censorship, but it raises serious questions about the capacity of a corporate, third-party vendor to decide what is acceptable academic speech and what is not.

The shutdown of a campus event is a clear violation of the principle of academic freedom that universities are obliged to observe. Allowing Zoom to override this bedrock principle, at the behest of organized, politically motivated groups, is a grave error for any university administration to make, and it should not escape censure from faculty and students.

The NYU administration has told us they knew nothing about Zoom’s decision, and that they have taken up the issue with the company’s representatives. We urge the administration to issue a strong statement denouncing this act, and to revisit the terms of its contract with Zoom.

If Zoom will not walk back its policy of canceling webinars featuring Palestinian speech and advocacy, college presidents should break their agreements with the company.

The AAUP chapter is committed to organizing an event for the NYU community to discuss this appalling breach of academic norms.

Back in ancient times of a couple of decades ago, university professors were expected to tell the truth. It seems to be a minimum requirement for the job. But at NYU, the AAUP seems to be allergic to veracity.

Nowhere in this letter does it say the reason Zoom does not allow Leila Khaled on its platform. This is strange because anyone can read Zoom's Prohibited Use policy:

Prohibited Use. You agree that You will not use, and will not permit any End User to use, the Services to: ... use the Services in violation of any Zoom policy or in a manner that violates applicable law, including but not limited to ...anti-terrorism laws and regulations...

Hosting and promoting a terrorists violates anti-terrorism laws.  

The reason is because Khaled is a member of a terror group, not because she is an advocate for Palestinians.  

When the NYU-AAUP says Zoom has a policy of "canceling webinars featuring Palestinian speech and advocacy," they are not only lying - they are knowingly lying. There are plenty of pro-Palestinian Zoom meetings, every single day. 

Almost as bad is saying that Zoom is "censoring" anything by adhering to its own rules against using the platform for terrorism that it has had in place since 2012. 

The AAUP, with this statement, has destroyed its credibility - in support of an unrepentant terrorist and current member of an active terror group.

Not to mention that the AAUP has not, to my knowledge, ever said a word in support of academic freedom when  gangs of Israel-haters who disrupt lectures and speeches by Zionists or Israelis. This only becomes a "bedrock principle" when a terrorist is affected. Which is its own kind of sickness.

(h/t Andrew P)

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"Palestinian Feminist Working Group" shows no interest in women's rights for Palestinians

A recent Mondoweiss article by the "Palestinian Feminist Working Group" sheds some light on how hate for Israel is often disguised using liberal buzzwords that have nothing to do with the actual agenda of these groups.

The article is typically ridiculous - it pretends that Zoom, YouTube and Facebook's pulling the plug on a conference featuring a proud terrorist Leila Khaled was about censorship and a silencing of Palestinian feminist voices when it was simply adhering to existing US anti-terrorist and sanctions laws. 

It goes on to justify Palestinian terror as "resistance" and defining everything Israel does as terror.

This is the first appearance of this group, which is what makes it interesting. The group has no website. It describes itself this way:

The Palestine Feminist Working Group is a U.S. based network of Palestinian and Arab feminists who are committed to ending all forms of Zionist colonial and gendered violence and oppression. We believe that social liberation is a critical component of Palestinian national liberation. The working group was founded by the Palestinian Youth Movement’s (PYM) Women’s Committee. To learn more about our work and/or to join our efforts contact us at Palestinianfeminists@gmail.com

Note that it doesn't say a word about feminist issues in the Palestinian controlled territories at all. The supposed feminism of this group begins and ends with attacking Israel. 

Many of the people signing this article are academics at US universities:

Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Rutgers University

Dr. Sarah Ihmoud, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, The College of the Holy Cross 

Dr. Hana Masri, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Maisa Morrar, Physician Assistant and member, Palestinian Youth Movement

Dr. Loubna Qutami, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, UCLA

Basima Sisemore, Researcher, Othering & Belonging Institute, UC Berkeley 

Randa M. Wahbe, Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology, Harvard University

Yazan Zahzah, MA in Women and Gender Studies, San Diego State University

Leena Odeh, J.D., The Decolonizing Race Project

Isn't it strange that these "Palestinian feminists" have so little interest in feminist issues in Palestine?

The United Nations Development Programme published a comprehensive guide to gender laws under the PA and Hamas in late 2018.  It uncovered state-sponsored discrimination against women, which I have summarized before:

Domestic violence: Palestine has no domestic violence legislation.
Marital rape: Marital rape is not criminalized.
Abortion for rape survivors: Abortion is prohibited in the West Bank by the Jordan Penal Code (Articles 321–325) and in Gaza by the Criminal Code of 1936 (Articles 175–177).
Sexual harassment in the workplace: Sexual harassment is not criminalized by the Labour Code.
Honour crimes: Mitigation of penalty Laws allowing mitigation of penalties for ‘honour’ crimes were repealed in 2011 and 2018 in the West Bank. However, the government in Gaza has not applied the reforms.
Adultery: Adultery is an offence in Gaza and the West Bank. In the West Bank, Article 282 of the Penal Code criminalizes adultery
Human trafficking: Palestine does not have comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation. Some provisions of the Penal Code of Jordan apply to trafficking in the West Bank.
Sex work and anti-prostitution laws: Prostitution is prohibited by Articles 309–318 of the Penal Code in the West Bank and Articles 161–166 of the Criminal Code of 1936 in Gaza.
Marriage and divorce: The personal status laws for Muslims require the husband to maintain the wife. A wife owes obedience to her husband. A husband can divorce by repudiation (talaq). A wife has the right to divorce on specified grounds. She can also apply for a khul’a divorce without grounds if she forgoes financial rights.
Male guardianship over women: Muslim women require consent of a wali (male guardian) to marry. There are some weak legal protections for women under guardianship. Women can seek permission from the court to marry if the guardian withholds consent without a legitimate reason.
Guardianship of children: Fathers are the sole guardians of children.
Custody of children: After divorce the mother has custody up to a certain age, but automatically loses custody of her children if she remarries. Inheritance Sharia rules of inheritance apply to Muslims. Women have a right to inheritance, but in many cases receive less than men. Daughters receive half the share that sons receive.
Polygamy: Polygamy is permitted.
Legal restrictions on women’s work: Some legal restrictions exist on women’s employment in certain industries that do not apply to men, such as mining.

The report seemingly went into a black hole. There are very few references to it online. Yet it is probably the most comprehensive report on women's rights in the Palestinian territories that exists. 

Real Palestinian feminists would be screaming from the rooftops about this. But not the members of the "Palestinian Feminist Working Group."

The fact that Leila Khaled's PFLP actually murdered an Israeli girl last year doesn't diminish her "feminist" bona fides for some reason. None of these "feminists" condemned the murder of a Jewish girl.

These people aren't feminists. They are Jew-haters who use feminism as a justification for their bigotry and hate.

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Hamas health ministry refusing to buy polio, other vaccines; UNRWA downplays the story

UNRWA released a statement  to several Arabic newspapers warning of serious health crisis on the horizon in Gaza.

There is a severe shortage of vaccines in Gaza, and those for polio, the mumps, rubella and meningitis have been completely depleted, while those for tetanus and whooping cough are dangerously low.

UNRWA warned that polio is starting to spread again in the Middle East because of the Syrian war.

As of this writing, this statement is not found at UNRWA's website. Their Twitter account only links to an Al Jazeera Arabic version of the story - a story that implies that Israel is responsible for the shortage, as it reports this story together with the launch of a "Popular Committee Against the Siege on Gaza." Even that is only mentioned in Arabic.

Why is UNRWA so reluctant to publicize this story of an impending heath catastrophe in English?

Perhaps their statement to Ma'an sheds some light.

In that statement, the UNRWA spokesperson Abu Hasna says that the responsibility of purchasing vaccines rests with the Gaza Ministry of Health and that UNRWA has warned them about this looming crisis for months.

Israel does not, and never has, restricted vaccines into Gaza. The Al Jazeera story, and the reporting of other Arabic media outlets, imply that this is part of the "siege"  - but they are lying.

The looming health crisis is purely the result of Hamas either not caring about the health of people under its control, or a cynical purposeful creation of an epidemic by Hamas to make Israel look bad. That is not so far fetched, as Hamas has done exactly that by refusing imports of fuel to Gaza even when Israel was willing to provide it.

UNRWA, always eager to blame Israel for all problems, does not want to publicly say anything bad about Hamas. So instead of publicly shaming Hamas for refusing to allow life-saving vaccines to enter Gaza, UNRWA only discreetly planted stories about the issue in Arabic media and downplayed the reasons for the crisis, hoping that Hamas will take the hint without UNRWA having to go public to the West.

How much can UNRWA really care about the "refugees" when they are so reluctant to publicize how badly they are being treated by their Arab leaders?

Meanwhile, Israel has approved some 26 construction projects into Gaza, including 12 for UNRWA.

That isn't on their website either, because this is another story that doesn't fit UNRWA's anti-Israel agenda - and agenda that clearly trumps its mission.

(Similarly, I have not yet found this story on any of the usual "pro-Palestinian" websites.)

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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