March 10, 2005
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler
201 Varick Street, Suite 669
New York, New York 10014
(fax) 212-367-7356
RE: follow-up on Columbia University conference
Dear Congressman Nadler:
You may be aware that a member of JATO spoke with your Manhattan Director,
Linda Rosenthal, over the telephone last Friday. They discussed the
erroneous announcement of your participation in last Sunday's Middle East
& Academic Integrity on the American Campus Conference at Columbia
University. We appreciate the time Ms. Rosenthal took to discuss our
concerns with us. We are also pleased to have learned that you were not
intending to participate in the conference. We do hope that you will
consider JATO's request to issue a public statement regarding the matter
of free dissent on American campuses.
Because we know that you, as a member of the Democratic Party, share many
JATO members' dismay over the rise of the Right in the U.S. and abroad, we
are following up on our conversation with Ms. Rosenthal to make you aware
of some disturbing incidents which occurred at the Columbia conference.
Firstly, you should know that all of the speakers at this conference
hailed solely from the political Right on the issue of Israel/Palestine:
there was no "balance" as advertised. Each presentation articulated
support for extremist Middle East policy, anti-Arab discrimination, and
legislation that would censor dissenting speech in both the academy and
the public sphere.
Secondly, during the course of the day, several JATO members in the
audience received explicit verbal death threats from other conference
attendees after it became known to them that we did not agree with many of
their views on the material being presented. These threats were uttered
publicly so that everyone at the conference could hear, including those
watching the proceedings on video monitors in packed overflow rooms.
In one instance, a Palestinian-American who was accompanying us, and who
mentioned having been shot twice by IDF soldiers while visiting the West
Bank, was singled out in vile fashion: "Had I been that soldier, I
wouldn't have missed, and you and your friends would be dead"; and "We
should bomb you!" In another instance, a JATO member was physically
blocked from exiting the conference room by a particularly vocal attendee
who told her she'd be dead if he had a gun. When a photographer from the
New York Times attempted to photograph the latter incident, she was
prevented from doing so by the conference organizers and was subsequently
escorted from the room-an action which brought her to tears as well as to
the conclusion that the organizers might not have wanted her there because
she didn't "look Jewish" (she was from Japan).
At no point during these incidents did the conference organizers
acknowledge the verbal violence of these threats and the inappropriateness
of these actions, nor were their perpetrators asked either to cease their
behavior or leave the conference.
Based upon the above events, it is now even more compelling for your
office to issue a statement. We are also happy to supply you with
detailed, eyewitness accounts of the conference proceedings. We look
forward to hearing from you very soon about this urgent matter and thank
you in advance for your time and support.
Sincerely,
Jews Against the Occupation