The Cal State University met resistance for a lecture series from Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and professor at the University of Exeter, who visited Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo recently.
His lecture, entitled “The False Paradigm of Parity and Partition: Revisiting 1967,” talks about Israeli policy before and after the Six-Day War in June 1967 and why Pappé believes there is still unrest in Israel and Palestine.
Pappé is known for his belief that Zionism is more dangerous to the safety of the Middle East than to Islam, which has sparked controversy with Zionist groups who believe that the CSU system should not be sponsoring his lectures due to their nature.
The AMCHA Initiative, a Zionist group that aims to protect Jewish students, sent a letter to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed and the presidents of the three universities participating in the series on Feb. 13, asking that any sort of support for Pappé’s lectures be rescinded.
“The university’s sponsorship of these politically motivated and directed events are in clear violation of the will and intention of the CSU Trustees, who formally resolved that outside speakers brought to the campus will contribute to educational values and not be brought in for propagandizing purposes,” the letter stated.
Tammi Benjamin, co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, said that promoting Pappé’s appearance is an, “abuse of CSU resources and name.”
Benjamin also noted that Pappé’s talks are being organized and promoted on three CSU campuses by a dean and two professors with long histories of anti-Israel activism themselves.
“In organizing the talks by Ilan Pappé on their campuses, these three CSU employees are clearly using their university positions and taxpayer-supported university resources to promote their own personal political assault against the Jewish state,” she said.
The presidents of all three schools wrote a response letter, stating, “Our universities do not endorse any particular position, but emphatically support the rights of people to express and hear all points of view. There is no danger to a free society in allowing opposing views to be heard. The danger, instead, is in censoring them.”
The presidents said they stand behind their choice to allow Pappé to speak, stating that this issue is one of free speech and that Pappé has as much of a right to speak as anyone else.
Pappé spoke at SLO Wednesday and CSUN Monday. His lecture series ends today at Fresno State.
