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Pro-Palestinian Author Banned From Jewish Book Festival Over Controversial Views on Israel

Nov. 15, 2012 7:23am Billy Hallowell

Peter Beinart Banned From Jewish Book Festival | Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta

U.S. author Peter Beinart speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Jerusalem, Thursday, June 21, 2012. Beinart considers himself a supporter of Israel. He attends synagogue and sends his children to a private Jewish school in New York City. But when it comes to Israel, the pundit and former journalist has emerged as an unconventional bad boy of sorts, rattling the American Jewish community with charges that its leadership’s blind support for Israel is helping the Jewish state self-destruct through misguided policies. Credit: AP

ATLANTA (AP) — An author whose outspoken criticism of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank got him banned from a Jewish book festival in Atlanta spoke Wednesday night at a sold-out event at an alternate location.

“This experience has taught me I should be boycotted more often,” Peter Beinart quipped to a packed room, thanking those in attendance for the hospitality he had been shown since arriving in the southern city.

Beinart was originally one of 52 writers invited to speak at this week’s Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, which attracts about 10,000 people each year. Bowing to pressure from some local Jews offend by Beinart’s views, festival organizers then canceled his scheduled appearance — sparking a backlash to the backlash.

Author Peter Beinart speaks at an event Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Atlanta. Beinart, whose outspoken criticism of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank got him banned from a Jewish book festival instead spoke at the sold-out event nearby. Credit: AP

Beinart was then scheduled to speak in a smaller venue in downtown Atlanta, nearly 20 miles from the festival site at the suburban community center. The 200 seats allotted for his talk quickly sold out.

A popular blogger and associate professor of journalism and political science at The City University of New York, Beinart’s most recent book “The Crisis of Zionism” criticizes hawkish Jewish leaders in Israel and the United States for their continued support for Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories seized in 1967 during the Six-Day War.

Beinart argued it is these conservative Jewish leaders, not the Palestinians, who are the primary obstacles to peace, thereby making the future of the Jewish state more precarious and less democratic.

“The problem is not that Jews live in the West Bank,” Beinart said. “It is today the West Bank is a place where, contrary to the vision of Israel’s founders, citizenship is ethnically based, where Jews and Palestinians live under a different law.”

Author Peter Beinart waits to speak at an event Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, in Atlanta. Credit: AP

Beinart said the system, where millions of Palestinians are subjected to the routine humiliations of living under military rule while Jewish settlers receive government housing subsidies and security, will eventually force Israelis to choose between having a Jewish nation or a democratic one.

“By supporting settlement growth you are pushing the Palestinians in the exact direction we don’t want them to go,” he said.

For many Jews, such open criticism of Israel and its leader, pro-settlement Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, borders on heresy, especially coming from a member of their own tribe.

The debate exemplifies a deepening divide among Jewish Americans, roughly represented by organizations like the traditional pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and J Street, a liberal-leaning group that promotes a two-state solution through diplomacy instead of military action.

Beinart’s talk in Atlanta happened to coincide Wednesday with a sharp escalation of the conflict, with Israeli warplanes bombing targets in the Gaza Strip, killing the military leader of Hamas in retaliation for weeks of rocket attacks on towns in southern Israel. Beinart said he fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself, but suggested the Jewish state’s continued military blockade of the densely populated and impoverished Gaza Strip strengthened Hamas’ hold on political power rather than weakened it.

Credit: AP

Not dissimilarly, the decision to ban Beinart from speaking at the book festival appeared to heighten interest in what he had to say.

The community center’s president, Steve Cadranel, emphasized in a statement that it is a nonpartisan and nonpolitical organization and said the center helped arrange for Beinart to speak instead at the historic Atlanta home of the novelist Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With the Wind.”

“In the end, the decision to avoid risking that the MJCCA might be seen as sponsoring a `controversial position on Israeli politics’ and working to secure an alternative venue for Mr. Beinart to share his views, seemed to be the best course,” he said.

Israel was founded in response to the slaughter of millions in the Holocaust, providing Jews a homeland of their own for the first time in 2,000 years. Unless Israelis make a fair and lasting peace with their Palestinian neighbors, Beinart warned, that nation might turn out to be built on sand.

“Zionism at its core, I believe, is about giving Jews control over our own destiny,” he said. “Settlement growth threatens the core of the Zionist dream because it takes that destiny out of Jewish hands.”

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Comments (16)

nzkiwi
Posted on November 16, 2012 at 1:58am
Israel has been trying to make peace for decades. It is the PLO and then the PA who have obstructed the process.

For example; before entering peace negotiations, they first insist on negotiating the protocols of the negotiations and, shockingly, things always break down.

They do not want peace, they want the destruction of Israel.

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Servant Of YHVH
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 8:56pm
Well, walk on by people, nothing to see here. It’s just another ignorant “little man” Jew hater suffering from Jewaphobe!

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universalphilos
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 2:48pm
Just before U.S. President Jimmy Carter began a Mideast peace process, asking Israel to give away land for peace, a parable was given, September 2, 1977, on choosing sides.
It continues: “And Jesus said, “Nay, for now is the time of the cutting away of father from son, from mother from daughter. For there shall be those who should choose the path of the Anti-Christ, and he is now upon you. For the date is now, September the 6th, 1977.”
And the father looked unto him and said, “How can this be? He is a good Jewish boy, brought up in the belief. How could he serve the Anti-Christ, and serve you at the same time? How can he wear the mark of the Beast and serve you at the same time?”
And Jesus said unto him, “For where he goes he shall join the Palestines, those of the Black September movement. And from them shall come the beginning of the Anti-Christ, and the downfall of your churches and all churches of all beliefs. But even from the rubble of all things shall rise some men. I have said he can serve both, or he can serve one. This is your decision, the decision you make here and now. If you continue to allow him to continue in your house and do the things he has done, and give disrespect unto his father and mother, then surely he shall join the Anti-Christ. But if you stand firm, and say unto him, ‘If ye be my son, then do unto my household and make it holy this day….’”
[See the parable at http://www.angelfire.com/in4/aup_messiah/1977September02.audio.

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Jakareh
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 1:26pm
No matter how despicable the enemy or how much stronger you may be than him, there will always be voices calling for surrender. For Israel, Peter Beinart is one of those voices.

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BlackCrow
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 10:23am
Jews refusing to sell a book penned by a Nazi. News?

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- Chrono_Sleuth
  Posted on November 15, 2012 at 1:12pm
  Did you even read the article?
  
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PhilipJames
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 10:20am
Wait a minute, isn’t this the same liberal gay dolt that goes on political shows in US and spews his hate of the Conservatives, Christians, the right, etc.? Isn’t this the same piece of cow crap?
Who the F cares what this liberal, far left freak says anyways?

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- Chrono_Sleuth
  Posted on November 15, 2012 at 1:22pm
  No, that’s someone else. He’s a bit of an ass, and he ignores outright Arab intentions in the region, along with the long history of the battle over Israel/Palestine, but in this he does make a good point. Israel was initially a true democratic state, no special consideration for religion when citizenship was concerned. That has changed, and the constant building is creating stress where he is correct that Palestinians are being driven right into the hands of Hamas.
  
  For some of the more extreme right wing zionists, this is a positive as it grants Israel a reason to slaughter them, then claim the land, believing God will intervene when a united Muslim front attempts revenge – which I personally do not believe would happen, if anything God would forsake Israel, as the only time he told my people to slaughter in Canaan was to kill off the hedonistic and woefully forsaken Canaanites. For less extreme, it’s troubling and causes a threat that has to be militarily dealt with. For the Moderates and Liberals, it causes stress on their end because they just want an end to it all, and a peaceful state.
  
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cdn1979
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 9:06am
this is proof that you are allowed freedom of speech only if you speak what they approve of. United states of Israel. you all know who your real daddy is.

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rickc34
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 8:21am
God will bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel. You either stand with God or you stand against God. I stand with the Lord of Hosts. I stand for Israel. There are thousands of Americans living in Israel..

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DangerMike
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 8:19am
Another NY Jew raises his liberal head and says; “Ignore 1400 years of Islamic Terror! It’s Israel’s fault!” What a schmuck. HAMAS and FATAH consistently divert funds that could be used to build infrastructure in Gaza and West bank to weapons, smuggling and warfare against Israel. Have Mr. Beinart go peddle his wares in Gaza and see what happens.

I never thought I’d see the day that Evangelical Christians are more dependable allies and staunch supporters of Israel than American Jewry. Obama got 80% of the Jewish vote and we wonder why?

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1snake1
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 8:12am
Its amazing the flack you get as a Jew for supporting a free Palestine. I know, I’ve lived in Israel AND the West Bank, and believe me, I felt far more afraid of the Zionists in Israel than I did the Palestinians.

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tzion
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 8:12am
After reading this man’s views, I’m not convinced he’s anti-Israel. Rather, he recognizes the simple fact that, at some point, the current state of affairs must change. While I disagree that the settlements are the main obstacle to a permanent solution, it is undeniable that if Palestinians never receive their own state that they will inevitably become citizens of Israel. In this scenario, Jews would become a minority and the Palestinians would get their state anyways.

Personally, I think the main obstacle to peace is the demand by the entirety of the Palestinian government that existing settlements, many of which would be more accurately described as towns and villages, be dismantled. This policy, coupled with an existing Palestinian law that forbids land sale to Jews, is indicative of the current leaderships unwillingness to coexist with Jews and Israelis. Their actions reveal that, in their view, a Palestinian state would be a Jew-free zone. If this were to become reality we’d never see peace.

For those who would disagree with my point, let’s look at what happened when India and Pakistan split from each other, something which Gandhi opposed. To this day tensions are extremely high along that border. And in this case, the two groups had been cooperating with each other, unlike the current situation in Israel.

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jackact
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 7:51am
Mr Beinhart should be boycotted all the way back to the obstinate cesspool of NYC where he can opine safely in the comfort of like minded fools.

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kickagrandma
Posted on November 15, 2012 at 7:27am
Well good. Someone with manly things to stand up and say, ‘NO!’ you support palestine, go live there, please.

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- justangry
  Posted on November 15, 2012 at 7:42am
  It sounds like censorship to me. If forced to make a snap decision to support one side over the other, I’d definitely side with the Israelis, however there are some policies I don’t like. I also don’t like our UNCONDITIONAL support. I think our support should be given if deservedly earned. (I don’t think they’ve done anything not to garner our support yet) Now AIPAC can go take a hike. I don’t want any powerful foreign lobbies influencing our politicians. There’s no way they should be more influential than the American people. I guess I just don’t see it as simply as the evangelicals and GB seem to think it is.
  
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