Letters
Hillel should address Eitam’s UB appearance
Dear Editor:
On Nov. 2, 2009, Hillel of Buffalo hosted two campus talks by retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Efraim Eitam. Eitam is notorious in Israel and around the world for his racism, his advocacy of violence and his war crimes. Leading Israeli publications such as The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz have documented his calls to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories. He has openly advocated war crimes, such as using prisoners as human shields. The New Yorker reveals that he is a forthright advocate of genocide, having said of the Palestinians, “We will have to kill them all.”
In 1988, while serving as an Israeli army colonel in Gaza, he ordered his soldiers to beat and break the bones of a Palestinian prisoner named Ayyad Aqel. They beat him to death. Eitam’s own soldiers testified to his orders and to his participation in such beatings, which are, of course, war crimes. Documentation may be found here, in a Web essay I co-wrote with Irene Morrison.
Before Eitam’s visit, I contacted Joe Davis, Hillel of Buffalo executive director, with information about Eitam’s record, asking him to cancel the invitation. Other university and community members did likewise. He refused. At Eitam’s evening talk, Dan Lenard, UB Hillel board president introduced him as a “distinguished gentleman,” and called those who had spread information about him “fascists.” After Eitam’s visit, I asked Davis to apologize to the university community for bringing such a speaker to campus. He has not responded.
This is not a question of free speech; as far as I know, nobody asked the UB administration to cancel the speech, and I know I certainly didn’t. But we did entreat Hillel to reconsider its invitation on the grounds that university organizations should not publicly honor violent racists and war criminals like Eitam. I would make precisely the same argument about any other racist, war criminal and genocide advocate. I hope that Hillel and Davis will clarify their intentions with this invitation, whether or not they intend similar invitations in the future, and if so, how they feel this will benefit the university community.
It is no accident that Eitam’s visit was the occasion for a campus hate speech. Before one of his talks, a student member of Hillel called out to another student wearing a headscarf, “Why don’t you go blow yourself up?” Hate breeds hate. But an explanation and an apology might breed reconciliation and understanding. I encourage Davis to address the UB community about this problem. It will not go away all by itself.
Jim Holstun
Professor of English
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