Tolerance
Tolerance is the cornerstone of Western democracies. It is essential to public discourse, and exchange of opinions. Tolerance, in fact, is a necessary precondition of dissent, the right of an individual to express opinions against state and corporate power.
Tolerance and dissent, unfortunately, are under threat everywhere. This is especially true in the attempt by Western institutions to stifle criticism of Israel’s war against Hamas, which has killed over 27,000 Palestinians and destroyed 70 percent of Gaza.
The New York Times, according to The Intercept news, January 28,2024, recently experienced an internal uproar because it was scheduled to report on its Podcast ‘The Daily’, about how Hamas uses sexual violence against Israeli women who were captives as part of its war strategy.
The story was based on a prominent article led by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffry Gettleman. All was going according to plan until a former female Israeli captive spoke up and said, ‘not true’, ‘Hamas didn’t treat me like that’.
Unfortunately, the article was not fact checked by anyone. Upon further research, it turned out that several members of the Times board of directors are also members of the board of directors of a conservative pro-Israel advocacy organization. Small coincidence, of course.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has systematically eliminated or censored pro-Palestinian images and communications from its platform on a global basis. According to the Guardian, and several human rights groups, Facebook and Instagram engage in six identifiable patterns of censorship.
This has impacted the ability of Palestinians to tell a different narrative, one that may actually reflect what is happening on the ground. Meta practices censorship with the help of very sophisticated AI. They eliminate what might threaten advertisers or political pundits who are already offended by the rapid growth of child pornography on their platform.
Israel has long managed an Orwellian game that denies their role in repression of dissent and Palestinians. It denies that words such as ‘apartheid’ or ‘colonialism’ or ‘digital prison’ describe the conditions under which Palestinians have lived in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. These words, which carry definitive concepts and measurable realities, are deleted from expression, and instead, abstract words such as ‘conflict’ or ‘Israelis have the right to live without fear of terrorism’ take their place. Reality is made palatable to legitimate state power.
The asymmetry of power against Palestinians makes this ‘newspeak’ almost obscene. Israel controls the language, concepts, and news. This is mirrored by the U.S. mainstream press, which presents most Palestinians as the wretched of the Earth who are pro-terrorist. It is even surprising to discover that, until recently, there were 12 universities in Gaza. All have been destroyed by Israel in the last 45 days.
U.S. university leaders in education who have supported student rights to advocate for Palestinians have been sacked from their jobs. The former President of Harvard, Claudine Gay, was forced out of her job by a Congressional hearing on antisemitism and billionaire donors.
Hedge fund manager and former Harvard alum Bill Ackman, accused Gay of antisemitism and plagiarism. Mr. Ackman, subsequent to Gay’s resignation, wrote a 4,000 word article claiming that the real racism in our institutions is against white people.
This same billionaire recently flew to Israel and invested heavily in the Israeli stock exchange. Mr. Ackman, and his buddies, are strongly in favor of silencing dissent by pro-Palestinians. He has asked Harvard for the names of protestors to supposedly deny them employment, should they apply. It appears that wealth, somehow, bestows intelligence.
Laurie Anderson, an international performance artist, and filmmaker, had her contract at a German university canceled because she signed a protest and boycott letter against Israel two years ago. She was censored with termination. The well-known actress, Susan Sarandon, and star Melissa Barrera made pro-Palestinian statements in public and were shortly thereafter terminated by agents and Hollywood companies. Spyglass Media Group, announced Ms. Barrera’s exit from her new movie franchise when she wrote that ‘Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp’. Ms. Sarandon has since apologized and returned to favor. Hollywood has an unspoken blacklist against all those who dissent against Israel.
Samia Halaby, an internationally renowned, 87-year old Palestinian abstract painter had her university retrospective at Indiana University canceled because she spoke out in favor of Palestinians. The university said in a two sentence letter that it was in the interest of the community to cancel her show. This has caused ripple effects in her ability to show her work.
Ms. Halaby has been living in the U.S. since 1951.
Israel, over the years, has blocked the departure of Palestinian artists to travel to New York or Italy to show their work. Israeli soldiers stop artists at the airport from leaving. Khaled Jarrar, a Palestinian artist, has been blocked several times from exiting Israel to present work in New York, stating to his Patreon members, ‘No trip to NY, the Israelis held me back´.
It is the most extraordinary of facts that those who have been taught historically to fear state power and repression under Hitler and the Third Reich, have invoked it against Palestinians and supporters. Repression in the form of a cultural and political blackout is taking place in numerous arts and letters organizations and educational institutions. The ethos of tolerance and dissent have all but disappeared, and democracy will not survive without dissent.
The Fascist Quotient
Fascism, the power of the state or political organizations to stifle individual dissent and freedom of expression, seldom comes all at once. It creeps in, case by case. Therefore, I have come to see fascism as a ratio of state, capital and organizational control over the forces of dissent and freedom of expression. This ratio can be applied with the same exactness as economic measurement of a country’s success, for example, per capita income.
Hamas, through its act of terrorism, has laid bare the counter terrorism of Israel against the Palestinian population. It has, however, also revealed a crisis of Western democracy as our institutions have attempted to silence dissent. The government of Germany, for example, has recently attempted to pass a law that criticism of Israel was ipso facto an act of antisemitism. This attempt to codify repression of dissent failed, but not by much.
The fascist quotient goes beyond Israel and Hamas. It’s being promoted in states like Florida and Texas, whereby state governments dictate which books are allowed to be shelved in libraries; in addition, they control the classroom subjects and contents that are approved for teaching. White supremacy, the elimination of black history and slavery from the curriculum, is actively being undertaken by these same state governments. It is racist, for sure, but importantly, it is a march toward fascism. The histories of Palestinians, and other minorities, as cases of social and economic exclusion, have much in common. They must be addressed, not silenced.
Americans may be unaware of the march toward fascism, or may even participate in it. The time has come for those of us who are still alert to the issues at hand to pay more attention to the importance of dissent, and stand up for those who are or have been harmed or silenced by the media, government, and institutions.
Stand up for Palestinian rights to live. Write, telephone and speak out about the tragedy in Israel, and the attempt to control what we read or what we say. Revolt to Live is a necessary act of sanity and democracy.