On May 23rd, an adjunct professor, Shereen Yousuf, responded to my op-ed piece, entitled “Telling the truth about BDS.”  Her vitriolic and inaccurate essay proves that some people, such as Yousuf, can’t handle the truth.  And it also proves that they have difficulty discerning the truth, too.  Let me focus on a few of the lowlights of her essay.

•   Yousuf begins by falsely alleging that my article contained “appallingly seditious accusations hurled at Muslims and Arabs as a collective unit.”   However, instead of criticizing Muslims and Arabs as a collective unit, my article specifically focuses on “Arab dictatorships” (not the Arabs living under the boot of those dictatorships) and organizations such as Hamas, Fatah, and the Muslim Brotherhood for murdering Jews (not just Israelis) throughout the world and for oppressing women, LGBTs, and religious minorities of all types.  Indeed, my article points out that these dictatorships and organizations even persecute other Muslims, if those other Muslims are not from their group.  These same dictatorships and organizations are the ones responsible for the ongoing suffering of Arabs (whatever their religious faith) and Jews.  They rejected the two-state proposal before and after 1948, declared war on and invaded Israel in 1948, perpetuate hostilities through vicious acts of violence, and fundamentally undermine the chance for peace by pervasive efforts to instill anti-Semitic hatred into the minds of their children.  This propaganda effort, that includes using Disney-like characters calling for the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews, is not conducive to producing adults who are able to negotiate the mutual compromises that are necessary for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Mislabeling criticisms of cruel and corrupt Arab leadership as Islamophobic, as Yousuf did, is a transparent rhetorical device intended to undermine efforts to hold those leaders accountable for their conduct.  See http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/fjordman/irrational-fear-of-islam/.   “Islamaphobia” is “the irrational fear or hatred of Islam or Muslims.” See http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Islamophobia. My op-ed piece expressed neither fear nor hatred, only opposition to the BDS referendum.  However, it would not be irrational to fear or hate the cruel and despotic leaders of repressive Arab dictatorships and organizations such as Hamas, Fatah, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Yousuf went further in trying to intimidate free speech by using the R-word, irresponsibly calling my comments “racist.”  (She also enigmatically used the word “seditious,” as if we were governed by a radical Arab dictatorship.) Such tactics won’t work at DePaul.

•  Yousuf asserts that my article “falsely insinuates that the . . . BDS movement is anti-Israel, and erroneously accuses it of promoting violence.”  Excuse me.  I did not mean to insinuate that the BDS movement is anti-Israel; I meant to say it quite clearly.  The proposition that the BDS movement is not anti-Israel is counter-factual.  Large-scale divestment from companies doing business in Israel, which is the goal of the BDS movement, could cripple Israel’s economy.  Indeed, is this not the result that the BDS movement seeks to achieve?  And such a result would harm everyone affected by the Israeli economy, Jews and non-Jews alike.

Yousuf”s reference to the organization, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a group recognized by the Anti-Defamation League as anti-Israel, is a smokescreen that should fool no one.  (Her assertion that  JVP supports a two-state solution is simply wrong; it takes no official position on that issue.) Indeed, the leading movers and shakers of the BDS movement call for a one-state solution.  That’s what the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is all about.  Hamas leaders have said that there is no place for Jews in such a free Palestinian state.  Should such a state be created, what do you think Hamas has in mind for the Jews who currently reside in Israel?

Yousuf’s references to other sources biased against Israel are similarly flawed.  For example, in a speech before the United Nations, the founder of Human Rights Watch, and its active chairman for 20 years,  publicly declared that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are guilty of anti-Israel bias.  See http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1314451&ct=8885979.    United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has acknowledged that Israel is discriminated against and lied about in the United Nations. See http://news.yahoo.com/ajc-welcomes-un-clarification-secretary-generals-remarks-182100051.html

• Interestingly, Yousuf  complains that my piece accuses the BDS movement of being “advocated by ‘radical supporters,'” insinuating (or does she mean to state this clearly?) that I asserted that everyone supporting BDS is “radical.”  This is just as false as her accusation that I criticized “Muslims and Arabs as a collective unit.”  On the contrary, that part of my essay specifically criticized those BDS supporters who are radicals, such as members of Hamas, Fatah and the Muslim Brotherhood.  It did not say that all supporters of BDS are radical.
• Yousuf complains that I wrote that, in contrast to the practices of the Arab dictatorships and organizations such as Hamas, Fatah and the Muslim Brotherhood,  “Israel protects every person’s right to practice the religion of his or her choice, guarantees a woman’s right to complete equality, and has one of the best records of LGBT rights in the world.”   I reaffirm what I wrote because it is true.  I would make the same statement replacing the word “Israel” with the words “the United States.”  Does this mean that the protections provided by the governments of Israel and the United States always work and that no one is ever deprived of her or his rights?  Of course not.  In each place, Israel and the United States, there are ongoing efforts to improve those protections.  The BDS movement, however, is not trying to improve Israel’s policies.  Indeed, it is quite significant that the recent BDS referendum at DePaul did not identify any specific policies it thought should be changed or explain how those policies could be changed without endangering the lives and security of Jewish and non-Jewish Israeli citizens.

By the way, Yousuf never denies that Arab dictatorships and organizations such as Hamas, Fatah and the Muslim Brotherhood are in fact guilty of the gross human rights violations that I mentioned.   Instead, she argues that “[e]ach group is different, arising from distinct socio-political circumstances . . . .”  But her rhetoric is a non sequitur.  Whatever these groups’ socio-political circumstances, their actions deprive many people of their lives, liberty and human rights. The BDS movement says that it is focused on “human rights,” yet, in fact, it does nothing to rectify these glaring, gruesome, and undeniable deprivations of human rights – violations that dwarf those that are alleged against Israel.  This single fact is enough to entirely undermine the credibility of the radical leaders of the BDS movement.