Harvard University is going to be hosting a conference entitled "One State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the One State Solution," scheduled to take place March 3-4.
INN According to the "Vision and Goals" of the conference, as outlined by its website:
"To date, the only Israel/Palestine solution that has received a fair rehearsal in mainstream forums has been the two-state solution. Our conference will help to expand the range of academic debate on this issue. Thus, our main goal is to educate ourselves and others about the possible contours of a one-state solution and the challenges that stand in the way of its realization."
The conference was organized by a number of student groups including, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestine Caucus, the Arab Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, and the Association for Justice in the Middle East, all of which perpetrate an ideology based on the belief that Israel is an "apartheid state," responsible for the "ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population."
Speakers include, Ali Abunimah, the Executive Director of the Electronic Intifada; Dalit Baum, of the BDS organization Coalition of Women for Peace; Ilan Pappe, radical left Israeli academic and fervent supporter of the BDS movement; Marc Ellis, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University, who compares Zionism to colonialism and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of Jews; as well as a number of other academics and scholars who advocate similar beliefs.
"Most of the speakers are heavily involved in anti-Israel advocacy. The conference program features an activist workshop, in contrast to an academic or research framework in which different perspectives are presented… Such events represent the antithesis of constructive academic dialogue and peaceful coexistence," the NGO Monitor claimed.
"Those who promote a one-state 'solution' advocate creating an entity which would, through its merger with the Palestinian Arab population of the West Bank and Gaza and an influx of Palestinians from neighboring states, lose its Jewish majority and its Jewish character. In effect, Jewish self-determination would be nullified," the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) reported. The forum is clearly focused, therefore, on "dismantling the Jewish State of Israel."
"According to the working definition of anti-Semitism developed by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), and recognized by the United States Department of State, the One State Conference, in implicitly 'denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,' is an exercise in anti-Semitism," CAMERA explained.
Anti-Semitism and Sham Scholarship
CAMERA Another element in the State Department-recognized working definition of anti-Semitism is "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis." That is also likely to occur at the conference. Scheduled speaker Ali Abunimah has previously compared Israel to Nazis, and similar statements have been made by others. Conference organizer Ahmed Moor also accuses Jews of racism asserting, "Many Israelis and Jewish people are weaned on the idea of Jewish exceptionalism." Marc Ellis likens Jews to Nazis and to the Egyptians of the Passover tale.
This sort of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic invective, masquerading as education, has become commonplace at these conferences. Far from being scholarly, however, many of the scheduled speakers are of dubious academic integrity and frequently disseminate misinformation and false narratives about Israel and Jews. For example:
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Diana Buttu has repeatedly and falsely understated the extent of Palestinian terrorist violence and mischaracterized international law. She has even gone so far as to claim that Hamas rockets have no explosive head. This is an obvious falsehood. -
Marc Ellis wrote a column describing how a Palestinian friend of his was murdered because Jewish settlers coveted her family's land, falsely implying she was killed by Jews when, in fact, her murderer was an Arab. Ellis is currently defending himself against charges by Baylor University that could lead to his dismissal. -
Leila Farsakh falsely asserted in a French newspaper that the PLO had agreed to share land with Israel in 1974. The truth is that in 1974, the PLO reaffirmed its rejection of a land-for-peace deal in what is known as the "Phased Plan" for the destruction of Israel. -
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Stephen Walt is best known for his book, written with John Mearsheimer, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. The book, which claims American Jews are a fifth column that controls American policy for the benefit of Israel, is little more than a rehash of classic anti-Semitic tropes which is also rife with falsehoods.
Denying the Jewish People Their Right to Self-Determination
The "One State Conference" seeks to promote the destruction of Israel's Jewish character. Conference organizer Ahmed Moor says as much in a piece he wrote for the Huffington Post entitled, "Israel's Jewish Character Is Subject for Debate."
The conference will feature a number of panels. Panel 7 deals with cultural identity, asking "What role should the state play in the maintenance of the national groups' identities? Will it be necessary to forge a new, shared identity in the new state?" It is interesting that this question should be addressed without a single pro-Israel panelist participating.
In addition, this is how the third panel is described on the website:
Many people with an intimate understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict insist that the one-state solution is wholly impossible to implement. Worse, it is a recipe for protracted ethnic bloodshed. Could that be true?
Could it? Let's examine this issue. With a Jewish minority in Israel, Jews would face the same fate as ethnic and religious minorities in other Arab countries. For example:
In a conversation recorded on February 9, 2012 at Imperial College in London, infamous Judenrat Norman Finkelstein, who describes himself as having devoted his life to the "Palestinian cause" told his interviewer, "You know and I know exactly what we're talking about because if we end the occupation, and we bring back 6 million Palestinians, and we have equal rights for Arabs and Jews, there's no Israel. That's what it's really about."
Israel was declared a state on May 14, 1948 and is a full fledged member of the United Nations. Its Declaration of Independence clearly states: "On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable. This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State."
Perhaps little should be expected from Harvard when it comes to the subject of the Middle East. Harvard's Middle East Outreach Center, charged with providing curriculum materials to middle and high schools, has distinguished itself mostly by disseminating propaganda instead of scholarship. In addition, Harvard accepts millions in funding from Saudi Arabian princes and other wealthy Arab donors. 
The assault against Israel involves a war of words and concepts which are just as deadly as the vicious episodes of terrorist violence that punctuate daily life in the Jewish State. A propaganda narrative casting Israelis as "Nazis" who are perpetrating a Jewish version of the Final Solution against hapless Palestinians has spread from the Middle East into the capitals of Europe, and is echoed in the "boycott and divestment" movement and "Anti-Israel Apartheid Weeks" on prestigious American college campuses.
One of the most wrenching facts of this war against the Jews is the central role played by Jewish enablers of anti-Semitism. These individuals, mostly in the universities (American and Israeli alike), have given protective cover to the revival of Jew-hatred, which gains momentum with each passing day. The fact that these enablers are Jewish gives legitimacy to the hateful rhetoric about Jews and the Jewish State, and allows such ideology to flourish with utter impunity.
"Jewish Enablers of the War Against the Jews" by University of Haifa Professor Stephen Plaut exposes these Jewish Jew-haters—this is the only label for them—for what they really are. Plaut has written 20 searing portraits based on the words and deeds of these enablers, including figures such as the notorious Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein; the pseudo-rabbi Michael Lerner; and Harvard's Sara Roy, an apologist for the terror group Hamas. This collection is comprised of Israelis as well, including Oren Yiftachel, who composes tracts purporting to show that his own country is a racist, apartheid state.
As Plaut's work shows, these are not "self-hating" Jews; they hate both Israel and America.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY demonstration for Free Palestine the day after Palestinians murdered 5 members of Israeli family:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRyd0ffVIY
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