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Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. - [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q1oICBZ_g34f_qLccPLqyH4eZu6uf52POJOYGStlexg/edit|June 6th 2024 open letter on curriculum reform]]. - [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YyUixeMASy4r2qzxPE-5BHyNyYbGftekwpM-WZC3kzU/edit?usp=sharing|Questions for class discussion]] on the [[wp>s:Declaration_of_Independence_(Israel)]] - Proposals and terms for a parliamentary style debate and [[Israel_palestine_debate|public disputation on the Israel/Palestine question]] May 2024 open letter: ===== Wherefore we have resolved ===== * To endorse the [[https://international.uoregon.edu/israel-palestine-shared-principles|UO Faculty's Shared Principles for Organizing Educational Events on Current Crisis in Israel and Palestine]], "regretting lives lost on both sides" and will not platform voices that "dehumanize" or demonize the other. We call on the ASUO and GTFF to endorse it as well, and to renounce their policy of bigoted ignorance and apparent anti-Jewish prejudice. * An academic boycott is "antithetical to the educational mission of the college, and to the importance of global engagement in pursuit of that mission", at a time when "greater knowledge is vital", as President Scholz on 10th of May stated in a [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/uo-response-encampment-demands|Response to the Gaza solidarity encampment demands]], which we mostly endorse. * To hear the [[https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pDwaASN9x/?img_index=1|official statement from the Campus Hillel, Campus Chabad, and "Ducks for Israel"]] and recognize that "it is deemed unacceptable to tokenize any marginalized community" and "be cautious of the tokenization of Jewish students during this time". We call on the ASUO and the GTFF to hear it as well. And furthermore: * Read this: [[https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub|In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University]]. ===== Proposal for public disputation and terms of debate ===== Consistent with these statements, we propose a parliamentary style debate and [[Israel_palestine_debate|public disputation on the Israel/Palestine question]]. We call on the philosophy club and the debate society to host the debate, after first showing good faith by a vote no-confidence in the ASUO and the GTFF, after their public display of conspicuous ignorance. We call on faculty from the Liberal Arts (wscr) department to advise on critical reasoning, and help the opponents to come to agreements on terms of debate, on questions at issue, and to stipulate on generally shared premises of ontology, physics, metaphysics, and logic. We call on all other faculty and teaching fellows to host their own public disputations, or else all their union leaders are not scholars, and should therefore voluntarily resign and call for new elections. In order to avoid various red herrings and equivocations, we will deprecate the unfortunate terms "antisemitism" and "islamophobia" and speak merely of "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Jewish" worldviews and biases, if and when it becomes necessary to do so. We invite all interested scholars to acknowledge our [[revised_ihra_definition_of_antisemitism|Definition of AntiJudaism]], or begin critical analysis and offer commentary. ===== Ethical Social Governance of Investment portfolio ===== An ethical investing committee could be formed. We should pressure the U.S. State department to stop financing Palestinian "pay-to-slay" terrorism, and come into compliance with existing U.S. law prohibiting it. The committee should endorse the [[https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/gottheimer.house.gov/uploads/2023/07/PayforSlayFinal7.18.23.pdf|bipartisan congressional letter of July 2023 to State Department and Secretary Blinken]], from over 50 prominent U.S. Congresspeople, requesting a financial investigation of the "PA martyr's fund" and enforcement of the 2018 "Taylor Force Act" [[https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1164/BILLS-115hr1164pcs.pdf|115th H.R. 1146]], against its egregious "[[wp>pay-to-slay]]" stipends given to prisoners and families of suicide bombers. We should not encourage more attacks against Israel by listening to a BDS movement which holds that a Hebrew or Jewish state is inherently racist or evil and has no right to exist, and that Marxist-Leninist terrorism and Arab or Islamic supremacist attacks against it are a priori justifiable. We should not entertain efforts to demonize Israel, single it out for moral rebuke, and hold it to a different ethical standard than other nations. We should not allow ignorant prejudice and anti-Jewish bias to prevent critical thinking about other systems of oppression such as Roman imperialism, Christian dominionism, militant Islam, and Marxist-Leninism - which have traditionally scapegoated Jews and their institutions in order to prevent such critical thinking. We reject the notion that Sabra hummous and pretzels are part of an international Zionist conspiracy to control your snacks and vending machines. But if it is, its one in which the University should invest and with whom it should contract. The University should consider divesting from sugary sodas, candy bars, and potato chips, if it cares about the ASUO mission of promoting the "social, cultural, educational, and physical development" of its students. The University should divest from sweat-shop labor in its ath-leisure apparel stores, if it cares about social justice. And good-faith activists would call for this. And we should invite future Israeli investments in our welfare, or stand collectively guilty of stupid anti-Israeli bigotry to our own hurt and loss, to no apparent benefit but the promotion of prejudiced ignorance. Insofar as it is intended to merely "send a message" and set a moral example, its sends a morally idiotic message that is terrible example for Palestinians, Arabs collectively, and for our own students. Pretzels and Hummus are, in our humble opinion the best of both German and Palestinian food, combined in a unique and delicious fusion. Sabra snacks are an appetizing alternative and a generous cultural gift to both Germany and Palestine, helping them both to atone for the unholy alliance between the Arab High Committee of Palestine and the Nazi party of third reich Germany during the 1930's and 40's, which sought and failed to entirely remove Jews from the earth, and are apparently conspiring to do so again. We want more Sabra hummus and pretzels in all our campus stores, in submission to our taste buds and bodies, and in honor of the anti-fascist resistance. We are not afraid to disclose our agenda, but we think you should invest. ===== Educational Manifesto ===== Where is the learning and teaching happening, at this alleged "University"? The Palestinian occupation of University of Oregon, now known as the "University of Gaza", features scores of Marxist-Leninist books in its "liberation library", but only one book on the history of modern Palestine. There is no learning about the prior 1,900 years of Roman, Byzantine catholic, Islamic Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, and British imperial occupation, let alone anything about the Jewish history and presence in Israel/Palestine before that. In my efforts to initiate a Hebrew-Arabic language exchange, I donated the first learning materials on the Arabic alphabet found anywhere in the encampment. Since ignorance is the apparent goal of this curriculum, we must consider this: is the prejudicial anti-Jewish bias worth the cost of the general ignorance that must be cultivated in order to maintain that bias? In addition to lacking even a single book about Arabic language, literature, or history, there was nothing about Christianity or Islam. This is the cost of erasing the Hebrew bible, Judaism, and Jewish history which were also of course not found in the liberation library, just like they are also not found in the the classics and philosophy libraries and reading rooms of Campbell hall. (The tradition of anti-Jewish ignorance on campus predated the outbreak of war and global intifada): This costs the militant atheists dearly, and leaves them almost totally devoid of their own culture and history, and is an aspect of the malign legacy of [[wp>v:User:Jaredscribe/Antijudaism:_The_Western_Tradition|Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition]]. To counter this trend, and to begin reviving interdisciplinary study of the liberal arts and humanities on campus, we propose a learn-in of the eponymous 2014 book by [[wp>David Nirenberg|Nirenberg, David]] W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-34791-5, and call for a collaborative course next term jointly taught by faculty from Religion, Philosophy, History, and Global studies departments, as part of their own continuing education, and for it to eventually become a required course in all majors named above, with selected chapters featured in other courses as well. We call on all the students union and all conscientious scholars to abandon the "Zionists off campus" agitprop promoted in the EMU's "multicultural center" and instead join us in a learn-in on the history of Palestine, to take place on an ad hoc basis around campus. We will undertake an analysis of primary source texts, an overview of Semitic languages, literature, philosophy, and religion, and invite lightning-talks from diverse points of view, QA sessions, careful analysis of each of the accusations that made against Israel, seeking dialectical resolution of disputed questions. Using [[wp>s:User:Jaredscribe/The_Israel-Palestine_reader|The Israel-Palestine reader]] or other unbiased collection of both sides' narratives, we will read the primary sources and exponents of Palestinian and Jewish nationalisms, we will invite proposals and collaboration from our peers and colleagues who stipulate to shared principles published by our University faculty. ===== Endorsing Faculty shared principles, denouncing the bigoted ignorance of the Students' Union and Graduate Teaching Fellows===== We endorse the [[https://international.uoregon.edu/israel-palestine-shared-principles|UO Faculty's Shared Principles for Organizing Educational Events on Current Crisis in Israel and Palestine]], and call on the ASUO and GTFF to endorse it as well, and to renounce their bigoted policy of ignorance in pursuit of an academic boycott of Israel. Instead of bolshevist groupthink and unquestioning acceptance of Palestinian agit-prop, all diligently sincere scholars should read the primary sources, examine the historic record, and clearly and critically analyze the propositions offered. But the dogmatic ignorance is a policy we should all reject, although it has been chosen by the Graduate Teaching Fellows (GTFF) and the student union (ASUO), and made "in solidarity" with the Palestinian occupation of the UO campus, calling for an academic boycott of Israeli universities. These unions no longer speak for the student body. The academic boycott is "antithetical to the educational mission of the college, and to the importance of global engagement in pursuit of that mission", at a time when "greater knowledge is vital", as President Scholz on 10th of May stated in a [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/uo-response-encampment-demands|Response to the Gaza solidarity encampment demands]]. We reject the GTFF's unquestioning acceptance of Palestinian agit-prop, and its attempt to exile Zionists and Israeli sympathizers from the learning community through mere ridicule, demonization, brute force - without first providing a forum for Israel's advocates an opportunity to answer the accusations made. The GTFF has betrayed its teaching mission to undergrad learners, and its own scholarly ethics. As such it is a betrayal of its members, who did not have the opportunity to vote before the GTFF presumed to speak on their behalf on a matter far outside the scope of its jurisdiction to collectively bargain wages and labor conditions. All law students involved, and all members of the "national lawyer's guild" present as police monitors, have fundamentally rejected the administration of justice through due process of law and public trial, in favor of totalitarianism and theatrical mock trial meant for public entertainment, complete with cue cards for audience responses of "boo" and "shame", with defendants tried in absentia and defense attorneys appointed by the prosecution and played as comic buffoons. This "trial" of President Scholz and other board members, was funny and entertaining to those sympathetic to the prosecution, but it was also vicious and perverted for anyone who cares about due process in the administration of justice. Insofar as it indicates what sort of government and justice system would exist in a Palestinian state that has been totally freed from the Jews and Israelis, "from the river to the sea", it is evidence to us all of the importance and necessity of fighting to preventing that. Perhaps the law students should not be admitted to the bar prior to giving a statement of renunciation and remorse - as this would be a gross violation of professional ethics if undertaken in a real juridicial process. Ignorance is not a solution to the Palestinian or the Jewish questions; not is it consistent with the scholarly mission of this university. All dissenters among the GTFF and ASUO are invited to join the UO Iron Front's student and teachers union - with or without first resigning from the other union - and the established unions should lose their privelege of collecting mandatory fees from incoming students, until they renounce the "solidarity" policy of both general ignorance, and of ignorant anti-Jewish bias in particular. The unions should demonstrate scholarly ethics consistent with the faculty statement of shared principles on hosting events related to the Israel/Palestine conflict, and retract their earlier positions in order to regain their collective bargaining rights. Anything less forces students to effectively join an anti-Jewish political cult in the Marxist-Leninist tradition of militant atheistic bolshevism, denying their freedom of conscience. Recently a virtual lecture symposium by Dr. Yael Aronoff and Dr. Saliba Sarsar, [[https://calendar.uoregon.edu/event/envisioning-future-israeli-palestinian-peace|envisioning future Israeli-Palestinian peace]], was hosted by prof. Monique Balbuenas. The event was advertised on the religious studies department message board on 3rd floor of Campbell, and in PLC, but nowhere in EMU Students Union building. The "multi-cultural center" in EMU had no advertising for this scholarly presentation, although it did and does have lots of anti-Zionist signage and agitprop from JVP and other groups, including some demanding "zionists off campus". The "university of Gaza" occupation on the quad outside had nothing advertised about this webinar. Nor does it have any books in Arabic, and nothing about christianity or Islam, let alone Judaism. The "Liberation library" is composed of mostly Marxist-Leninist books written in English by revolutionaries in the western hemisphere or in the 19th century. This is not only anti-Jewish bias, it is also anti-Arab, and general ignorance. These student groups are all seeking a one-state Palestinian solution, and rallying for war to that end. ==== Public Disputations and Thesis Defense ==== Instead of promoting contempt prior to investigation and findings of guilty before trial, leading to prejudiced ignorance and stupid groupthink with alot of boring repetition, the Graduate Teaching Fellows and any collegiate parliamentary debate society, should have organized a debate series with the winners invited to give lectures and the losers invited to ask questions. We propose these terms for debate, since these are the questions at issue, and the propositions we have been given by the Palestinian alliance: [[Israel palestine debate]] The failure or refusal of the Graduate teaching fellows and the Students Union to do this demonstrates a basic incompetence, apparently due to a corruption of the intellectual tradition. This points to a need to revive the master's level disputation as a degree requirement in all academic fields. Sophistic [[refutations of antiIsraelism|refutations of anti-Israel formal fallacies]] of reasoning. The tendency of some anarchists, bolsheviks, and Palestinians to resort to these tactics - and a willingness of the Students Union to entertain this - is evidence of a more general condition of ignorance and intellectual corruption. We urge them instead to learn from the Jews in Palestine, instead of rallying for war and financing suicide killings, aimed at destroying Israel and driving Jews into exile, which would further impoverish the local Arabs. Also, we like pretzels and Hummus, which is in our humble opinion the best of both German and Palestinian food combined in a unique and delicious fusion. Sabra snacks are an appetizing alternative and a generous cultural gift to both Germany and Palestine, helping them both to atone for the unholy alliance between the Arab High Committee of Palestine and the Nazi party of third reich Germany during the 1930's and 40's. We want more Sabra hummus and pretzels in all our campus stores, in honor of the resistance. ==== Who speaks for the Jews? ==== We call on the ASUO and the GTFF to hear the [[https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pDwaASN9x/?img_index=1|official statement from the Campus Hillel, Campus Chabad, and "Ducks for Israel"]] and recognize that "it is deemed unacceptable to tokenize any marginalized community" and "be cautious of the tokenization of Jewish students during this time", and also read this: [[https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRQgyDhIjZupO2H-2rIDXLy_zkf76RoM-_ZIYsOfn9FkI7TETgRtOfXK9VobMvGh6iEZfDPgALXJTCR/pub|In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University]]. Conversion to an alternate religion and denial of the covenant, is one coping mechanism to the trauma of Jew-hatred, and it is strategy adopted over the centuries by certain Jews in response to anti-Judaism. Christianity, like Islam, Mormonism and subsequent religions appropriate Jewish texts and rituals, and alter their meaning in order to practice an anti-Jewish supercessionism and replacement. Atheistic Marxist-Leninism appropriates the Jewish teaching on "love thy neighbor" as well as the christian eschatology of "liberation of the world from Judaism", which Marx expands to include all capitalists, translating the supercessionist doctrine into the dialectic of historic materialism and broadening its focus. All these are anti-Jewish ideologies, and need to be critiqued as such, even though they are **not** racist anti-semitism (which was innovated in the 19th century in order to make traditional anti-Judaism (pseudo) "scientifically respectable"). Therefore Jews who convert, assimilate, and eat the easter ham or salute comrade Lenin, are accepted, welcomed, and sometimes even put on platforms and made into an example - but its still an act of Jew-hatred. And these are not, as some say, "self-hating" Jews. On the contrary, they are "self-loving" while "hating their people". There have always been among Sub-altern natives in colonized spaces, collaborators with the colonial power, and we should be aware that one can be complicit in his or her own oppression. Therefore ASUO, GTFF, the multi-cultural center, the student workers union and other groups should stop recognizing an anti-Jewish hate group like the so-called JVP as sole representative of Jews on campus, and stop using them as tokens to justify your ignorant bias and white-wash your anti-zionist movement. It is not merely the anti-Zionism that leads us to the denunciatory conclusion against the JVP, which is more accurately described as the "ex-Jewish voice for war" - we them because of their denial of other Jews, of God, and of covenant through their anti-Torah agenda, the atheism, the historical denialism, and the cultural appropriation and hermeneutic perversions of Jewish texts in support of an incommensurable alternate religion. If they repent and renounce, most Jewish communities would gladly receive them back. But as they rally for "global intifada" and for a war of annihilation against Israel in order to "free palestine" "from the river to the sea", and as they "glorify martyrs", they are unwilling to call for release of the Israeli hostages, unwilling to denounce the Oct. 7th "Al-aqsa flood" massacres, unwilling to denounce Hamas's genocidal charter, with whom they are effectively in solidarity. This is betrayal that should not be forgotten or forgiven, until it is atoned. If they dispute these allegations, they should publicly issue the denunciations on their media platforms and propaganda, and break the solidarity with this death cult of militant terrorism. Renunciation is an affirmative defense. Otherwise they do not represent authentic Jewish non-zionism and anti-nationalism, such as that taught by Jeremiah the prophet and others. Some of the so-called JVP are mere ethnic Jews, or ex-Jews rather, who have effectively converted to an alternate religion, and are cut off from the covenant and from their people, and are tokenized by outsiders. Others are insincere converts to reform Judaism using it as a cover for their primary goal of Queer liberation, or are false-flag political operators and agitators who are deliberately fraudulent. But idolaters, atheists, and other outsiders do not get to redefine Judaism according to their specifications, and then use their token "Jew" as proof that they are accepting and tolerant and not as antisemitic as they prima facie represent. By the way, we deprecate the term "antisemitism" and offer this [[revised IHRA definition of antisemitism|Definition of anti-Judaism]] instead. The International Holocaust Remembrance alliance, the Jerusalem Declaration signatories, and the Nexus project, also do not speak for Jews insofar as they are indifferent to Judaism, and apparently don't even believe that it exists anymore. ==== Jewish Teaching on the Universal message of Torah to the Nations? ==== How easy/hard is it for an Arab or Palestinian in Israel to convert to Judaism? To convert away from Christianity or Islam? Is there any [[https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/372121?lang=bi|teaching of the Noahide covenant]]? And what are Jewish attitudes about this? As a Noahide myself, I Jared Essig ben Noah can testify that although the Haredi Jews teach this, 80-90% of American Jewish communities I've sojourned among have abdicated this mission - at a great loss for themselves and for the world. This is a legacy of exile in Christian and Islamic nations that punished Jewish communities for accepting proselytes, as well as punishing the proselyte himself. I can imagine that a similar situation obtains in the holy land, to everyone's loss. But this insularity should be unlearned, and the universal message of Torah and the Hebrew prophets should be taught to spiritual seekers from all nations. Also the churches that I used to attend are deliberately and hostilely ignorant about this, and have considered me a heretic, legalist, and judaizer even though I'm not. My own so-called family and friends treated me as mentally ill or demon possesed. There is 1,800+ year history of this anti-Judaism in Christian Palestine, that should be critically analyzed and confronted prior to any efforts to remove Jewish institutions there. Eventually I started reading the book of Isaiah in its original context and according to its plain meaning, instead of the hermeneutic perversions offered by christianity's unbiblical supersessionism and replacement theology, which Marx borrowed and translated into his historic materialism, both of which I renounce. Neither the Church nor the Comintern is the "spiritual Israel", nor are they chosen people. כי מציון תצא תרה ודבר ה' מירושלים Many other nations and gentiles will go up in the latter days and will say this - "They will teach us of his paths, and we will learn to walk in his ways .. for from Zion goes forth the law, and the word of God from Jerusalem" Isaiah 2. This prophecy is being fulfilled among us. ===== Declare your Independence ===== American Jews and Ducks for Israel should act like scholars, historians, and political animals, and should not imitate what Americans do on 4th of July independence day. Instead, imitate religious Jews, and use the holiday to read your foundational text of secular zionism: * [[wp>Declaration_of_Independence_(Israel)]] * [[wp>he:מגילת_העצמאות_של_מדינת_ישראל]] Palestinians and their sympathizers also, in order to truly understand the Nakba, should read this: * [[wp>ar:وثيقة_إعلان_قيام_دولة_إسرائيل]] ===== Interested Scholars ===== * //Echoing our [[psu|Open Letter to PSU and all American Universities]]// * [[https://duckweb.uoregon.edu/duckweb/hwskdhnt.P_ListCrse?term_in=202303&sel_subj=dummy&sel_day=dummy&sel_schd=dummy&sel_insm=dummy&sel_camp=dummy&sel_levl=dummy&sel_sess=dummy&sel_instr=dummy&sel_ptrm=dummy&sel_attr=dummy&sel_cred=dummy&sel_tuition=dummy&sel_open=dummy&sel_weekend=dummy&sel_title=&sel_to_cred=&sel_from_cred=&sel_subj=PHIL&sel_crse=&sel_crn=&sel_camp=%25&sel_levl=%25&sel_attr=%25&begin_hh=0&begin_mi=0&begin_ap=a&end_hh=0&end_mi=0&end_ap=a&submit_btn=Show+Classes|Current philosophy classes]] * [[|history classes]] * [[|religion classes]] * [[https://youtu.be/oJbfMkbHk7w?t=3163|2024 Class President Luda Iskharov speaks at commencement]] ===== Union Resolutions, Official Responsa, Media Accounts ===== * [[wp>2024_University_of_Oregon_pro-Palestinian_campus_occupation|2024_University_of_Oregon_pro-Palestinian_campus_occupation]]. * President Scholz on May 1st (( [https://president.uoregon.edu/addressing-free-speech-safety-and-current-events] )) * [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/update-related-encampment|UO Update Related to the Campus Occupation]] * 7th May Statement from Ducks for Israel, Hillel, Chabad, jewish federation of Lane County (( [https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pDwaASN9x/?img_index=1] )) * 9th May statement from UofO negotiators, will not boycott or divest, but will fund viisting scholar program. (( [https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/uo-response-encampment-demands|UO response to encampment demands] )) Endorses statement by [[wp>AAUP|AAUP]] (( [https://newsletter.uauoregon.org/united-academics-statement-on-campus-protests/|United Academics statement on Campus Protests] )) * [[https://www.dailyemerald.com/news/encampment/|Daily Emerald Coverage]] * [[https://kval.com/news/local/pro-palestine-protesters-march-at-u-of-o|10th May Statement from President Scholz]] * [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a5MTDh3AV21JJylK9Cbg4DUYGUGs0OMhVDs_e8BPne8/edit?usp=embed_facebook|ASUO Divestment Resolution]] * [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c-5_6uR-AvfpZKdAu9zQ9DkeMj3dItNOjGTYMJcQsXc/edit?usp=embed_facebook|ASOSU BDS resolution]] * C.f. [[wp>2024_Portland_State_University_pro-Palestinian_campus_occupation|2024 Portland State University pro-Palestinian campus occupation]] * C.f. [[wp>2024_pro-Palestinian_protests_on_university_campuses|2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses]] * [[https://freebeacon.com/campus/inside-the-campus-playbook-to-build-a-nationwide-unity-intifada-in-support-of-hamas/|AMP/NSJP campus intifada playbook]] * [[https://president.uoregon.edu/agreement-reached-end-encampment|President Scholz letter announcing the agreement to end the occupation]] * [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/Encampment%20Resolution%20Agreement%205%2022%2024.pdf|UO-Gaza encampment agreement facilitated by UO Senate]] * [[@GradsforPalestine announcement of agreement]] open_letter_to_uo.txt Last modified: 2024/06/20 21:07by rcif