Show pageOld revisionsBacklinksNew pageNew folderBack to top This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. ===== Open Letter to Portland State University Students, Faculty and Administration ===== Presented before the Portland City Council [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU7eIJmT9s4&t=4454s|2 May 2024 1:14:14]] // See also: [[open_letter_to_uo#endorsing_faculty_shared_principles_denouncing_the_bigoted_ignorance_of_the_students_union_and_graduate_teaching_fellows|Open Letter to U of Oregon: Endorsing faculty shared principles denouncing the bigoted ignorance of the Students Union and Graduate teaching fellows]] // The PSU learning community is invited to join us in a learn-in on the history of Palestine, to take place on an ad hoc basis in the plaza between the student union and the library, until the library re-opens. We propose a lecture series, 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, seeking dialectical resolution of disputed questions, and careful analysis of the accusations that have made against Israel. Using [[wp>s:User:Jaredscribe/The_Israel-Palestine_reader|The Israel-Palestine reader]] as a starting point, for reading the primary sources from all sides, we will also admit texts proposed by our colleagues, and invite collaborators. We are also creating a companion course to the text by [[wp>David Nirenberg|Nirenberg, David]] (2014), [[wp>v:User:Jaredscribe/Antijudaism:_The_Western_Tradition|Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition]]. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-34791-5. Although originally given that name by the Greek historian Herodotus, Palestine began as a [[wp>Judaea (Roman province)|Jewish vassal state]] under Julius Caesar and then a colony of Rome, after the conquest and occupation by Roman legions under Titus Vespasian in 70 CE and later Hadrian in 130 CE, who first declared the colony and Roman province of "Syria Palestina", reducing its indigenous Jewish inhabitants to the status of sub-altern natives, or exiling them from their homeland. In addition to ad hoc lectures in the plaza, we may seek out the history, philosophy, and religion departmental libraries, where we hope to lecture from primary sources, and to consider opinions secondary and tertiary scholarship. Regarding the popular movement to abolish Israel and the wave of Palestinian campus occupations recently undertaken in furtherance of that goal, we urge all members of the learning community to 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]]. We commit to an open and non-dogmatic evaluation of the various contrary propositions we have been offered, in the spirit of skeptical inquiry. We invite all students, faculty, and teaching fellows to come and defend their theses in public disputation. Since no Zionists have appeared on campus to publicly advocate their cause, we will argue the government's propositions until better spokesmen can be found. Since the Palestinian advocates number in the hundreds and appear to have triumphed by default, and through sheer volume and duration, they do not need our help in on this camputs. They have not, however, won the moral or historical argument, and have merely formed an echo chamber that has become somewhat repetitive and boring. They have refused to even hear the argument for Israel, let alone respond to or refute it, and this appears to have degraded their faculties of intellectual and moral reasoning. Ignorance is not a counter-argument, nor an adequate solution to problems facing Palestinians, or the Arab or Islamic worlds as a whole. ===== Defend your theses in public disputation ===== [[Revised IHRA definition of antisemitism|Definition and refutations of Antijudaism and antisemitism]] Please read the [[Israel Palestine debate]] and affirm one of each of the contrary propositions offered, deny the other, defend your anlysis, or else do the research. Police action is not sufficient to defeat a terrorist ideology or an epistemic error - this can only be done through moral philosophy: through defending your theses and through sophistic refutations of your opponents. Please read the theses which we've offered in the linked article, with the contrary propositions from the palestinian alliance alongside, and provide a forum for both parties to come to terms and engage in a public disputation under rules of parliamentary debate. Any response to calls for divestment and boycott from alleged "terrorist" or "rogue states" should include at least the following: Lebanon/Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Algeria, alongside Israel, which is unjustly singled out. Israel and the Palestinian Authority should both be investigated, as both are recipients of U.S. aid. But demands for divestment that single out Israel, hold it to a different standard than every other nation, that deny or endorse the Oct 7th "Al-Aqsa flood" massacres, are manifestations of ignorant and prejudiced anti-Jewish bias. They should not be entertained, and should be actively rebuked, because although Jews are often the first group to suffer, they're almost never the last. Now the entire learning community has lost use of PSU Millar Library for the next few months, as a result of entertaining this prejudiced violence against the world's one and only Jewish state. Also, Hamas is still in power and using civilians as its human shields, and Israel is still at war with Hamas, bringing death on thousands, and seeking redemption of hostages. If the administration takes a position on US foreign policy in this war, it should demand that the State department pressure Egypt to open its border to refugees seeking asylum, before exerting any pressure on Israel to abandon efforts at redeeming its hostages. The faculty and administration 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. (Presented before [[https://youtu.be/EcWQeHklnSU?t=1473|City Council 13 May 24:33]]) We should prohibit any US tax dollars from financing Palestinian terrorism, before considering divestments from companies that do business with Israel. Regards, Jared Essig ben Noah Master of Arts (unaccredited). Post-baccalaureate scholar, volunteer Lecturer in philosophy, history, religion, and the liberal arts, and biblical languages. [[https://jaredscribe.com/#theses-condemnations-and-apologies-full-text|Theses and Apology at the Condemnation of Athens]] In support of the educational mission "Let Knowledge Serve the City" Advocate, RoseCityIronFront.org ==== University of Oregon ===== [[Open Letter to UO]] [[wp>2024_University_of_Oregon_pro-Palestinian_campus_occupation]] ==== Official Statements and media accounts ==== * [[https://www.pdx.edu/campus-protest-updates|PSU Campus Protest Updates]] * [[wp>2024 Portland State University pro-Palestinian campus occupation]] ==== Op-eds and Propaganda ==== * [[https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2024/07/portland-faces-400000-cost-to-replace-burned-out-police-cars-still-no-arrests-in-arson-investigation.html|Police cars hit in simultaneous arson attack, will cost $400,000 to replace]] * [[https://psuvanguard.com/we-need-solidarity-to-achieve-liberation/|PSU Vanguard: We need solidarity to achieve liberation]] 3rd June * [[https://www.portlandtribune.com/townnews/politics/opinion-panthers-push-psu-to-change-name-to-rachel-corrie-university/article_51499fea-1e9e-11ef-a9d3-43d638552387.html|Portland Gray Panthers propose PSU name change in honor of pro-Palestinian protestors]], 30th May. Also disagree with 14th May article below. * [[https://www.portlandtribune.com/townnews/museums/opinion-protesters-at-psu-harm-their-message-of-peace-with-dysfunctional-approach/article_a181abcc-0e3d-11ef-8865-c7b8ba4cd651.html|Palestinian Protestors at PSU harm their message of peace with dysfunctional approach]], 14th may psu.txt Last modified: 2024/08/06 20:00by rcif