Palestinian-American and Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour was the keynote speaker on March 31 in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The event was sponsored by Orange County’s Department of Human Rights & Relations and The Orange County Human Relations Commission (HRC) of NC “in honor of Women’s History Month.” Sarsour was paid $5,000 plus expenses.

As she recently tried at NYU, Sarsour attempted to repackage herself as someone tolerant of different views. However, the divisive Linda Sarsour quickly emerged.

Speaking to about 110 people in a room with room for 200, Sarsour attacked Israel and applauded the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Sarsour has been widely criticized for saying “nothing is creepier than Zionism” and advising Muslims not to “humanize” Israelis. Speaking in Hillsborough, Sarsour urged folks not to dehumanize others. Coming from Sarsour, this is a perfect example of do as I say, not as I do. 

Sarsour said her movement is feministic and tolerant of debate and different views, yet neglected to mention that she has alienated Jewish women and drawn widespread criticism for saying that Zionists cannot be feminists. The national Women’s March has been rocked in recent months by allegations of their leaders’ anti-Semitism, resulting in numerous organizations breaking away from the movement, including the Democratic National Committee, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Greenpeace, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It is no wonder that Sarsour, one of the Women’s March leaders largely responsible for its decline, is trying to rebrand herself as tolerant of people who hold different positions.

Sarsour attempted to characterize her views on Israel as simple criticism, saying, “Just because you and I don’t share the same positions on a foreign policy issue, it doesn’t make me a hateful person.” This gets to the heart of Sarsour’s anti-Semitism – she demonizes and delegitimizes Israel and treats Israel differently than all other countries. At this event, Sarsour expressed strong concerns about Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, but applauded boycotting only one country on the planet – the Jewish majority country of Israel. And when she gets called out on this anti-Semitism, Sarsour claims this demonization of Israel is simply political criticism.

Sarsour complained that many people know the name of notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan but do not know the name of the Pittsburgh synagogue killer. Sarsour stated that she understands that words are hurtful and people should be able to discuss that hurt, but concluded, “If we focus our attention on the people with the words and not the people with the power and the guns, we’re having a big problem here.”

The question that many audience members wondered is, why can’t we focus on objecting to mass murder and on objecting to anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan spreading their hate? Surely there must be room for standing up to both. Many have criticized Women’s March leaders for their association with Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam. Sarsour’s eagerness to divert attention away from Farrakhan appeared self-serving.

As she did a few weeks earlier at UNC-Chapel Hill, Sarsour said twice that during World War II, the United States placed Japanese Americans into “concentration camps.” The United States government was certainly correct to apologize and pay reparations for forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps. However, Sarsour’s use of the term “concentration camps” – a term with intense, personal, and solemn meaning to the Jewish people – was unnecessarily inflammatory and trivialized the Holocaust by inaccurately comparing the treatment of Japanese Americans by the United States during WWII to the treatment, indeed wholesale murder, of Jews by the Nazis of Germany’s Third Reich.

Sarsour stated that the United States “is complicit in the holocaust against Jews.” There were gasps of anger from many audience members because Sarsour did not mention the hundreds of thousands of brave Americans who died fighting Nazis and fascism in WWII. While American Jews are well aware of the Jewish refugees who were refused entry into our country during WWII, we are also thankful for the tremendous sacrifice that American soldiers and the allies made in both ending the holocaust and defeating the Nazis.

Discussing some of her fellow activists, Sarsour stated, “They believe in the abolition of police. That’s what they believe. I’m almost there.” This statement drew wide applause from what can broadly be called the “social justice” activists in the room which included attending officials and event organizers. Sarsour did not acknowledge or thank the many law enforcement officers in the room and outside who kept the event safe and kept about 70 demonstrators peacefully apart. Sarsour also said she was nearing the point where she could support abolishing prisons.

During the question and answer period, Sarsour identified racism and capitalism as equivalent problems. Sarsour explained that capitalism forces people to compete with each other and stated, “Racism and capitalism, you can’t talk about them separately.” She did not complain, however, about being paid $5,000 plus expenses to speak. Sarsour certainly never objected to that part of capitalism.

A few days before the event, Orange County sent out an email stating that Sarsour could not be recorded, filmed, or photographed by attendees. The taxpayers funding the speech could be removed for doing so. Oddly enough, the event organizers billed Sarsour’s speech as a “Courageous Conversation.” A number of audience members observed that courageous speakers have no problem being recorded.

During Sarsour’s talk, I saw a number of people recording and taking pictures using their phones. An event staff member repeatedly asked a pro-Israel audience member to stop filming, yet ignored others in the room. The pro-Israel woman who was filming told the staff member that this was a public meeting, which she said included a quorum of elected officials, and she would not stop recording. This neutralized the staff member who finally stopped approaching her.

As reported in the Tower, Orange County Commissioner Earl McKee told me, “I only know that I had no part of any of this and am sure that many other well-qualified women could have been asked to speak…This type of conduct will continue until folks rise up and put a stop to it, either through public pressure or at the polls.”

Before her speech, four local rabbis wrote to the Orange County HRC: “By inviting Ms. Sarsour, whose statements on Zionism and Israel alienate many in the Jewish community, the Human Relations Council is dividing rather than uniting us.” According to one of the local synagogues, the Orange County Department of Human Rights and Relations responded, “Thank you for letting us know of your concern about Women’s History Month – Courageous Conversations with Linda Sarsour. Please see the link with FAQs for more information.” Would Orange County have ever responded to a group of Christian or Muslim clergy in such a dismissive way by sending a form letter? Of course not.

Considering that Sarsour was paid $5,000 plus expenses, and the event had about ten uniformed officers working and other expenses, it is likely that each “free” ticket will end up costing the taxpayers $100 or more.

After Sarsour spoke, she sat down for a question and answer period with Deborah Stroman, who chairs the Orange County HRC. Audience members submitted written questions that were given to Stroman. The first three questions Stroman asked appeared to be her own questions. Stroman then chose several questions submitted by the audience. As one audience member observed – they were all softballs. Stroman concluded the event by thanking Sarsour for her “truth-telling.”

During her speech, Sarsour mentioned the protests outside and bragged that protesters help her fill rooms for speaking engagements. Toward the end of Sarsour’s speech, there were only about 75 people left in the room. It was striking that this national Women’s March leader drew a sparse crowd while bragging about filling rooms. Perhaps Sarsour’s divisiveness is not as popular as she thinks.

Sarsour discussed many issues that could and should unite people, such as health care, children killed in shootings, education, racism, and prison reform. However, Sarsour’s attempt to reinvent herself as a uniter quickly failed as she targeted Israel, the police, white liberals, capitalism, and even those who speak out against the hate speech of Louis Farrakhan.

[Photo: Quartz / YouTube ]

When we returned from a free catered lunch, Shai Tamari, the conference organizer, announced that audience members were no longer allowed to record the conference. A few minutes later, Tamari leaned over me to tell the person sitting next to me to stop recording – my neighbor had been taking photographs of each slide. Then, Tamari sat down in the aisle next to me and kept looking our way for about 30 minutes.

The next speakers were Mohammed Eid (a UNC Rotary Peace Fellow from Gaza studying Global Studies) and Tania Hary (an Israeli activist) on “In and Out: Gaza and Freedom of Movement.”  An audience member asked Eid if he is able to lobby Hamas on issues such as human rights and corruption the same way that Hary can safely lobby the Israeli government on these issues. Eid responded, “As far as I know we don’t have that tradition.” Eid’s response may qualify him for the understatement of the year.

Eid continued his response by providing the example of a family in Gaza going to the Palestinian police station to complain and the Palestinian government then “bombed everyone” and killed them. Eid added that when Palestinians protest their government, “We get whipped on our backs for doing that, we get shot, we get killed, we get dragged down the streets.”

An audience member then asked, “Ninety-eight percent of the conversation today has been about Israel. Why is there not more pressure on Egypt to open its borders [with Gaza]?” Eid responded that it was an important question but that discussing the Palestinian-Egyptian relationship would be best for a different panel or conference. In other words, Eid was saying this is a conference for bashing Israel, not Egypt.

A Palestinian audience member, who identified as a UNC student, admiringly referred to Hamas and Hezbollah, two terrorist organizations, as the “Palestinian Avengers,” who seek “revenge” against Israel for the Palestinian people. The moderator did not cut the audience member off for his commentary as she had with pro-Israel and Jewish audience members. At UNC, it is apparently okay for a Palestinian audience member to compare Hamas to superheroes but not okay for a Jewish audience member to express empathy for all people facing challenges and tragedy.

After talking uninterruptedly about his respect for Hamas and Hezbollah, the audience member asked Eid to share his opinion on these terrorist organizations. Eid began by reminding the audience that they need to bear in mind that he would be traveling back to Gaza. In other words, he is afraid of Hamas and Hezbollah. I could only imagine the courage it took for him to say this, understanding the retribution and harm that might come to him or his family on his return.

Apparently fearful to even say these groups by name, Eid alarmingly responded, “I had different perspectives and different opinions growing up about different groups. But most recently, especially after studying here in this program, I see this from a different perspective. And I see that those groups are just political parties with political interests.”

Eid essentially told the audience that his studies at UNC taught him that these internationally recognized terrorist organizations are simply political parties with their own interests. The protestor’s sign, which read “UNC Indoctrination Education Center,” demonstrated amazing prescience for this moment.

I left before the final presentation, “Gaza and the World: Egypt, Israel, and the United States,” featuring speaker Lara Friedman. Several audience members who stayed contacted me afterward to say they were appalled that Friedman “repeatedly bashed Israel with no let-up.”

One audience member quoted Friedman as saying, “Israel has put Gaza on a diet. It calculates the bare number of calories needed for subsistence and provides food at that level.” The audience member told me, “It’s interesting that an earlier speaker talked about the surplus of vegetables in Gaza, and if Israel would only open the border, Gazans could sell them and make money.”

As the day ended, I could only wonder if the Duke and UNC senior administration understand that by hosting such a conference under the guise of academic freedom, in reality, they are helping to discriminate against Jews and Israeli academics.

A press release issued after the conference stated, “North Carolina Hillel is disappointed that the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies’ ‘Conflict Over Gaza’ conference featured speakers who demonized Israel…Conference organizers selected largely like-minded speakers, including many who were on record as favoring boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel…Substituting advocacy for academic discourse only serves to undermine academia’s highest principles.”

This conference was about Israel-bashing and was held on Shabbat, a time that excluded observant Jewish students and community members from participating. A speaker who promoted BDS against Israel at the conference refused to speak with a Jewish student from Duke. Jewish and pro-Israel audience members were told that they could ask a question only, while pro-Palestinian questioners were allowed longer periods of time to comment and set up their questions. Conference attendees were greeted with photographs glorifying terrorism against Israel and the Jewish people. Mainstream pro-Israel groups, such as the UNC and Duke Hillel student chapters, were not invited to participate.

On March 28 the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics sent out an email stating, “Swastikas were found drawn on one of our resident hall floors.” Does it surprise anyone that Swastikas would appear on a local campus following a three-day Israel-bashing conference? Teaching students and the community to demonize Israel creates a safe place for anti-Semitism to flourish.

The application for the federal grant awarded to The UNC and Duke Consortium for Middle East Studies mentions “discrimination” 38 times. For example, it says, “I certify that the applicant…Will comply with all Federal statutes relating to nondiscrimination.” UNC, Duke University, and the federal government need to take a close look at this conference and consider if the Jewish community and Israeli academics were targeted and singled out in a discriminatory manner.

This article concludes a three-part series on a joint UNC-Duke conference on Gaza. You can read parts one and two of the series on The Tower website.

In the first conference presentation, titled “The (De) Development of Gaza: Economy, Women, and Youth,” both speakers, Sara Roy and Laila El-Haddad, and the moderator, Rebecca Stein, all are on record having supported various boycotts of Israel. El-Haddad is a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Roy signed a “letter calling on scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.” Stein is a signatory to the Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions (ABIAI), which calls to “boycott Israeli academic institutions.”

El-Haddad gave an angry presentation that began with her accusing Israel of “settler colonialism,” which is a term used to erase thousands of years of Jewish history on the land. She repeatedly spoke of the “Great March of Return” as a heroic and peaceful march met with Israeli violence. El-Haddad never mentioned that within the past 12 months, Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 1300 rockets at Israel. The Jerusalem Post further reported that during this so-called march, “Gazans have also launched thousands of aerial incendiary devices into southern Israel, leading to 2,000 separate fires resulting in over 35,000 dunams (approximately 8,500 acres) of land being burnt.”

Continuing with her demonization of Israel, El-Haddad referred to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza as a conspiracy or scheme of “reengagement in the West Bank.” In other words, Israel left Gaza to double down on the West Bank.

Toward the end of her presentation, El-Haddad complained that the security zone between Israel and Gaza forced “Palestinians in Gaza to fish without water and farm without land.” Yet out in the lobby, there were beautiful photographs on display of vibrant Palestinian farms and of Palestinians fishing in the water. Another presenter complained of Gaza having surplus produce. The messages were bizarrely inconsistent.

Sara Roy, who has been criticized for “draw[ing] parallels between the behavior of Israeli soldiers and Nazis during the Third Reich,” spoke next. She discussed what she called the “recent social protests” in Gaza. “People are protesting across all of Gaza’s governance. Against inflation rates, the cost of living, and ever-worsening conditions.” Roy continued, “These protests are organic and apolitical… They are not directed at Hamas or any faction…” About 10 seconds later, Roy said, “People are protesting several measures, including Hamas’ recent tax hike on consumer goods, their very oppressive taxation policy overall, the PA’s [Palestinian Authority’s] economic sanctions…” Such a peculiar “analysis” explains why many question Roy’s basic understanding of the conflict.

Roy said she wanted to conclude by sharing an idea she had in “another context.” She said, “Israel claims that it must maintain a blockade against an enemy that threatens it. This question should not be shirked as it long has been but critically examined and clarified legally.” Roy’s conclusion was that it is crucially important to consider Israel’s self-defense but not here and not now. It was a clear acknowledgment that this joint UNC/Duke conference was meant for bashing Israel, not for considering with any depth how Palestinian terrorism forces Israel and Egypt to defend their borders and citizens against endless Palestinian terror.

During questions and answers, the panel was asked to comment on the concerns of many Palestinians that Hamas is diverting humanitarian aid to fund terrorism. Roy responded, “If you truly want to help the people of Gaza, you end the siege…and then everything else can come from that.” Roy’s response not only blamed Israel for Hamas’ corruption but completely dismissed Israel’s security concerns. Bizarrely, only minutes earlier, Roy had concluded her presentation by urging people to stop dismissing Israel’s security concerns and to start seriously examining them. One again, it was clear, this conference was for attacking Israel.

An audience member asked El-Haddad to contrast the Palestinian experience with the plight of  more than 800,000 Jews who were exiled from Arab lands and Iran in the 20th century with no “right of return” and Jordan’s expulsion of Jews in Jerusalem in 1948. I was sitting very close to the stage and heard El-Haddad talk off-microphone and tell Stein and Roy that she wasn’t interested in answering the question.

Then, with audible disgust, El-Haddad answered by explaining her view that “Palestinian refugees are unique in international refugee law in the sense that they are the only group of refugees that are not given an international protection mandate…where they are not allowed granted rights of return…So there is no comparison. It is an affront, I think, to both groups, to be able to draw such a comparison. So, I don’t entertain those discussions, and I don’t even like to go there…It’s dehumanizing to all groups.” In El-Haddad’s world view, one should not discuss the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were displaced at the hands of Arab countries and Iran. To do so, she says, is dehumanizing.

Because the panel and the conference were unbalanced and biased, there was no one onstage to challenge El-Haddad.

In my question, I pointed out that all three speakers onstage have participated in various boycotts related to Israel and asked, “What other countries are you boycotting?” Stein did not answer. El-Haddad went into a long response saying that she “absolutely” supports boycotting Israel, which she said is warranted because that is what Palestinians want. El-Haddad did not list a single other country to boycott. Roy responded, “I haven’t participated in any boycotts of any country,” which was curious, since her name appears on a “letter calling on scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.”

A Jewish student from Duke asked the panel what Israel was supposed to do because if it fully opens the border with Gaza, then weapons, weapon materials, and money used to fund terrorism will pour into Gaza from countries such as Iran and will be used to inflict even more terrorism on Israel. El-Haddad responded that the “siege” is “not about Israeli security or protect[ion] of Israel. Very clear, you know, they have stated, you know, it is about stifling development and prosperity…Gaza is Israel’s dumping ground…it’s a very essential dumping ground for the Israeli economy.”

El-Haddad’s response indicates that she believes that Israel does not need to protect itself against terror tunnels, rocket fire, and suicide killers and that Israel’s security measures are really just an evil plan to be cruel to Palestinians. El-Haddad ended her response by telling the audience member that Israel’s security concerns are “another way to dehumanize Palestinians in Gaza.”

After the panel, as everyone was leaving for snacks and conversation, the Jewish Duke student politely approached El-Haddad and asked if they could talk. As the student asked if they could talk, El-Haddad picked up her phone, placed it against her ear, and said she couldn’t speak to the student. A woman in El-Haddad’s entourage told the student in an unfriendly manner that El-Haddad was done with the conference. This all happened inches away from me.

About a minute later, I saw El-Haddad speaking to a group in the lobby. I recognized one person in the group as a local anti-Israel activist. I asked the Jewish student about this because I saw the whole thing. He said he was hurt and annoyed that El-Haddad refused to speak with him. Hours later, El-Haddad was still at the conference, speaking to supporters, eating lunch with supporters, and talking about her book at the bookstore.

I have been to many “academic” conferences. This is the first time I have ever seen a speaker refuse to speak with a student or with any other conference participant.

One of the next speakers was Hani Almadhoun, presenting on “Humanitarian Crisis: Food, Water, and Health.” Almadhoun stated that when Israel withdrew from Gaza, it purposely “left a Jewish synagogue or temple so the Palestinians can destroy it and look bad doing that.” In this world view, Israel is blamed when Palestinians destroy a synagogue.

A pro-Israel audience member began a question by trying to briefly say he felt sympathy for all people facing hardship. He was immediately cut off by the moderator and instructed to ask his question. This exemplified a theme of the day – moderators allowed anti-Israel audience members long comment periods before questions but quickly cut off Jewish and pro-Israel audience members.

Almadhoun was asked, “Over the years, the Hamas government of Gaza has received billions of dollars in humanitarian aid that instead has been diverted to terror tunnels, rockets, bombs, guns, etc. If that aid is instead prioritized and given for humanitarian aid, do you think that would help the situation? If so, what can you do about it? If no, why not?”

Almadhoun mocked the questioner by saying, “Thank you for your genuine concern for the Palestinian people…I appreciate that.” Almadhoun’s response caused many in the audience to laugh at the questioner. Until that moment, I had never seen a presenter at an academic conference make fun of an audience member.

While admitting that Palestinian corruption exists, Almadhoun concluded his answer by saying, “Israelis are always interested in blaming the Palestinians for their own misery, and that’s a nice copout if it makes you sleep better at night. But you know, the facts disagree with you.”

Almadhoun took the time to mock the questioner and to tell this audience member that the facts go against him but did not feel the need to explain what “facts” he was talking about. This Israel-bashing conference had clearly turned into an event in which audience members who support Israel were being treated poorly and differently than everyone else. Many would call that discrimination.

At this moment, much about the conference became crystal clear. UNC and Duke were jointly holding a conference aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing Israel and holding Israel to double standards because doing so is safe. Israel doesn’t kill you for disagreeing.

This article is part of a three-part series on the joint UNC Chapel Hill-Duke conference “Conflict over Gaza.”  Part one ran in The Tower yesterday. Part three you can exclusively read on our website tomorrow.

[Photo: Peter Reitzes ]

On Saturday March 23, I attended UNC-Chapel Hill’s (UNC-CH) “Conflict Over Gaza,” which I had hoped might possibly be constructive but in reality, was an anti-Israel hate-fest. The three-day conference was sponsored by UNC’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies. As reported in the Tower, the opening reception and the opening remarks, as well as the full-day “academic sessions,” were all held on Shabbat, thus preventing observant members of the Jewish community from attending.

At 8am, an hour before the conference was to begin, there was already a large, peaceful group of protestors holding signs such as “Free Gaza from Hamas,” “UNC Indoctrination Education Center” and “Gaza Elected a Terrorist Government.” Protestors handed out copies of the previous day’s New York Times column on how Hamas terrorizes and brutalizes the Palestinian people, the people it rules.

The large lobby area served as the central gathering place with vendor tables and catered snacks. It featured a large screen that played a photo collage on repeat, celebrating and glorifying Palestinian terrorism against Israel. Conference attendees continually saw photographs of Palestinians attacking Israel with incendiary devices, such as fire kites. Photographs of other forms of Palestinian terror – such as rockets and mortars being launched at Israel, terror tunnels, and suicide killers – were deliberately omitted from the collage.

The myth being sold here is that Palestinians fight with just kites and fire. Nowhere were there photographs of Israeli children hiding and crying in shelters as rockets from Gaza exploded around them.

There was a table with hundreds of free conference t-shirts that prominently said “Gaza,” which conference staff were busy folding and handing out. There were hundreds of free tote bags, as well, with regular announcements throughout the day to get your free gear. I can’t imagine UNC and Duke ever handing out hundreds of free t-shirts that said “Israel.” When the UNC and Duke Consortium for Middle East Studies applied for and received a federal grant through the Department of Education (DOE) worth $235,000, I wonder if the federal government imagined that free Gaza “swag” was part of the plan.

There was a “UNC Student Stores” bookstore setup with more than 20 titles that shared central themes of anti-Israel and Hamas apologetics. I picked up a book titled Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide and opened it to a random page. The first paragraph I read in the book included the following statement: “Intrinsically and religiously Hamas could not be anti-Jewish.” The author went on to admit that Hamas’ charter contains many “anti-Jewish statements” but then dismissed Hamas’ charter as “irrelevant” to the group. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that Hamas is “well known” for “anti-Jewish hatred.” The United States, European Union, and many others classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. The corrupt message being sold was: Hamas says they don’t like Jews, but they don’t really believe it.

The book store attendant informed me that the Conference Director chose the books being sold at the event.

Another book was titled Gaza Mom, authored by conference speaker Laila El-Haddad. This book repeatedly compares the treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust, stating, “The real genocide in Gaza cannot or will not be assessed through sheer numbers. It is not a massacre of gas chambers. No. It is a slow and calculated genocide – a Genocide through more calibrated, long-term means.” Trivializing the Holocaust yet again in the book, El-Haddad even referred to election workers as “election Nazis.” Why would UNC sell and presumably profit from such books?

Next to the bookstore table was an UNRWA table (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). One of the UNRWA handouts for conference attendees stated, “Our vision is an America invested in in [sic] the lives and dignity of Palestine refugees.” The UNRWA materials did not mention or call for an end to Palestinian terrorism against Israel or for an end to Hamas’ brutalization of Palestinians.

Lori Mosher, program manager, represented UNRWA at the conference. On Twitter, Mosher has accused Israel of specifically targeting Palestinian children, which is typical of earlier anti-Semitic blood libels.

A flyer at the conference registration table invited attendees to an upcoming anti-police and anti-Israel event that UNC’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Coalition for Peace with Justice were sponsoring. Both of these anti-Israel organizations promote boycotting Israel. According to the ADL, SJP chapters “regularly demonize Jewish students who identify as Zionists.” Professor Elyse Crystall is faculty advisor to the UNC-CH chapter of SJP. Crystall is well-known for her anti-Semitic positions, having, for example, opposed a candidate for the Durham, NC City Council because the candidate – a Latino immigrant from Colombia – attends synagogue.

None of the local organizations that educate and advocate for Israel were invited to participate in any manner in this conference. The Duke and UNC organizers snubbed their own Duke and UNC Hillel chapters, as well as the Jewish Federation of Durham-Chapel Hill, which represent thousands of local Jews and the local synagogues. None were invited to participate. Voice4Israel and the North Carolina Coalition for Israel (NCCI), two very active groups, were also not invited to attend, to have a table with educational materials, or to present.

Mainstream pro-Israel groups and voices were excluded from all facets of this Israel-bashing conference.

This article is part of a three-part series on the joint UNC Chapel Hill-Duke “Conference on Gaza.” Parts two and three will run in The Tower on Thursday and Friday respectively.

[Photo: Peter Reitzes ]

Linda Sarsour will be the keynote speaker on March 31 in Hillsborough, North Carolina at an event sponsored by Orange County’s Department of Human Rights & Relations and The Orange County Human Relations Commission (HRC) of NC “in honor of women’s history month.” The event will be a part of the “Courageous Conversations” series.

Orange County Commissioner Earl McKee told me, “The Human Relations Commission extended the invitation and she [Sarsour] will be paid $5000 plus expenses.” McKee continued, “I only know that I had no part of any of this and am sure that many other well-qualified women could have been asked to speak. Perhaps a question to the Chair at the meeting on April 2nd would be appropriate although I doubt you would get an answer…This type of conduct will continue until folks rise up and put a stop to it, either through public pressure or at the polls.”

McKee’s comments come in the wake of Sarsour’s keynote speech at the Minority Health Conference held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC-CH) Gillings School of Public Health. Rather than addressing major health issues, Sarsour used this prestigious platform, as she often does, to promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Sarsour is an American-Palestinian activist known for her hostility towards Israel, who said “nothing is creepier than Zionism” and has advised  Muslims not to “humanize” Israelis.

A former HRC chair told me that Sarsour is being paid an “extreme amount of money” to be a guest speaker at the Hillsborough event.

In a press release, Orange County announced it suggested that Sarsour speak on the topic of “Intersectional Feminism.” Sarsour’s intersectional feminism is obsessed with demonizing and delegitimizing Israel – the only Jewish majority country on the planet and the only democracy in the Middle East. For example, Sarsour has declared that Zionists cannot be feminists, alienating many Jewish women. Having gained fame and power as a Women’s March organizer, Sarsour uses this position to promote boycotting Israel as an intersectional feminist cause.

At the minority health conference, Sarsour promoted the boycott of only one country – Israel. She did not mention boycotting any other country, including so many with known abuses of their own populations. This is why so many view Sarsour as anti-Semitic – she demonizes and delegitimizes Israel and holds Israel to a vastly different and much higher standard than any other country.

Mayor Tom Stevens told me, “The Town of Hillsborough has not played any role in the event.” However, Stevens added, “My personal opinion is she [Sarsour] is a particularly appropriate speaker for the event for which she was invited.” I reached out via phone and email to Annette Moore, Orange County’s Director of Human Rights & Relations with questions for this column. She did not respond. In a press release published a day after I contacted her, Moore said, “We are thrilled” to feature Linda Sarsour.

Orange County resident Beth Goldstein told me, “The choice of Linda Sarsour promotes discrimination against women who oppose her views, gay women who support Israel, and Jews of all colors in Israel as she selectively demonizes the only true democracy in the Middle East. It is shameful that the Orange County Human Relations Commission has chosen to spend such high amounts of taxpayer’s money on someone who has promoted anti-LGBT and anti-Israel rhetoric under the pretenses of ‘courageous conversations.’ It is time that we bring people together with positive energy and cohesive messages rather than a platform to promote half-truths and discord.”

The Orange County HRC appears to lack strong leadership. Several recent HRC meetings were not even able to achieve a quorum of members. For example, on October 8, only three of 10 members were present. I can find no accessible public records — such as minutes posted on a website — explaining who specifically suggested Sarsour, who approved Sarsour, and who ultimately authorized paying Sarsour.

Sources tell me that even the Orange Community Commissioners were not informed of Sarsour’s invitation until the public began voicing strong concerns.

The event announcement and registration page for the March 31 event states, “The Orange County Department of Human Rights & Relations is dedicated to fostering positive human relations.” It is hard to see how inviting Sarsour, a speaker who divides and alienates communities fosters this goal.

The Jewish community feels betrayed, unwelcomed, targeted, and attacked. Resident Maxine Ershler Carr wrote to Director Moore, Mayor Stevens, and a Commissioner, “I am a Jew and it frightens me to think that she [Sarsour] will be speaking at a state-sponsored event, stirring up anti-Semitism within driving distance of my home.”

[Photo: CBS News / YouTube ]

In February, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) hosted anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, who gave the keynote address at its Minority Health Conference. Sarsour used this prestigious UNC platform to promote Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against only one country on the planet – Israel.

In a move that many community members fear could be much worse, UNC and Duke are now preparing to jointly host a conference that will be used by some to demonize and delegitimize Israel. Titled “Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics, and Possibilities” and scheduled for March 22-24, the conference is sponsored by UNC’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies. Co-sponsors include many departments and organizations, including the Gillings School of Global Public Health, which hosted Sarsour.

To ensure the integrity of the institutions sponsoring the event, a non-biased academic conference on Gaza would invite non-biased individuals to present. However, a look at some participants of this large conference on Gaza raises multiple concerns of severe anti-Israel bias even before the conference starts.

For instance, providing welcoming remarks is speaker Laila El-Haddad, who has tweeted “Israel is a terrorist state” and is an outspoken supporter of the BDS movement. El-Haddad has made dozens of pro-BDS tweets and even encouraged a boycott of Sabra hummus.

El-Haddad has charged Israel with “equating [Palestinian] children with human cannon fodder” and with seeking the “extermination” of Palestinians. Beginning this three-day conference by featuring a speaker who regularly demonizes Israel sets a tone where students and other attendees can expect little complexity and no nuance.

El-Haddad has publicly supported terror tunnels burrowed from Gaza into Israel. The purpose of these tunnels is to kill and kidnap Israelis. El-Haddad tweeted, “#ResistanceTunnels have existed in #Gaza since ancient times: they stifled Alexander the Greats attempts to conquer the city. #justsaying.”

Comparing Gaza to the Holocaust, El-Haddad wrote, “The real genocide in Gaza cannot or will not be assessed through sheer numbers. It is not a massacre of gas chambers. No. It is a slow and calculated genocide – a Genocide through more calibrated, long-term means.”

El-Haddad also tweeted “MOO-COW-ama…Arabic speakers will get it: say it out loud.  (muqawama is Resistance in Arabic).” The Washington Institute warned, “The literal translation of the Arabic word muqawama is ‘resistance,’ but that does not reflect the full meaning of the term. A more correct translation would be ‘the doctrine of constant combat,’ or ‘persistent warfare,’ which is how Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Khaled Mashal define it.”

The plight of the citizens of Gaza inspires legitimate empathy. Yet Hamas – the democratically elected ruling party of Gaza – is a terrorist organization intent on firing rockets, mortars, and incendiary devices at Israel and digging terror tunnels into Israel with the purpose of indiscriminately killing civilians, including children. No one would object to a conference on Gaza featuring political and cultural topics and possible solutions. It is the biased demonization and delegitimization of Israel to which we object.

One of the conference moderators is Rebecca Stein, an anti-Israel activist from Duke’s Department of Cultural Anthropology. In an article titled “Ivory Tower Bigots,” Tablet Magazine harshly criticized Stein’s 2015 book on Gaza for being an “Orwellian,” one-sided attack on Israel.

Stein is a signatory to the Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions (ABIAI), which calls to “boycott Israeli academic institutions.” The ABIAI offers Stein as a suggested speaker to run a “boycott teach-in,” explaining that Stein “can speak about…the cultural terms of Israeli colonialism.”

She’s joined by Sara Shields from UNC-CH’s Department of History. Shields signed the “Historians’ Letter to President Obama and Members of Congress,” which calls on the US government to “suspend US military aid to Israel.” Shields has promoted BDS petitions on social media.

Meanwhile, conference speaker Sara Roy has been criticized for “draw[ing] parallels between the behavior of Israeli soldiers and Nazis during the Third Reich.” In an article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Roy discussed the treatment of a Palestinian man by Israeli soldiers, writing, “In this instance, there was no difference between the German soldier and the Israeli one.”

Roy’s bias and knowledge of the conflict have both been questioned. For example, in 2017, Roy wrote, “One well-placed person claimed that ‘50 to 60 per cent of Hamas’ would give up any claim to Jerusalem in return for the Rafah border crossing being opened up again.” Roy presented this “outlandish” anonymous view without challenge.

As if that weren’t enough, the “academic” portion of this conference, the opening reception, and the opening remarks are all on Shabbat, thus preventing observant members of the Jewish community from attending. Excluding them from a topic of huge interest to the Jewish community is ethically corrupt and suggests that UNC and Duke may be attempting to stifle criticism and pushback. Would UNC and Duke ever schedule a conference titled “Conflict Over Israel” on Eid al-Fitr, thus ensuring that observant Muslims could not attend? Of course not.

The conference lacks even a single presentation, film, or work of art concerned with the tens of thousands of Israelis who suffer from endless Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks launched from Gaza into Israel. How can the conference talk about conflict in Gaza and not simultaneously talk about Israel’s security?

Within the past 12 months, Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 1300 rockets at Israel. The Jerusalem Post reported further, “Gazans have also launched thousands of aerial incendiary devices into southern Israel, leading to 2,000 separate fires resulting in over 35,000 dunams (approximately 8,500 acres) of land being burnt.”

Regardless of the complexities of reality, Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave, a five minute short film that is to be featured at the conference, is a one-sided demonization of Israel that the conference website says “represents one filmmaker’s personal reflection on the meaning of ‘crimes against humanity’ in the context of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ waged in the Gaza Strip in 2014.”

The narrator repeats himself frequently in this short film, saying, for example, “People are dying! People are dying in the streets! Blood is like water in the streets!…People are dying and the Red Cross hangs up on you…There are missile strikes now…The Israelis targeted the ambulance carrying the injured. They hit the ambulance directly. There are martyrs in the street.”

At no point during the film did the narrator explain that Israel had acted in self-defense to the 250 rockets that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations fired at Israeli civilian populations, thus provoking the war. In 2015, the High Level Military Group, which includes NATO military leaders, concluded in an in-depth report:

“The responsibility for the outbreak of the 2014 Gaza Conflict lies with Hamas, which sought violent confrontation in an effort to seek to improve its strategic situation. Israel did not want this conflict and sought actively to avoid it, pursuing avenues of de-escalation in every phase of the conflict. Ultimately, Israel had no choice but to defend its citizens from the rocket assault launched by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups and the threat posed by the cross-border assault tunnels.”

The moderator for the question and answer period of this film is Nadia Yaqub of UNC’s Department of Asian Studies, who has signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.”

In a single conference presentation, titled “The (De) Development of Gaza: Economy, Women, and Youth,” both speakers, Sara Roy and Laila El-Haddad, and the moderator, Rebecca Stein, all support various boycotts of Israel. Is this what passes for balance and unbiased discourse at UNC and Duke?

There’s more. Abdeslam Maghraoui, Sarah Shields, Nadia Yaqub, and Sara Roy (all participants listed on the conference program) have all signed a “letter calling on scholars and librarians within Middle East studies to boycott Israeli academic institutions.” In the letter, they “pledge not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions.”

Many will wonder if by including these anti-Israel “scholars” in the conference, UNC and Duke essentially agreed or assumed they would need to exclude Israeli academics. Academics living in Israel are noticeably absent from the list of conference presenters.

A serious question that remains is how exactly UNC and Duke will present an unbiased look at the “Conflict Over Gaza” when so many conference presenters openly participate in BDS. With so many UNC and Duke faculty members and presenters promoting academic boycotts of Israel, it begs the question – is one purpose of this joint UNC/Duke conference to advocate boycotting academics who live in Israel?

All four artists being featured at the conference have had short videos published within the past three weeks. The videos feature the artists discussing the hardships of living in Gaza and blaming Israel for the hardships. None mention Gazan rockets, mortars, tunnels, and incendiary devices intended to kill, terrorize, burn, and kidnap Israelis. In one of the videos, artist Maysa Yousef shared, “I have done a ‘Martyr’ painting, which received strong admiration on social media websites.”

Did it occur to UNC or Duke to feature a few Israeli artists who live under the unrelenting pounding of Gazan rockets and mortars? For example, one Israeli artist turns rockets fired from Gaza into menorahs, which he describes as therapeutic. The Times of Israel has written about an art organization that distributes art therapy kits to families to use with Israeli children to help calm and soothe them during rocket attacks from Gaza. Why exclude Israeli voices speaking about traumas inflicted by Gaza onto Israel?

[Photo: Boston Public Library / WikiCommons ]

Anti-Israel activist and Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour gave the keynote address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Minority Health Conference on February 22. Many community members were baffled that the UNC Minority Health Conference extended an invitation to Sarsour to give the keynote address. As one UNC graduate student told me, “One would expect an academic conference on public health to focus on public health.”

During the second of two question and answer periods, Sarsour brought up Israel, stating, “One of the areas where we don’t agree with some of our friends in the Jewish community is on Israel-Palestine. And I’m Palestinian. And I believe and I support the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement, aka BDS…I do not believe that critiquing a state or a government is akin to anti-Semitism.”

In an attempt to rationalize this singling out of Israel, Sarsour said she often critiques the United States, as well. The moderator did not ask Sarsour if she was boycotting the United States or any other country besides Israel. Sarsour’s comments targeting Israel went unchallenged.

This gets to the heart of why so many view Sarsour as anti-Semitic. Sarsour publicly says she rejects anti-Semitism. She said so at UNC. And then she promotes boycotting Israel – the only Jewish-majority country on the planet. Sarsour’s feminism and intersectionality is obsessed with demonizing Israel. Sarsour has even declared that Zionists cannot be feminists, alienating many Jewish women. To put it simply, Sarsour holds Israel to a different standard – she treats Israel and supporters of Israel differently than everyone else.

During her keynote, Sarsour discussed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, saying, “We rounded up our fellow Americans and put them into concentration camps on this U.S. soil.”

The United States government was certainly correct to apologize and pay reparations for forcing Japanese Americans into internment camps. However, Sarsour’s use of the term “concentration camps” – a term with intense, personal, and solemn meaning to the Jewish people – was unnecessarily inflammatory and trivialized the Holocaust by inaccurately comparing the treatment of Japanese Americans by the United States during WWII to the treatment, indeed wholesale murder, of Jews by the Nazis of Germany’s Third Reich.

A 2018 survey found that Americans’ knowledge and memory of the Holocaust is fading at an alarming rate. The New York Times reported, “Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was.” Sarsour’s misuse of the term “concentration camps” only contributes to misinformation about the Holocaust. Not a single university official or conference participant spoke up to object to Sarsour’s use of the term “concentration camps.”

A flyer that protestors handed out to conference attendees before Sarsour’s keynote explained, “Sarsour has close ties to the National of Islam (NOI), which is a racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic hate group…Sarsour pays NOI members to act as her security detail and has embraced their hateful leader, Louis Farrakhan.”

Sarsour’s fellow Women’s March leader, Tamika Mallory, has publicly referred to Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite, as the “GOAT” — the greatest of all time. Mallory has been widely criticized for refusing to explicitly condemn Farrakhan’s hateful speech. At UNC on Friday, Sarsour was asked to respond to charges of anti-Semitism within the leadership of her Women’s March organization. Sarsour admitted that Farrakhan is anti-Semitic but dismissed Mallory’s relationship with Farrakhan by saying, “Tamika is not responsible for the words of any man.” Such a response does little to welcome Jewish women, who Sarsour and Mallory have alienated, back to the Women’s March.

Josh Ravitch, a Chapel Hill resident and co-founder of the North Carolina Coalition for Israel, showed up to protest Sarsour’s invitation to UNC. Ravitch told me, “Linda Sarsour hides behind freedom of speech to propagate hate against Jews and other minorities. She’s free to be a bigot, but UNC leaders should be ashamed to have provided her with a very public platform.”

When responding to the question about anti-Semitism and the leadership of her Women’s March, Sarsour said, “This is an anti-Semitic administration. We have seen that the rhetoric and the hateful rhetoric of this administration has caused a Trump supporter to go into a synagogue and kill 11 innocent people.”

In fact, the Tree of Life synagogue shooter has been reported to despise President Trump. Sarsour exploited the massacre of eleven Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh to help repel charges of anti-Semitism within her own movement. About 20 seconds later, Sarsour told the moderator, “There’s also people who are in the opposition who would exploit moments of pain and trauma, for their own purposes.” It sounded like Sarsour was describing herself.

Sarsour spoke at length about the Women’s March and how she and Tamika Mallory took over the leadership. Sarsour said, “So we went to the Women’s March and said, ‘We don’t want to just be here for you to put us on a poster and say we were here. We want to have power. We want to be the national co-chairs of the Women’s March on Washington.’ So we were the national co-chairs. We did have Bob Bland. Ya know, we didn’t want to leave the white woman out all the way.” Moments later Sarsour complained, “There is a lot of divide and conquer that happens in the movements that we are a part of.” Once again, it sounded like Sarsour was describing herself.

Sarsour complained during her keynote, “So, if we’re going to have a conference, the 40^th anniversary of the Minority Health Conference, if we’re going to target the minority woman that’s coming to speak, that’s not what intersectionality is just to be clear.” Sarsour took the position that, as a minority woman, she should not be challenged on her beliefs when speaking on intersectionality.

While Sarsour will be speaking at New York University in March, it is also clear that many reject Sarsour and others who use intersectionality to divide communities. As the Tower recently reported, “Over 300 organizations have withdrawn their sponsorship of the Women’s March amidst controversy over the national leadership’s ties to Farrakhan and anti-Semitic remarks.”

The world is slowly waking up to Sarsour’s hateful and divisive positions.

[Photo: Peter Reitzes ]

As I recently reported in the Tower, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) is hosting their Minority Health Conference on February 22, featuring keynote speaker Linda Sarsour. The American-Palestinian activist is known for her hostility towards Israel, having said “nothing is creepier than Zionism” and advising Muslims not to “humanize” Israelis.

Community members are now concerned that the UNC-CH Minority Health Conference may have exploited the Holocaust by using what appears to be a picture of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial to promote the conference on social media. A number of Jewish community members confidently informed me that the image in question, posted to Facebook by the Minority Health Conference on February 19, is of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial.

Michael Abramson, Chairman of the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, a state agency organized under the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, said, “The Holocaust or any Holocaust Memorial commemorating the Holocaust, should not be used as an advertising tool to promote a political event. When an organization invites Linda Sarsour to speak, the organization is opening itself to politicizing its conference.”

A UNC-CH graduate student remarked, “The conference organizers seem to have a definite fixation on Jews and the topic of Israel. One would expect an academic conference on public health to focus on public health.”

I contacted conference organizers and UNC officials to verify the source of the picture and to ask why the picture was being used to promote the Minority Health Conference. Within 90 minutes of my inquiry, the post was deleted. A UNC spokesperson later responded, “That was an unfortunate and regrettable mistake made by a student conference volunteer. The image has since been removed and replaced.”

“It is an obscenity to associate Linda Sarsour’s bigotry with the lives of millions of innocent people who were murdered during the Holocaust because of their race, religion, or sexual orientation,” said Marcia Harris, a former UNC administrator with over 30 years of experience on campus.

Harris is concerned that Sarsour uses various platforms to promote boycotting Israel and that Sarsour “is on record as…closely associating with known anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. She [Sarsour] has made statements belittling women who are standing up against feminine genital mutilation.” Harris and others are planning a peaceful protest during Sarsour’s keynote address on Friday.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are being offered at the Minority Health Conference. I repeatedly contacted conference organizers and UNC officials asking if Linda Sarsour was required or asked to complete a conflict of interest disclosure form for her keynote address. An official speaking on behalf of the university responded, “University policy does not require the submission of a conflict of interest form for speakers unaffiliated with the university for participation in the Minority Health Conference. The conference organizers did not require any of the speakers at this year’s conference, or in years past, to provide that information.”

A local researcher expressed concern to me about UNC’s response and wondered if “this could well place the University at some jeopardy.” He explained, “Accrediting organizations [typically] require signed conflict of interest statements by the speaker to give CEUs.”

Sarsour’s keynote is co-sponsored by both the UNC Gillings School of Public Health and the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. As reported, three members of the conference planning committee, including a conference co-chair, recently signed an anti-Israel petition that was prepared for and given to the Durham City Council.

Sarsour is being paid $2,500 and reimbursed travel and expenses for her keynote address. The university informed me, “The budget for the Minority Health Conference is comprised of conference registration fees, exhibitor registration fees, partner conference fees, sponsorship by UNC-Chapel Hill schools, departments, institutes, centers and student groups, as well as private contributions.” In other words, UNC is paying Sarsour to speak.

Financial sponsors include the UNC Gillings School of Global Pubic Health, the UNC School of Dentistry, UNC Healthcare, the UNC College of Arts & Sciences, the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the UNC School of Education, the UNC School of Medicine, the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, and UNC Athletics.

Nathan Godin, a UNC-CH junior, said, “The Minority Health Conference’s evocation of the Holocaust is at best inappropriate and at worst — given the MHC’s choice of Linda Sarsour as keynote speaker — insulting.” Godin observed that, “It is also insulting in light of Ms. Sarsour’s numerous anti-Semitic and virulently anti-Israel comments, where she has expressed her strong desire to see Israel — a nation that was founded by and for Jews fleeing the Holocaust— completely destroyed.”

A UNC faculty member added: “This is not a Jewish or a non-Jewish issue – rather, this is a universal one. Somehow, this great conference appears to many this year as being used by a small group to support political purposes that selectively target one group of people.”

Sarsour is a leading figure in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which many view as anti-Semitic since it singles out Israel. Sarsour uses her position as a public speaker and Women’s March organizer to promote boycotting Israel. Some community members have wondered if UNC may find itself potentially in violation of House Bill 161, an anti-BDS law, if the university pays Sarsour as planned.

UNC’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies became a co-sponsor of Sarsour’s speech only about a week ago, well after the UNC Hillel Chapter, local residents, and UNC alumni expressed strong concerns to the university. Instead of speaking out against Sarsour, the university endorsed her with prestigious department co-sponsorships.

It is time for university officials to publicly speak up against Linda Sarsour’s hateful statements and positions. UNC-CH needs to take a stand against bigotry and anti-Semitism.

[Photo: Festival of Faiths from Louisville, United States / WikiCommons ]

In 2018, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) gained national attention when it was revealed that a required textbook for almost 19,000 students was found to blame Jews for not tapping into their inner strength to resist during the Holocaust.

Now, UNC-CH is in the news again for its insensitivity toward Jewish students. As I recently reported in The Tower, UNC-CH is hosting their Minority Health Conference on February 22, featuring keynote speaker Linda Sarsour. Sarsour is known for her hostility toward Israel, having said “Nothing is creepier than Zionism” and advising Muslims not to “humanize” Israelis.

One UNC graduate captured the public outrage by writing on Facebook, “I’m an alum of UNC. No more donations from me if you allow this Jew hater to speak.”

A university spokesperson told me that Sarsour is being paid $2,500 and will be reimbursed travel and expenses for her keynote address. University officials were quick to distance themselves from Sarsour’s invitation to speak with the excuse that it is a student- run conference; yet, Sarsour’s keynote is co-sponsored by both the UNC Gillings School of Public Health and the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. While University officials may be correct that a state free speech law prevents them from uninviting Sarsour, there is no state law requiring UNC departments to co-sponsor Sarsour’s speech. And there is no state law preventing UNC departments from revoking their sponsorships of Linda Sarsour’s speech.

Through prestigious department sponsorships, UNC is publicly embracing Sarsour’s keynote appearance. In fact, UNC’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies became a co-sponsor of Sarsour’s speech only about a week ago. The sponsorship came well after Hillel, many local residents and many UNC alumni expressed strong concerns to the university.

The Zionist Organization of America wrote to Dean Barabara Rimer of the Gillings school, “If you and the School truly lack the authority to rescind the invitation to Linda Sarsour to be the keynote speaker, then…Exercise your own First Amendment rights and issue a public statement condemning Linda Sarsour’s anti-Semitic bigotry and the decision to make her the keynote speaker at the conference.”

Sarsour’s abstract for her upcoming keynote indicates that her speech will focus on “intersectionality.” Sarsour uses intersectionality as a bludgeon to vilify Israel and Zionists. For example, Sarsour has used her position as a Woman’s March leader to promote boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Sarsour has alienated many Jewish women by declaring that feminists cannot be Zionists. When questioned about associations with the notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, Women’s March leaders hid behind the excuse of intersectional feminism. Sarsour misuses intersectionality to rationalize anti-Semitism.

A recent letter sent to the Dean of the Gillings School of Public Health in support of Sarsour, signed by 33 people who identify as members of the UNC community, refers to Sarsour as “brilliant” and stated that “Antisemitism is rooted in white supremacy.” In other words, the signatories put forth the troubling position that Sarsour isn’t anti-Semitic because she advocates for “marginalized people” and isn’t a white supremacist. This is as absurd as suggesting that a man can’t be a rapist because he is a feminist.

Signatories to the letter include Professor Pam Silberman, Professor Emeritus Trude Bennett, and Associate Professor Daniel Westreich – all of the Gillings School – and Elyse Crystall, UNC Associate Professor of Literature.

Elyse Crystall is no stranger to controversy. In 2004, the Carolina Alumni Review reported that UNC was monitoring Crystall after she “publicly criticized a student” in an email and The Office for Civil Rights found that Crystall’s e-mail violated Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act.” In 2018, Crystall opposed a Jewish candidate for the Durham City Council because the candidate – a leader of the Hispanic community and an immigrant from Colombia  – attends a local Jewish synagogue. As reported in the Tower, the candidate described Crystall’s email as “anti-Semitic.”

Also in 2018, Crystall sent a letter to the Durham Human Relations Commission, alleging that Israel is “Experimenting on the captive population under military occupation” and has “tested” weapons on Palestinians. I contacted Crystall for this column and asked about what some view as her thinly veiled comparison of Israelis to Nazis. Crystall did not respond.

Crystall is the UNC-CH faculty advisor to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The Anti-Defamation League reports that SJP chapters “regularly demonize Jewish students who identify as Zionists.” At least six of the signatories to the letter in support of Sarsour are members of the anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). It comes as no surprise that those who object to Israel’s existence also embrace Linda Sarsour. University officials and the conference co-chairs would not directly respond to my question asking if JVP or SJP were involved in inviting Linda Sarsour to speak at UNC.

UNC-CH freshman and Board Member of Chabad at UNC, Sam Zahn told me that, “Anti-Semitism is a problem on both sides of the political spectrum. Yet, both sides attempt to spin it so as to cast it off as merely the problem of the other. This is exactly what Sarsour’s supporters are doing when they write ‘Anti-Semitism is rooted in white supremacy.’ There is no doubt that white supremacists spew anti-Semitism, but this is just another way of distracting from criticism of their own anti-Semitism. Sarsour’s refusal to condemn Farrakhan, a man who claims he isn’t anti-Semitic – just ‘anti-Termite’ – isn’t rooted in white supremacy, but it is undeniably anti-Semitic.”

A UNC-CH graduate student wrote to the university, saying, “I call into question the motivation for her [Sarsour’s] selection, especially in light of the fact that her professional and educational background really have nothing to do with public health or healthcare.”

A university spokesperson said, “The conference is led by a planning committee of 72 student volunteers…This committee, led by the student co-chairs, selected the keynote speakers.” However, a UNC-CH student told me that a university spokesperson conceded that one or more UNC faculty or administration members were responsible for vetting Linda Sarsour. In addition, as reported in The Tower, one of the student co-chairs and two other planning committee members recently signed an anti-Israel petition that was prepared for and given to the Durham City Council.

Numerous community members have contacted me to share that a peaceful protest during Sarsour’s speech is planned. Marcia Harris, a former UNC administrator with over 30 years of experience on campus, wrote, “Many of us are disturbed by the invitation extended to Linda Sarsour to speak at a conference hosted by UNC. She is on record as advocating BDS and closely associating with known anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. She has made statements belittling women who are standing up against feminine genital mutilation. Please join us in protesting against [Sarsour’s] appearance at UNC.”

To begin the healing with the Jewish community, UNC should consider sponsoring a conference that looks at anti-Semitism from wherever it arises – including left wing and right wing extremist viewpoints. Clearly, there is a need for such education at UNC. In addition, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health should consider offering education on the incredible public health practices and initiatives in Israel, such as Israel’s impressive scientific achievements in facing the global water crisis. UNC should focus on programs that advocate for health, while bringing people together instead of dividing.

[Photo: Festival of Faiths / Flickr ]

 

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is hosting their Minority Health Conference (MHC) on February 22 featuring keynote speaker Linda Sarsour. Sarsour is known for her hostility towards Israel, having said “Northing is creepier than Zionism” and advising Muslims not to “humanize” Israelis. Sarsour once tweeted against the feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a survivor of genital mutilation, by saying she wishes she could take Ali’s vagina away.

The MHC Planning Committee is composed of UNC students. Public records indicate that a co-chair, Afsaneh Mortazavi, and two other Planning Committee members – Teja Vemuganti and Karla Jiminez – signed an anti-Israel petition provided to the Durham, NC City Council in 2018. The petition led to Durham becoming the first city in the United States to ban police trainings specifically with Israel. A UNC faculty member told me, “Given that multiple Planning Committee members signed the anti-Israel petition, there is clearly pre-existing bias.”

Sarsour is a leading figure in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel which many view as anti-Semitic since it singles out Israel. Having gained fame and power as a Women’s March organizer, Sarsour is using this position to promote BDS as a feminist cause and has alienated many Jewish women by declaring Zionists cannot be feminists. Many have also criticized Women’s March leaders for their association with the notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.

On January 29, North Carolina Hillel (the organization that represents Jewish life for students on 13 campuses across the state), publicly stated on its website, “While we appreciate the role Ms. Sarsour has played in highlighting gender and racial inequality in this country, her track record of supporting efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel run counter to the goals and spirit of the conference…Ms. Sarsour’s presence has already made some Jewish students reconsider their participation in this conference. They fear they will be made to feel unwelcome and forced to choose between their commitment to the health of minorities and their support of Israel. This is a false choice, as Israel is a world leader in medical research and global humanitarian aid, and committed to improved health of all its populations.”

Amy Rosenthal, a Chapel-Hill resident and co-founder of the North Carolina Coalition for Israel told me, “Linda Sarsour is a master manipulator. She uses the suffering of disadvantaged communities to foment hate against Israel and with it the Jewish people – that is her true agenda.”

I contacted Dean Barbara K. Rimer of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the host sponsor, and then Khadija Jahfiya and Afsaneh Mortazavi, the two student Conference Co-Chairs, with questions for this article. They directed me to Layla Dowdy, the Gillings School’s Director of Communications and Marketing, who responded to me with a letter very similar to the Gillings School statement on the matter. While UNC states this is a student-run conference, the students ostensibly in charge directed me to their school’s communications director for further assistance.

A community member forwarded me a January 24 email in which Dean Rimer wrote, “As our statement shows, it is not the Gillings School that is hosting Linda Sarsour but the Minority Health Conference. Our school did not ask Sarsour to speak. Students plan and execute the conference. They invited her. I did not invite her, and the school did not invite her. They wanted a forum to showcase various advocates. As this has unfolded, it is not what any of us would have preferred. We are meeting with representatives of Hillel to arrive at a solution that will demonstrate our commitment to all populations and our recognition of how Jewish people may feel about the event. We cannot uninvite her based on the North Carolina Restore Free Speech Act” [House Bill 527].

Without responding directly to my questions, Dean Rimer sent me a brief statement on January 29 stating “members of her leadership team” have met with “leaders of NC Hillel” and “with other community members.” Rimer told me, “This has been a learning opportunity for us all — the student organizers, our student affairs and communications professionals and myself included. I look forward to continued listening and dialogue for greater understanding.”

UNC junior Ariel Freedman told me, “As a Jewish student, I would be hesitant to attend any conference in which the keynote speaker has used platforms unrelated to Israel to denounce the Jewish state. I agree with North Carolina Hillel’s statement that Linda Sarsour’s previous attacks on Israel and its supporters run counter to the goals of the School of Public Health’s Minority Student Caucus, which aims to bring people together. In this setting, Jewish students are having to choose between their passion for public health and their support for Israel. All students should feel welcome and safe at all campus events.”

On the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Facebook page, a UNC health care employee commented, “Evidently Ms. Sarsour is for minority health as long as it does not include a Jewish minority. Please boycott her talk.” A local resident, Deborah Friedman, commented: “Antisemitism isn’t a good look for UNC.”

Many members of the local Jewish community have contacted me regarding this issue. While some have asked UNC to cancel Sarsour’s speech, others are concerned about free speech issues and want UNC to insist upon an extensive question and answer period in which the community is allowed to challenge Sarsour.

Marcia Harris, a former UNC administrator with over 30 years of experience on campus, wrote a letter to the school newspaper expressing strong concerns about Sarsour and pointing out that when Sarsour spoke at Dartmouth College, she dismissed and mocked a student because he was a “young white man.” Harris asks, “Does our School of Public Health really want to taint its fine reputation by welcoming such a vile individual to UNC?”

[Photo: Fox News Insider / YouTube ]