The content of character: Debate is critical to democracy

Amy Hendrickson, Brookline - Oct 1, 2007

When Martin Luther King Jr. asked that we be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, he set a standard that we should uphold in this country, not only for African-Americans, but also for Palestinian-Americans.

In the controversy over having Palestinian-American Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh speak (at Brookline High last Sunday, sponsored by Brookline PeaceWorks and Bostonians for One Democratic State) there were many slanderous and unsubstantiated claims made, claims that were repeated uncritically (“School, activists at odds over Mideast speaker,” Sept. 20). For instance, in describing Dr. Qumsiyeh, the TAB reported that he “has been called anti-Semitic and accused of using false and misleading information to support his arguments” without attribution or any kind of substantiation. Is it because Dr. Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian-American that this slander is directed against him?

It is easy for anyone to see for him or herself what the quality of Dr. Qumsiyeh’s character is by visiting his Web site: http://qumsiyeh.org/, where you will find not one word that could be characterized as “anti-Semitic,” “fanning the fames of hatred” or “demonizing Jews.”

Have people made these unsubstantiated claims as a way of silencing a point of view that they do not want heard? If so, this is a direct frontal assault on our democracy.

When Dr. Qumsiyeh calls for one state with equal rights for all in Israel/Palestine, he is not indulging in hate speech. Instead, he is suggesting a way out of the seemingly endless conflict.

He is calling for an end to the injustice done to the Palestinians, the only way that there can ever be peace in the region.

Bertrand Russell characterized the situation in 1970, and now, 37 years and thousands of deaths later, what he said still holds true:

“The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was ‘given’ by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict.”(New York Times, Feb. 23, 1970)

In a democracy, it is both our right and our responsibility to examine the policies of our government, policies that we are supporting as taxpayers and citizens. Our tax dollars, more than $3 billion a year, with an additional $30 billion promised to Israel over the next 10 years, are supporting the oppression of the Palestinians. It is fair and right to ask how we, in the United States, can support a state that is characterized by Jimmy Carter as an “apartheid state” when equal rights for all and embracing diversity are core values for our own country?

But beyond our civic responsibilities, we must respond as human beings to suffering and deaths in Palestine and in Israel. Gaza, in particular, is suffering a grave humanitarian crisis, where 1.4 million people struggle to live in siege conditions, after their main electric generator was bombed by Israel more than a year ago — short on food, medical supplies, even water, unable to leave and attacked sporadically by incoming Israeli missiles. How can we turn away from such suffering?

As Martin Luther King said, in another context, but appropriately for this situation: “We can either remain locked in our old mythological and tribal ways, or we can envision a better future and work for it. The choice is obvious.”

Dr. Qumsiyeh suggests one possible better future. Far from hateful, he follows in the footsteps of Dr. King, rising above advocacy for only his own ethnic group, in spite of the terrible injustices the Palestinians and even members of his own family have endured. Instead, he calls for a modern state in all of former Palestine, where neither ethnicity nor religion will determine the rights of the citizens living there, a state that would protect the lives and rights of both Palestinians and Israelis — a humane solution that can finally bring peace to the region. Rather than attempting to silence Dr. Qumsiyeh, we in Brookline should be grateful for his wisdom, and appreciative that he honored us by speaking here.