Israel advocacy group pressured Missouri museum to cancel Ferguson-Palestine event
The Missouri History Museum canceled a recent panel discussion on Ferguson, Ayotzinapa and Palestine due to pressure from the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to remove Palestine from the event, according to a cache of emails released by the St. Louis chapter of Jewish Voice For Peace.
The JCRC is a national organization with an Israel advocacy wing.
The event, scheduled for 19 March, was organized by Washington University student group AtlaVoz in collaboration with local Black, Latino and Palestinian activist groups to draw parallels between the struggles against state violence in the US, Mexico and Palestine.
After fully approving and enthusiastically promoting it, museum officials changed their tone two days before the event, demanding that panel organizers either remove Palestinian panelists and the topic of Palestine or find a new venue. The organizers refused to acquiesce to censorship, so the event was canceled.
This prompted a large community protest outside the museum expressing outrage for the museum’s disrespect for speech and discrimination against Palestinians.
The museum claimed that it shut down the event because panel organizers drastically altered the discussion from the initially approved topic. Furthermore, a museum spokesperson insisted to The Electronic Intifada that “there was no outside pressure” to cancel the event and “the decision was made internally at the museum staff leadership level.”
The emails obtained by Jewish Voice for Peace through a Freedom of Information Act Sunshine request demonstrate that the publicly-funded research institution lied.
The museum has asked the JCRC and another anti-Palestinian organization to design a future program on “the history of Palestine and Israel.”
“Disturbed” by Palestine-Ferguson connection
On 17 March, JCRC executive director Batya Abramson-Goldstein emailed museum president Frances Levine to apply pressure to remove Palestine from the discussion.
“I am writing because I have been receiving emails and phone calls expressing dismay at the upcoming History Museum Program: Ferguson to Ayotzinapa to Palestine: Solidarity and Collaborative Action,” she said. “I can understand the dismay. How should I reply to those asking why this event is being sponsored by the History Museum?”
In another email to Levine, Abramson-Goldstein complained that “The conflating of the issues is disturbing. The parallels being made, likewise. The panel is seen as ‘stacked.’ The plan to base a documentary on the event raises the level of concern RE the harm this program may cause.”
Without hesitation, the museum contacted Sourik Betran, the Washington University student who organized the event, and gave him an ultimatum. Either remove Palestine and Palestinians from the discussion or find a new event location, he was told.
Levine dutifully responded to Abramson-Goldstein, writing, “Thanks Batya for bringing this to my attention. [Managing Director of Community Education and Events] Melanie [Adams] says she spoke to you and is back in touch with the students. This is not the program that she approved originally. She has given them some choices to bring the focus back where it was in Ferguson or to take the program back to their campus space. Not sure why they wanted it here anyway …”
Abramson-Goldstein then wrote to Levine expressing her gratitude and enthusiasm for the censorship. “When you and I eventually have our breakfast/lunch/coffee we can look back at this incident as an illustration of a potentially damaging incident defused,” she exalted.
Source: electronicintifada.net