No to Hate Speech at DU

We the undersigned students, professors, individuals and representatives of community organizations and networks that share a focus on peace and justice issues -- are writing to express our deep dismay at the decision of Joseph Korbel School of International Studies (JKSIS) to cosponsor a lecture along with ISIME and Hillel by Colonel Bentzion Gruber, a senior military officer with the Israeli army, that took place on May 11th, 2010.

Grubers appearance in Denver was part of a public relation campaign sponsored by the Israeli government to counter the international condemnation of its assault on the Gaza Strip in December 2008-January 2009 and the conclusions of the Goldstone report, which found evidence that Israel had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. He spoke as an apologist and a propagandist, and not surprisingly, his presentation was filled with factual errors,distortions and hate speech. At one point during the lecture, he claimed that ALL terrorists are Muslims. Certainly, this is not a view point to be presented at an academic institution and sponsored by an institution of higher learning like the University of Denver and the JKSIS.

Gruber is neither a scholar nor an academic and we did not think that DU needed to support such unscholarly talk which borders on hate speech.

Grubers agenda openly stated - was to justify Israel's continued military occupation and colonization of Palestinian land by falsifying statistics, distorting facts, and demonizing the Palestinians people, their religion, and their leaders. Specifically he is trying to justify and whitewash the recent Israeli military incursion into Gaza which killed 1400 and which has been condemned as war crimes by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and especially the UN Goldstone Report.

Bentzi Grubers lecture is the last in a series of lectures organized by ISIME and cosponsored by the JKSIS, where speakers distort facts and use fake statistics to clearly serve the interest of a foreign government instead of promoting a healthy and intellectually stimulating debate. ISIME has become an institution that represents and promotes the interests of a foreign government more so than the interests of the University of Denver and its students.

We do not believe that an academic institution should sponsor or be used as a forum for hate speech. Hate speech contradicts both the letter and the spirit of the Universitys mission statement, and University sponsorship of such events does substantial social harm by normalizing such speech.

We ask that the University of Denver and the JKSIS issue an apology to the student community at DU, and the Palestinian and Muslim communities in Denver and elsewhere for hosting Gruber and providing him with platform to spew his hate speech. Further, we ask that JKSIS and the University of Denver either exert more oversight and control over the activities of ISIME to ensure a more balanced approach to the Israeli problem or severe their ties with ISIME altogether . We urge you to be mindful of the leadership role played by academic institutions in the societies they serve and to resist future pressures that may be brought to bear on you by individuals who would use DU to score cheap propaganda points.