"We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There's no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is...Thomas was able to put almost every anti-Semitic stereotype into that one paragraph. Which led Wayne State to realize that maybe Ms. Thomas' hatred of Jews did not make her an appropriate person to name a "Spirit of Diversity in the Media" after, so they announced on Friday that they would no longer be giving out that award.
"Wayne State encourages free speech and open dialogue, and respects diverse viewpoints," the school's statement said. "However, the university strongly condemns the anti-Semitic remarks made by Helen Thomas during a conference yesterday."
Not everyone was happy with Wayne State's move, the National Arab American Journalists Association (NAAJA) released a statement asserting that taking this award away from was a violation of free speech and that the University was succumbing to "pressure from Pro-Israel hate organization"
The National Arab American Journalists Association Saturday denounced the decision to Wayne State University to terminate its annual Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award, calling the move a cowardly act surrendering to racist hate.Watch her speech below and see the venom she spews not only for Jews (which comes at about 3:41 but for American Foreign policy, she refuses to acknowledge the role of terrorism in the Afghan War, stating that the insurgents are the ones protecting their country.
Wayne State University, which has a large American Arab student population located in the heart of the nation's largest American Arab community, took the action in the face of pressure from Pro-Israel hate organizations angry because Helen Thomas expressed an opinion criticizing the influence of Zionist American organizations on American Foreign Policy.
(if you cannot see video below CLICK HERE)
3 comments:
funny, in a sense, but if we subsitute "Jew" for "Arab", most of what she says is true. but we aren't anti-Arab in the way she is antisemitic.
I am proud that my alma mater Wayne State University class of 1977) took the action it did and stood up to the hate speech.
I am a faithful supporter of the state of Israel, have been for 35 years, always will be. That said I would not characterize Helen Thomas's speech as anti-Semitic. She is simply standing up for her side of the conflict and making some solid points of complaint. Of course the American Jewish Community supports the state of Israel. So does the American Christian community by and large. And no doubt Arab Americans are sensitive to the aspersions and suspicions directed at them in the aftermath of 9/11, and sympathetic to grievances and humiliations suffered by the Palestinian people in the aftermath of WWII. You would be too if you were in their shoes. Anybody would. Nobody's right and everybody's wrong here and vice versa, not that there is anything any of us can do about it. Europe could however at least acknowledge it was wrong to persecute the Jews and then give someone else's land away to solve her "Jewish Problem." A little compensation might help, or, if not, then maybe a lot would. Shalom
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