A Fascist Zionist Speaks at University at Buffalo

Many University at Buffalo students and their allies from the Buffalo community organized to protest a talk by notorious Israeli fascist Effie Eitam on campus on Monday November 2nd. The lecture was sponsored by Hillel of Buffalo and the Jewish National Fund despite calls from students and faculty to have it canceled in order not to promote an inciter of hatred and racism on the UB campus.

Eitam, who served for 30 years in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and who held few cabinet portfolios, is known for his fascist pronouncements and actions against the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, but also for his views concerning Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. He is an advocate of more illegal colonialist theft of Palestinian lands and actually lives in the illegal settlement of Nov in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. When he was minister of Housing and Construction, the building of Zionist colonies in the West Bank increased dramatically, an action that did not deviate from his repeated calls to expel its Palestinian population and have it annexed to Israel’s proper. He defended the use of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as human shields against a 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court of Israel that banned IOF soldiers from engaging in similar practices.

His fascism, however, is not limited to Palestinians who live in the Occupied Territories. He frequently describes Palestinian citizens of Israel as “cancer” and a “ticking bomb,” an “existential threat” that Israel must deal with. And dealing with the “problem” for Eitam means a new wave of “transfer” for this group of Palestinians similar to the several ones Israel has conducted in ethnically cleansing the indigenous population since even before it was founded in May 1948. He openly called for the expulsion of the Arab Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset (the parliament) to Gaza. In other words, for this Zionist General, ethnic cleansing, a grave crime against humanity in international law, is the means to resolve Israel’s problem with the Palestinians, no matter where they happen to be residing.

The fascist atmosphere transpired even before the lecture on Monday evening. At noon, Hillel held a private lunch for Eitam at its office in the UB Commons, when a Hillel student approached a head-veiled student who was distributing fliers for the protest outside and hatefully told her to “go blow yourself up”! Similar attempts of intimidation continued when several students gathered chanting and holding signs outside the Student Union, where the lecture was to take place. A man who was heading to the talk insulted one of the protesters. Still, there was a general sense among the students and their allies that a strong stand needed to be taken against racism and hatred: more protesters joined outside the lecture hall, and several went inside to confront fascist Eitam with questions.
The focus of Eitam’s talk was on Iran and the need to deal with the “existential threat” (yup, another one) it represented for the “free world.” So the General actually advocated taking military action against Tehran and to act decisively against “radical Islam.” There was little wonder among the activists who were listening, for neither Eitam nor his Zionist pariah state pays the slightest respect to the fundamental principle of non-aggression in international law. Eitam’s talk was simply a reproduction of the same lies that Israel has systematically used to justify its disregard of international law and the historic and territorial rights of the indigenous Palestinians. A wild fabrication he was able to put forward, with all seriousness possible, was that Iran was behind the 9/11 attacks! He added that the Iran “problem” should be a priority, and all else were irrelevant. But several of the protesters who were attending confronted Eitam on the very relevant issue of the Zionist crimes against the people of Palestine. He was asked about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians on which Israel was founded; about how, with the many wars of aggression it had waged and the nuclear capacity that it possessed, it was a bigger threat than Iran; about the displacement of Palestinians even before the foundation of Israel in May 1948; about the inferior status of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, whose transfer Eitam had called for. The fascist dodged all these questions, and went on repeating how Israel was the victim and how it always operated on “moral grounds.” It was clear that neither the Zionist General nor many members of the audience were ready to accept being confronted with historical realities that have been researched and documented by historians, including many from Israel itself. One student protestor was insulted; another’s question was repeatedly interrupted.

Meanwhile, outside the lecture room, around 30 had gathered chanting against racism and war, and in protest of inviting a fascist like Eitam to campus. The chants grew louder as people started leaving the hall. Again, protesters encountered another round of hateful and racist spew. Several attendees called the protesters “terrorists,” and one spat on the floor while walking past them. The chants grew even louder when Eitam and his entourage, including several UB policemen, exited. It was clear it was not the kind of departure ceremony that he had hoped for. Many protesters underlined how fascists like Effie Eitam should never be given a platform to promote hatred and criminality, nor should they be afforded any form of respectability under the guise of “civil debate.”