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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Missouri museum censors
Ferguson-Mexico solidarity event for including Palestinians</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2015-03-20T13:36:21+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/rania-khalek"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Rania
Khalek</span> on Fri, 03/20/2015<br>
<b><small><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/missouri-museum-censors-ferguson-mexico-solidarity-event-including-palestinians">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/missouri-museum-censors-ferguson-mexico-solidarity-event-including-palestinians</a></small></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
<div id="file-30534" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<h2 class="element-invisible oembed-title"><small><small>The
Missouri History Museum in St. Louis canceled a community
event scheduled for Thursday after organizers refused to
remove Palestinian panelists from the platform.
</small></small></h2>
The panel, titled “From Ferguson to Ayotzinapa to Palestine:
Solidarity and Collaborative Action,” was organized by the
Washington University student group AltaVoz to draw parallels
between the struggles against state violence in the US, Mexico and
Palestine.</div>
<p>AltaVoz was formed in response to the <a
href="https://news.vice.com/article/ayotzinapa-a-timeline-of-the-mass-disappearance-that-has-shaken-mexico">police
kidnapping</a> of 43 leftist student activists from the
Ayotzinapa teacher’s college in Mexico. The students, who went
missing in the city of Iguala while on their way to protest the
state’s corrupt education policies, are believed to have been
murdered.</p>
<p>Among the panelists were activists from an assortment of social
justice organizations in St. Louis, including the Organization for
the Black Struggle, Latinos en Axion STL, the Interfaith Committee
on Latin America and the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee.</p>
<p>The panel was supposed to kick off a week of solidarity events
with Ayotzinapa, culminating in a vigil and potluck with visiting
mothers of the missing Mexican students on Canfield Drive.
That’s the street where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-trained-police-occupy-missouri-after-killing-black-youth">shot
dead</a> by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson last
August.</p>
<p>The Missouri History Museum had an “activist-friendly” reputation
for its willingness to host several Ferguson-related events in the
recent past, leading organizers to believe it was an ideal place
to hold their panel.</p>
<p>However, that reputation was shattered on Tuesday when AltaVoz
student organizer Sourik Beltran received a phone call from a
museum official giving him an ultimatum. “It was either remove
Palestine from a dialogue about solidarity and undermine the very
purpose of the event or find a new location,” recalled Beltran in
a phone interview with The Electronic Intifada. “But we are not
letting this event happen without all of us at the table,”
declared Beltran.</p>
<p>That sentiment was reiterated in a statement of solidarity with
the Palestine Solidarity Committee, issued by the participating
organizations.</p>
<p>“We condemn this silencing of part of our community and this
brazen attempt to divide communities of color,” declares the
statement. “Instead of talking about solidarity, we find ourselves
actualizing solidarity by rejecting the Missouri History Museum’s
demands. We stand by our Palestinian partners and are postponing
the original panel until an alternative location can be
confirmed.”</p>
<h2>Singling out Palestine</h2>
<p>In a vaguely worded <a href="http://mohistory.org/node/56647">statement</a>
on its website, the museum claims that the panel organizers
drastically altered the panel discussion from the initially
approved topic, forcing the museum to shut down the event.</p>
<p>“In its current format the program no longer resembles the
original concept the Museum agreed to co-host,” says the
statement. “We were initially open to the changes and posted
information about the program on our website. However, after much
consideration we decided the complexities of this issue could not
be adequately addressed in this format….The Missouri History
Museum asked the community partner to fulfill the original
agreement or find another location.”</p>
<p>While Palestine is not specifically mentioned, the Museum
published a <a
href="http://mohistory.org/files/[field_directory-raw]/page/Mar%2019%20Event%20Proposal_Redacted.pdf">copy</a>
of Beltran’s initial event proposal, which sought to build bridges
between Ferguson and Ayotzinapa. Palestine was added to the mix
soon after as the panel outline evolved.</p>
<p>But the museum never once objected to the addition of Palestine.</p>
<p>According to email exchanges between Beltran and museum
officials, which were viewed by The Electronic Intifada, museum
representatives enthusiastically approved the event’s name and
description, with Palestine included, as early as 23 February. By
4 March, the museum had posted the event title and description on
it’s website.</p>
<p>The museum restated its excitement for the Palestine inclusive
panel several times after. “At no point were we confronted with a
single concern about the panel until two days ago,” said Beltran,
demonstrating that the museum’s explanation doesn’t add up.</p>
<p>Given the warm reception panel organizers received from the
museum staff throughout the planning stages, they have no doubt
that the decision to purge the issue of Palestine was a result of
outside pressure.</p>
<p>Even if the organizers had changed the panel’s layout, as the
museum asserted, it is not sufficient grounds to censor the event,
argued Beltran. “Why is it a problem to talk about Palestine in
the first place,” he asked. “Ayotzinapa, Ferguson and Palestine
are all politically charged controversial issues. So why single
out Palestine?”</p>
<p>When The Electronic Intifada asked why Palestine became an
unacceptable topic for discussion just two days before the event,
a museum representative declined to elaborate beyond the official
statement, except to emphasize that “There was no outside
pressure” and: “The decision was made internally at the museum
staff leadership level.”</p>
<p>Email exchanges between Beltran and a museum employee following
the cancellation, obtained by The Electronic Intifada, hint at the
institution’s reasoning.</p>
<p>“The conflict we are running into is the comparison between the
events in Ferguson and the actions of the Palestinians,” wrote a
museum official.</p>
<p>The museum official continued, “Some people see these events as
comparing apples/oranges. I understand that you are presenting
them as movements related to issues of social justice and how
diverse communities can work together to achieve social justice
for all people. There is concern that they might not be perceived
that way.”</p>
<p>Beltran asked the official to clarify what was meant by “the
actions of the Palestinians,” but the official dodged the
question.</p>
<h2>“We’re scaring the hell out of them”</h2>
<p>“The Missouri History Museum is a publicly funded research
institution. It’s not their job to be a gatekeeper. They’re a
platform, they’re a resource, but it’s not up to them to decide
what gets discussed and how it gets discussed,” said Jessie
Sandoval, an activist with the social justice organization Latinos
en Axion.</p>
<p>“This is great example of how the white racist state comes down
hard every time they see communities of color come together just
to talk,” Sandoval added. “The fact that they came down hard like
this and were so explicit in their reasons shows me that we’re
scaring the hell out of them and pressing the right buttons,” she
added.</p>
<p>Speaking to The Electronic Intifada from St. Louis over Skype,
Sandoval, who was scheduled to participate on the panel, noted
that supporting justice in Palestine remains a taboo among many
progressives in the United States who claim to support the
Ferguson uprising.</p>
<p>“A lot of liberals and progressives are down for the Black Lives
Matter movement. Even if they don’t go out in the streets and
protest, they at least publicly say, yes of course it’s moral,”
said Sandoval. “And I know what’s going on in Mexico with the
missing students, most liberal and progressive white people would
say it’s a huge tragedy,” she added. “But bringing the Palestinian
community into our discourse, I think that they feared it would
give the Free Palestine cause too much of a high moral ground they
are not ready to recognize yet.”</p>
<h2>The censorship trend</h2>
<p>“The museum’s actions parallel a trend of silencing Palestine
activist voices in the St. Louis community,” stated panel
organizers in a press release, noting how last year, under
pressure from Israel supporters, Washington University <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/activists-condemn-washington-university-censorship-bds-event-featuring">canceled
a town hall</a> on boycott, sanctions and divestment against
Israel.</p>
<p>While it is routine for the censorial forces of the Israel lobby
to use pressure tactics to shut down critism of Israel across the
country, few things have <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/white-supremacy-and-zionism-converge-deleted-times-israel-post-ferguson">rattled</a>
them more than the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/liberation-all-why-palestine-key-issue-streets-ferguson/14124">growing
solidarity between Ferguson and Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether the cancellation of the museum
event was a result of Israel lobby pressure. But in trying to
erase Palestine from the conversation, the Missouri History
Museum—renamed the “Selective History Museum” by panel
organizers—has only strengthened the bonds between the Black,
Latino and Palestine solidarity communities in St. Louis,
guaranteeing Palestine’s inclusion in the conversation.</p>
<p>Indeed, the cancellation drew even more attention to Palestine,
with Panel organizers staging a large protest in front of the
museum during the time the panel was supposed to take place on
Thursday evening.</p>
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