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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/university-vienna-bans-public-lecture-black-activist">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/university-vienna-bans-public-lecture-black-activist</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">University of Vienna bans public
lecture by Black activist<br>
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<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-06-21T20:41:43+00:00">21 June 2018</span></span>
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<p>The University of Vienna has bowed to pressure from
Austria’s Israel lobby and banned a public lecture by
a veteran Black activist from the United States.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in a significant victory for free speech in
Germany, the Ruhrtriennale festival reversed a
decision to disinvite the group Young Fathers because
of its support for Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Former member of the Black Panther Party Dhoruba
Bin-Wahad had been <a
href="http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at/news-und-events/detailansicht/news/vortrag-von-dhoruba-bin-wahad-1/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=aa5c287c0368be6db4c26646da295edf">scheduled
to speak</a> Thursday evening at the University of
Vienna’s Institute for African Studies.</p>
<p>The lecture was co-sponsored by Dar al Janub, an <a
href="http://www.dar-al-janub.net/daraljanubgoalsandactivities.htm">anti-racism
and Palestine solidarity</a> organization.</p>
<p>But in recent weeks, the university has been <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/young-fathers-bullied-german-festival-renounce-support-palestinian-rights">under
pressure</a> from the Austrian Students Union and
the Austrian Union of Jewish Students to ban the
event.</p>
<p>They claimed that Dar al Janub is closely associated
with the Palestine solidarity group BDS Austria and
that both organizations are anti-Semitic.</p>
<p>That censorship campaign succeeded after the
Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, the central council of
Jews in Austria, also got involved, smearing Bin-Wahad
himself as anti-Semitic and criminal because of his
involvement in the Black liberation struggle that
faced severe repression by US authorities.</p>
<h2>Draconian restrictions</h2>
<p>In recent days, according to email correspondence
from administrators seen by The Electronic Intifada,
the university imposed increasingly strict conditions
on the lecture, ultimately forcing it off campus.</p>
<p>These included banning any involvement by Dar al
Janub and insisting that the lecturer stick strictly
to the advertised topic and make no “anti-Semitic
statements.”</p>
<p>A dean, Melanie Malzahn, would be assigned to monitor
the lecture as it happened and would have the power to
halt the event on the spot if she judged that any of
the speech restrictions were violated.</p>
<p>The university also decided that the public would not
be allowed into the lecture at all, and that Bin-Wahad
could only speak to a handful of students.</p>
<p>Reached by telephone by The Electronic Intifada,
Malzahn stated, “I’m in a meeting. I have no time now”
and abruptly hung up the telephone. She did not
respond to a follow-up inquiry by email.</p>
<p>Bin-Wahad and Dar al Janub rejected the university’s
draconian restrictions and <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/204656466808072/permalink/220495868557465/">moved
the event</a> to Afripoint, an African cultural
space in Vienna.</p>
<p>In a <a
href="https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20180620_OTS0184/universitaet-wien-untersagt-de-facto-oeffentliche-veranstaltung-mit-ehemaligem-black-panther-dhoruba-bin-wahad">press
release</a> announcing the change of venue, Dar al
Janub said the university had submitted to
“unacceptable pressure” from student unions and other
interest groups.</p>
<p>Just before the university had imposed the
restrictions, its top official Rector Heinz Engl had
held a closed meeting with representatives of the
Austrian Students Union and the Austrian Union of
Jewish Students.</p>
<h2>Anti-Semitism accusation</h2>
<p>Another of those interest groups is the Israelitische
Kultusgemeinde. The Jewish communal body sent a
dossier to the university on Bin-Wahad. The university
then forwarded the group’s allegations to Dar al
Janub, and a translation was shared with The
Electronic Intifada.</p>
<p>According to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde,
Bin-Wahad’s membership of the Black Panthers and the
Black Liberation Army made him part of “a criminal
organization that carried out bombings, killings of
police officers and drug dealers and is responsible
for robberies.”</p>
<p>In fact, Bin-Wahad was wrongfully imprisoned for 19
years for allegedly attempting to kill two police
officers in 1971. He was <a
href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3028">exonerated</a>
in 1990 and subsequently received $900,000 in damages
from the New York Police Department and the FBI.</p>
<p>His personal and political history was the <a
href="http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at/news-und-events/detailansicht/news/vortrag-von-dhoruba-bin-wahad-1/?tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=aa5c287c0368be6db4c26646da295edf">advertised
topic</a> of his planned lecture.</p>
<p>The Black Panthers, along with antiwar activists,
left-wing groups and the American Indian Movement,
were targets of the FBI’s secret <a
href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/cointelpro-1956-1976">COINTELPRO
program</a> to sabotage and disrupt their work,
including by using infiltrators to incite criminal
activities to discredit the organizations.</p>
<p>Notoriously, as part of this government repression, a
Chicago police death squad in 1969 assassinated <a
href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/hampton-fred-1948-1969">Fred
Hampton</a>, the deputy leader of the Illinois Black
Panther Party, as he slept in his bed.</p>
<p>Bin-Wahad edited a 1993 book, <a
href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/still-black-still-strong"><em>Still
Black, Still Strong</em></a>, giving testimonies
of survivors of the US government’s war on the Black
liberation movement. He spoke about his experience in
the 2016 video interview with VladTV at the top of
this article.</p>
<p>The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde also alleged that
“there are valid reasons to assume that the speaker
could make anti-Semitic remarks at the event on
Thursday.”</p>
<p>As evidence the group quoted two statements from
Bin-Wahad.</p>
<p>One of them was an answer he gave to a question about
why Black American political leaders did not show
greater solidarity with Palestinians.</p>
<p>“I think that the silence of the Black political
elite and many so-called Black reformers and activists
is a consequence of the interference with political
power on behalf of the African community,” Bin-Wahad
had responded. “AIPAC and the Zionist lobby in
Washington and Jewish money across the country has
been a major factor historically in the civil rights
movement.”</p>
<p>In another statement quoted by the Jewish communal
group, Bin-Wahad said that the US government “has
always carried out a policy to divide Black leaders
and the Black community away from the struggles of
people for self-determination and liberation and
especially Arab and Palestinian people.”</p>
<p>The Jewish group also objected to Bin-Wahad referring
to Israel as a “European settler state” and denying
that Israel has a “right to self-defense.”</p>
<p>He also accused “a Black comprador class and Black
elected officials” of accepting funding from “from the
Israeli Zionist lobby and the right wing in America.”</p>
<h2>Silencing Black voices</h2>
<p>The power of the Israel lobby, including its
relationship with Black political leaders and elites,
remains a lively topic of discussion in the United
States, on the left and right. Views of Israel are
almost always at the center of these debates.</p>
<p>In a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-barack-obama-learned-love-israel/6786">2007
article</a>, for instance, this writer traced how as
little known Chicago politician Barack Obama rose to
national prominence, he increasingly adopted the
hardline anti-Palestinian talking points of the
powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC.</p>
<p>In 2010, Glen Ford, editor of <em>Black Agenda
Report</em>, <a
href="https://blackagendareport.com/content/two-black-caucus-members-ask-gaza-flotilla-probe-rest-are-silent">wrote</a>
that “the relentless pressures of the Israel lobby
have succeeded in causing most Black elected officials
to cower in fear of being labeled anti-Israel.”</p>
<p>“Since at least the mid-sixties, many Jewish
organizations have treated Black sympathies for the
Palestinian people as rank anti-Semitism of the kind
Jews experienced at the hands of whites,” Ford
observed. “In some Jewish circles it is accepted as a
truism that Blacks are anti-Semitic.”</p>
<p>In a <a
href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/rise-black-anti-semitism/">recent
article</a> for the far-right <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/commentary">anti-Palestinian</a>
magazine <em>Commentary</em>, <a
href="https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/neocon-jamie-kirckick-makes-friendly-appearance-white-nationalist-radio-show">neoconservative
pro-Israel activist</a> Jamie Kirchick recycles
claims about the “prevalence of, and insouciance
toward, anti-Semitism in the African American
community.”</p>
<p>In a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/senator-his-pastor-and-israel-lobby/7440">well-worn
tactic</a>, Kirchick uses the fringe views of Nation
of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in an effort to smear
millions of Black people and bully Black activists
into backing off from working with Jewish groups that
support Palestinian rights and the boycott, divestment
and sanctions (BDS) movement – particularly Jewish
Voice for Peace.</p>
<p>The smear campaign comes amid a resurgence of
expressions of historically strong <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/black-palestine">Black
solidarity</a> with Palestine in the United States.</p>
<p>To prevent Black activists from responding to or
discussing the history and political context of such
allegations – as the University of Vienna has done –
is effectively to endorse the attack on their
communities and to silence them.</p>
<h2>Genocide advocate welcome</h2>
<p>It is a well-established principle that it is not
necessary to agree with a speaker in order to defend
their right to speak and the right of students and
educators to engage with them in public discussion.</p>
<p>Yet the University of Vienna has a deeply biased
standard about who can be heard.</p>
<p>In contrast to the draconian censorship of
individuals and organizations suspected of believing
that Palestinians should have full rights, the
University of Vienna warmly welcomes those who
advocate that Palestinians should be exterminated.</p>
<p>Last year, university officials welcomed Israeli
justice minister Ayelet Shaked to campus despite how
she had disseminated a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-lawmakers-call-genocide-palestinians-gets-thousands-facebook-likes">call
for the genocide of the Palestinian people</a>,
including the slaughter of mothers who give birth to
“little snakes.”</p>
<p>In the face of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/university-vienna-urged-cancel-talk-genocide-advocate-ayelet-shaked">strong
objections</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-protests-disrupt-vienna-talk-israeli-genocide-advocate-ayelet-shaked">protests</a>,
the university defended the invitation to Shaked in
the name of “dialogue” and “academic discourse.”</p>
<p>The University of Vienna’s tolerance of those like
Ayelet Shaked who spread calls for genocide, and its
intolerance of those like Bin-Wahad and Dar al Janub
who struggle against racism and the legacy of slavery
and colonialism, is deeply troubling given the
institution’s <a
href="http://www.austrianinformation.org/fall-2015/dark-history">Nazi
history</a>.</p>
<p>Bin-Wahad spoke to a packed house at Afripoint on
Thursday evening, an attendee told The Electronic
Intifada.</p>
<h2>German festival changes course</h2>
<p>The University of Vienna’s action is part of a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/will-boycotting-israel-become-crime-germany/23986">wave
of censorship</a> targeting supporters of
Palestinian rights in Germany and Austria, countries
where elites channel historic guilt for the Nazi
extermination of Jews into unquestioning support for
Israel.</p>
<div id="file-65096">
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<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Victory for free speech
over anti-Palestinian censorship! After
disinviting <a
href="https://twitter.com/Youngfathers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Youngfathers</a>
for refusing to distance themselves from the
Palestinian-led BDS human rights movement,
German <a
href="https://twitter.com/ruhrtriennale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ruhrtriennale</a>
festival bows to international <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SupportYoungFathers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SupportYoungFathers</a>
pressure and reinvites band! <a
href="https://t.co/3Bh1U8cCnn">https://t.co/3Bh1U8cCnn</a></p>
— PACBI (@PACBI) <a
href="https://twitter.com/PACBI/status/1009796187048890368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
21, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>But in a surprising development on Thursday,
Germany’s Ruhrtriennale festival <a
href="https://www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/nieuws/16/Statement_der_Ruhrtriennale_Intendantin_Stefanie_Carp/">reversed</a>
an <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/artists-boycott-germanys-ruhrtriennale-banning-palestinian-rights">earlier
decision</a> to ban the acclaimed Scotland-based
group Young Fathers because it had refused to renounce
its support for BDS and Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Festival director Stefanie Carp said she wished to
“correct my approach,” by inviting the group back,
while still maintaining her personal opposition to
BDS.</p>
<p>Beirut-based musician Sherif Sehnaoui confirmed that
the festival had also reached out to re-invite him and
four other artists who had <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/artists-boycott-germanys-ruhrtriennale-banning-palestinian-rights">pulled
out to protest</a> the cancellation of Young
Fathers.</p>
<div id="file-65106">
<div>
<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ruhrtriennale?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ruhrtriennale</a>
re-invites <a
href="https://twitter.com/Youngfathers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Youngfathers</a>!
Hats off, already quite an achievement in the
context of German society, and against those who
falsely equate <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BDS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BDS</a>
with anti-semitism!!!<a
href="https://t.co/wXNvgpnPfC">https://t.co/wXNvgpnPfC</a></p>
— Sharif Sehnaoui (@SharifSehnaoui) <a
href="https://twitter.com/SharifSehnaoui/status/1009866268164403200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<div id="file-65101">
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<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">They reinvited everyone.
And reached out to others who also expressed
willingness to withdraw</p>
— Sharif Sehnaoui (@SharifSehnaoui) <a
href="https://twitter.com/SharifSehnaoui/status/1009869377620140036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
21, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>“Hats off, already quite an achievement in the
context of German society, and against those who
falsely equate BDS with anti-Semitism,” Sehnaoui said
in praise of Ruhrtriennale’s about turn.</p>
<p>PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and
Cultural Boycott of Israel, called the decision a
“victory for free speech over anti-Palestinian
censorship.”</p>
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