[Imc] IMC Switz letter on website?

[Paul Riismandel]

I'm curious who this is who wrote the letter to IMC Swtizerland on the website:
"Urbana-Champaign IMC letter on IMC Switzerland
by gehrig 6:23pm Sat Mar 2 '02 article#4239
zemblan at earthlink.net"

http://www.ucimc.org/front.php3?article_id=4239&group=webcast

I ask because according to last Sunday's steering meeting Sascha said he 
was going to write it, and I don't know who "gehrig" is.  Also, I have a 
small concern about the letter's statement that "We, the Urbana-Champaign 
IMC, support IMC Switzerland in its mission of providing an open and 
independent channel of public communication."  Not because I don't support, 
but because I don't know who or what body is currently empowered to speak 
for the entire IMC.  At Sunday's meeting my understanding was that the 
letter would come from the Steering Group, which was the group that decided 
to write the letter.  Steering is not a representative body, its members do 
not represent the whole IMC.

Further, I'm not sure I agree with all the statements made in this letter 
about the cartoonist, Latuff.  I'm not sure I disagree, but no one asked me 
about what I think, and again, I didn't realize such statements would be 
part of our letter.

Can anyone fill us all in on who wrote this letter and how s/he has the 
authority to write on behalf of the entire IMC?

Here's the entire text of the letter:

We, the Urbana-Champaign IMC, support IMC Switzerland in its mission of 
providing an open and independent channel of public communication. We are 
saddened that IMC Switzerland is currently offline as a consequence of the 
legal action by Aktion Kinder der Holocaust. We pledge our solidarity and 
support.

This controversy pits two important but irreconcilable principles against 
each other: on one hand, unfettered, uncensored free speech; on the other, 
the repudiation of racist and antisemitic rhetoric. The Urbana-Champaign 
IMC has also found itself caught between these two principles in the past, 
and we recognize the significant moral and ethical quandary IMC Switzerland 
finds itself in.

The cartoon panel at the heart of the controversy is part of a series 
critical of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. It bears repeating that 
it is not the pro-Palestinian stance which is at question here. It is only 
the final panel, which by implication equated the Israelis with the Nazis, 
which triggered the ADKH protest.

We do not accuse the cartoonist Latuff of antisemitism, although we believe 
that he had not fully considered the moral implications of the cartoon 
panel at the time of its posting, and we believe he has not yet shown any 
real understanding of the core complaint against him. He boasts of "having 
struck a nerve"; he has, but not the one he thinks.

In particular, we must explicitly reject as repugnant the rhetorical device 
of equating Israeli policy with Nazism, a hyperbolic comparison that is at 
best tasteless, deeply offensive to most Jews and Germans, and historically 
untenable. The Nazi "Final Solution" killed nearly one third of the world's 
Jewish population within half a dozen years; the AKDH is not wrong to 
assert that such ground should be tread lightly. We accept that their 
motivation comes not from a desire to stifle criticism of Israel, as has 
been alleged, but as a genuine cri de coeur.

Nevertheless, the mission of the IMC movement requires that free speech 
must prevail. IMC Switzerland exercised sound moral judgement in 
deprecating but not removing the cartoon. We feel that this is a perfectly 
acceptable solution.

We call upon the AKDH in friendship to reconsider their suit against IMC 
Switzerland. Proceeding against the IMC would be, we strongly believe, 
ineffective or even counterproductive. The Latuff panel is, ultimately, too 
insignificant to merit the closing of IMC Switzerland. Given its 
international nature, the Internet cannot be purged of all expressions of 
antisemitism -- or any other type of insanity. But the Internet also allows 
for new opportunities for education and bridge-building, and we find it 
more productive to concentrate our energies there.

We send all our best wishes to IMC Switzerland in hopes that their site 
will soon rejoin IMCs throughout the world, giving voice to the voiceless.