[Imc] IMC Switz letter on website?
Paul Riismandel
p-riism at uiuc.edu
Sun Mar 3 01:53:45 UTC 2002
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.
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