Showdown at Brandeis: Palestinian paintings and the painful truth
Showdown at Brandeis: Palestinian paintings and the painful truth
I’ve been covering the controversy over Brandeis University and the Palestinian paintings (soon to be published in the print edition). In short, here’s the initial account as it was reported by the Boston Globe in early May: “A bulldozer menaces a girl with ebony pigtails, who lies in a pool of blood. A boy with an amputated leg balances on a crutch, in a tent city with a Palestinian flag. A dove, dripping blood, perches against blue barbed wire. Palestinian teenagers painted those images at the request of an Israeli Jewish student at Brandeis University, who said she wanted to use the art to bring the Palestinian viewpoint to campus. But university officials removed the paintings four days into a two-week exhibition in the Brandeis library. University officials said the paintings depicted only one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Lior Halperin, the student who organized the exhibit, said the university censored an alternative view.”
The matter will be discussed in a faculty-member meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Some 100 of them issued a petition expressing discomfort with the decision taken by the University. “We, the undersigned, regard the removal of Lior Halperin’s (‘09) exhibit from the university library as a mistake, and we expect the university to find a suitable way for Lior to exhibit her project,” they wrote.
An open letter to the university’s president, written by Jeffery Abramson, Louis Stulberg Professor of Law and Politics, was circulated ahead of the meeting.
“I am now providing his letter to the entire faculty, together with my response. It is my hope that our exchange of views will provide a basis for faculty discussion,” wrote President Jehuda Reinharz to faculty members. A showdown is coming, and the lines have been drawn.
Abramson writes, “We should not unduly rein in the emotive aspects of political speech by demanding a ‘balanced tone’ that flies in the face of partisan advocacy.” And his objective is clear: “In recent years, the university has committed substantial resources to promoting dialogue with Arab and Palestinian groups. Unfortunately, one episode now threatens to overshadow these important efforts. The best way to have persons see the larger picture about the University’s support for Middle East dialogue is for the University to acknowledge, in this one instance, that it failed to live up to its own ideals.”
Reinharz, presenting himself as the mature side in this debate, couldn’t disagree more: We have a “responsibility to be especially attentive to (1) allowing the broadest possible discussion of all issues, perhaps most importantly the painful or difficult issues, (2) ensuring that such issues are dealt with in an educational and scholarly context, and (3) achieving these ends in a manner that pays careful attention to our obligation to ensure, to the best of our ability, a campus environment that is welcoming for all.”
Both sides make some good points in their respective open letters – but the direction of this tide is quite clear by now and should serve as a lesson. It is much easier to prevent something from happening before hand, than to correct it after the fact. Had this exhibition been prevented in advance, it would have passed – no one can force an institution to provide a stage for such a presentation. But as soon as a decision was made, and the paintings were exhibited, it was almost impossible to remove them without paying a heavy price. This is a price that Reinharz is now paying and, evidently, it is not easy for him.
You can almost feel the frustration in Reinharz’s response: “As you may know, the university (i.e. the president’s office) has been under a steady barrage of complaints these last months… because of my defense of (1) Dr. Khalil Shikaki, a Senior Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, against uninformed allegations that he is a supporter of terrorists, (2) Al Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh… (3) Al Quds University itself in the face of the uninformed allegation… and (4) Mr. Tony Kushner, one of this year’s honorary degree recipients, who has been accused by some as being an enemy of Israel…”
How right he is – and how maddening it is that all this doesn’t really matter. You fight for a year, you make one mistake (if it is a mistake), and the whole world turns against you. People say he is angry – but so is Halperin, now back in Israel, looking for an apartment. If the University decides that it wants the exhibit back, it’s not at all clear she will let them have it. So far, she hasn’t received any formal explanation from, or been in communication with, the University. The paintings are waiting for both sides’ decisions in her parents’ house in Boston.
