UNMIA

Lynn Provencio’s reply:

Interestingly, Ms. Gossage mainly takes issue with my characterization of the Arab speakers, that I criticized their comments and personal stories as being politically motivated rather than being stories of alternative peace efforts. She says I don’t show proper sympathy for their afflictions. This is especially true in the case of Ms. Wejdan. Ms. Gossage says I twisted facts to show them in a bad light. However, she didn’t say what facts were twisted or what was the correct interpretation, except in the case of Ms. Wejdan’s return trip to Gaza from the US.

As for the reasons behind Ms. Wejdan’s not being allowed back into Israel the first try, when she returned from the US, we are speculating where we have no facts. While I made the comment about associations rather off-handedly, it makes sense. Ms. Wejdan was a student sponsored by a prestigious American scholarship program, and her PA papers were good enough for her to go into Israel from Gaza and pass through customs at Ben Gurion and then Kennedy Airport on her way to the US. Her sponsors have extensive experience in bringing foreign students to the US to study, including Palestinians. Why did she have trouble on the return flight, but not on the outgoing flight? Ms. Wejdan’s insistence that it was all because she was from Gaza and so had no passport doesn’t ring true. There are many reasons why she could have been denied entry. Was it justified in Ms. Wejdan’s case? I don’t know. But Ms. Gossage’s outrage and assumption that Israel mistreated her for no good reason was even more biased than my lack of outrage.

I didn’t mention the metal hips story because while it brought sympathy and was kind of cute, it didn’t have to do with the subject at hand. There are constant complaints that people are pulled out of airport security lines in the US due to these types of disabilities. My mother, a retired teacher who doesn’t look particularly Mideastern, is usually pulled out of airport security lines because she has an artificial knee, and she also has a note from the doctor. A person with a cast has to get the cast scanned no matter what nationality they are or how harmless they look.

This is something that I purposely didn’t bring up in the article, but Ms. Gossage has brought up: Does she think that an Arab traveler should be spared what non-Arabs have to put up with? Is that why she was so offended that I didn’t comment on that? I should have been enraged and offended that Ms. Wejdan got the same treatment as my mother, myself and millions of others get? It’s certainly believable that Arabs have a harder time getting through Airports than non-Arabs, and as long as we have threats from Arab and Islamic terrorist tactics, that’s just how the world is. But I wasn’t going to say all that. It wasn’t what I was talking about.

Ms. Gossage’s response to my mention that none of the Jerusalem Women are from Jerusalem is rather alarming and colonialistic. She is saying that every Muslim, Christian or Jew in the world can be called a Jerusalem man or woman because their religions have an interest in Jerusalem. Jerusalem does not belong to the whole world. People from the whole world may ask for the ability to visit their holy places in Jerusalem (something Muslims do not like to grant–they prefer to destroy Jewish and Christian holy places), and try to make agreements for access, but it doesn’t belong to the world and people don’t become automatic citizens of the city because of the religion they were born into. The title of the presentation, “Three Jerusalem Women Speak” is simply inaccurate. I supposed that it had to do with convenience, which seems a pretty harmless and obvious observation. I hope that Ms. Gossage is only stretching for things to find fault with here, and is not presenting her statement as a grounds for international policy.

Ms. Gossage, being unable to answer my factual charges or deny the real point of what I’m saying, instead resorts throughout her comment to painting me as a racist and objects to my tone of voice. She says I sound like someone from an “Israel First” church, which is a insult in her crowd. In fact, I’m a Jew and not a Christian, and am not affiliated with any Christian groups. There are quite a few Jews who think like I do, even though we are the minority. More stereotyping. However, I do not put the Christians down. Many are righteous gentiles, and will get the blessing they are looking for.

While Ms. Gossage insisted that I was warping the facts to present the women as Pan-Arab spokesmen rather than peace makers, I have support for my assertions. I can give more exact sources and literal quotes from their own writings and organizations to support my view. Ms. Gossage didn’t offer any support to the contrary, which detracts from her comments.

Ms. Gossage says that she understands my point, but I think not. She says that I’m offended by the personal life experiences of the two Palestinian women. I’m not sure what she means by that. How does anyone get offended by a passive story? However, I am extremely offended by their strong anti-Israel political message and it being offered up as peace activism the classroom, with public funding.

Ms. Gossage says the women were only there to share their life experiences, like friends talking around the kitchen table. But these “life experiences” weren’t shared to further inter-cultural understanding. Their anecdotes were mostly aimed at furthering a hostile agenda, and many times it was not “life experiences” but plain anti-Israel propaganda. It is simply the work of indoctrinating students, who know little about the subject, to hate Israel. After this presentation they know less than they did.

Ms. Gossage is saying that I’m a racist and that I didn’t like the Arab speakers simply because they are Arab. I don’t like them because they are dishonest and spreading anti-Israel propaganda under the guise of being peace activists. I would object to them no matter what ethnicity they were, for doing that. However, the two Arab women were doing the job they were sent to do. I am far more offended by the groups who tout the two women as peace activists than I am by the women themselves.

There are quite a few Arabs, Muslim and Christian, who are courageous enough to speak out publicly for a real peace and real justice in Israel, who speak honestly about all sides and look at the facts. I have great respect for them because they have a rare amount of courage, intellectual honesty and integrity. I personally might disagree with some of their premises or conclusions, but they are worthy of respect and being heard.

Why are such people never invited to speak at UNM? Why does a Zionist have to write a hot editorial for any opinion to be heard outside of the left-wing anti-Israel view? Why do we not hear factual and helpful discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict, instead of being subjected to these anti-Israel rants at public expense? That was my point.

Ms. Gossage either cannot give a good answer, or has totally missed the point. I suspect it’s the former.