Israel Matzav

Boo Hoo! Another American Jewish community won't get to hear another BDS'er

I get freedom of speech and all that - after all, I lived the first 34 years of my life (well, most of them) in the United States back in the days when there was freedom of speech here (before the Obama posse came to power). But there is NO reason why Jewish communal money and facilities have to be used to provide a forum for a BDS'er.

On Tuesday, I got an e-mail from the Washington DC Jewish Community Center: The JCC was refunding me for a ticket I had purchased to an event in its “Authors Out Loud” series. I had paid to hear David Harris-Gershon, whose memoir, “What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?,” traces his emotional journey following his wife’s serious injury in a Jerusalem bombing. Ultimately, Harris-Gershon sought reconciliation with Mohammad Odeh , the imprisoned Palestinian man responsible for the remote-controlled bomb, and his memoir describes his experience meeting the Odeh family.

I was moved by the story — mostly because, as one review noted, Harris-Gershon’s “background is so recognizable and familiar, while the journey he chooses to take is so radical.”

I bought a ticket to the talk because I wanted to learn more about this journey. I wanted to ask whether Harris-Gershon’s mind-set about Palestinian society had changed gradually or all at once. I wanted to hear about what sort of resistance he encountered from his Jewish community as his perspective changed and he began to seek reconciliation with the perpetrator of such a bloody attack.

Thanks to the JCC, I know what Jewish resistance to Harris-Gershon looks like. And it’s ostensibly unrelated to his memoir. Instead, the resistance focuses on a blog post Harris-Gershon wrote advocating boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
When I called the JCC to ask why I was getting a refund, I was told Harris-Gershon’s talk had been canceled. “The DC JCC has a policy that we do not do events with people who have endorsed BDS,” associate executive director Joshua Ford told me.

Odeh was responsible for the murder of nine people. He planted the bomb that went off in the cafeteria of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Mount Scopus campus on July 31, 2002. Nearly half of those murderer were Americans.

Nine people were killed in the attack. Seven died immediately and two died of their wounds in the following weeks. The victims, according to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were:^[6]

David (Diego) Ladowski, 29, of Jerusalem Levina Shapira, 53, of Jerusalem Marla Bennett, 24, of California (US) Benjamin Blutstein, 25, of Pennsylvania (US) Dina Carter, 37, of Jerusalem (US)

Janis Ruth Coulter, 36, of New York (US) David Gritz, 24, of Massachusetts (US-France) Daphna Spruch, 61, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on August 10. Revital Barashi, 30, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on August 13.

About 100 people were injured in the attack. The wounded included Israelis, Arabs, four Americans and three South Koreans.^[7]

If I recall correctly, Bennett and Blutstein were engaged to be married. 

Harris-Gershon deserves to be barred from speaking in Jewish communal facilities - but not just because of his support for BDS. There is no reconciliation with murderers.

Labels: BDS, Palestinian terrorism, terror victims

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:23 AM