Amy Goodman: Tony Kushner and the Angels of Dissent

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from truthdig:




Tony Kushner and the Angels of Dissent

Posted on May 10, 2011
By Amy Goodman


Tony Kushner will be receiving an honorary degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. This shouldn’t be big news. Kushner is a renowned playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, along with an Emmy Award and two Tonys. The degree became big news when it was abruptly shelved by the City University of New York board of trustees during its May 2 meeting, after a trustee accused Kushner of being anti-Israel.

A campaign grew almost immediately, first calling on previous recipients of honorary degrees from CUNY colleges (of which John Jay College is one) to return them. Within days, what would have been a quickly forgotten bestowal of an honorary degree erupted into an international scandal. The chair of the board, Benno Schmidt, former president of Yale University, convened an emergency executive session of the board, which voted unanimously to restore the honor to Kushner.

The controversy exposed the extreme polarity that increasingly defines the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the willingness by some to suppress free speech and vigorous dialogue to further rigid, political dogma. The trustee who attacked Kushner, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, began his tirade at the original board meeting with an attack on Mary Robinson, who was formerly both the president of Ireland and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. He then went on: “There is a lot of disingenuous and nonintellectual activity directed against the state of Israel on campuses throughout the country, the West generally, and oftentimes the United States, as well.” He presented several quotes that he attributed to Kushner to make his case, ending with, “I don’t want to bore you all with the details.”

Kushner told me, “hat he’s doing is sparing them not boring details, but the full extent of the things that I’ve said about the state of Israel that would in fact make it clear to the board that I am in no way an enemy of the state of Israel, that I am in fact a vocal and ardent supporter of the state of Israel, but I don’t believe that criticism of state policy means that one seeks the destruction of a state. I’ve been very critical of the policies of my own government.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/tony_kushner_and_the_angels_of_dissent_20110510/

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1. Recommend

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2. I suggest that all DUers go read Kushner's plays or in the case

of Angels in America, rent the HBO version and watch it all. Get a copy of 'Homebody/Kabul' and read it. Angels in America is a play every American should see, particularly those with any interest in politics.

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3. I saw the play, and didn't think the movie could possibly do it justice, but.....

...... I was quite wrong. It was great, and the performances were amazing.