From personal experience

[Scurrilous]

Some of Israel's supporters occasionally cross the line into suppression of speech. When they do, U.S. policy is the loser.

<snip>

"One day in 1981, my late father, Maurice Hanna Bisharat, returned from a long day at his Sacramento, Calif., medical office with an extra bounce in his step, his eyes dancing with excitement. His friend, Michael Himovitz, the young owner of a local art gallery, had called, offering to hold a one-person show of my father's paintings — mostly California landscapes.

My father had taken up painting after immigrating to this country from Palestine in the late 1940s, and although an amateur, had won a national art award within two years. But the demands of medical practice, raising a large family, and other avocations took their toll. It had been many years since my father's art had been publicly exhibited, and he was tickled.

My father was not a politician, but like any Palestinian living in the United States, he felt obligated to relate his people's experience to American friends. Educated and articulate, he spoke publicly in defense of Palestinian rights, and was a frequent commentator on Middle East events in the local media. Michael, a Jew, was perfectly aware of this side of my father's life. It did nothing to diminish his appreciation of my father's art, nor to inhibit their friendship.

Some weeks later I saw my father sitting, stony faced. He turned to me and whispered: "I just got a call from Michael. My show has been canceled." Michael, it transpired, had been visited by a group from the Sacramento Jewish community. Their message: "If you show Bisharat's art, we will boycott your gallery and close you down."

Michael may have been as crushed as my father, apologizing: "I just can't risk it — it's my livelihood." The indirect message to my father, of course, was: "If you speak critically of Israel, you will suffer pain." Fortunately, art was not my father's livelihood, and he survived this incident. But a deep sense of outrage never left him.

So when former New York Mayor Edward Koch and Rafael Medoff ask incredulously in a recent commentary critical of President Jimmy Carter's recent book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid "Are Jews suppressing speech?" — or when 14 Carter Center advisory board members resign in protest of the president's positions — the answer, for me, is not so straightforward."

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[Douglas Carpenter]

1. interesting perspective from a Palestinian-American

[pelsar]

2. kahanas crowd?

if i remember correctly wasnt that the period when kahanas crowd had a presence in California?

thugs are thugs....reguardless of the religion, skin color.....

[breakaleg]

3. I would expect to see that kind of thing happen in Israel. It's very disturbing to see it in the US

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. well I will say this for Israeli domestic debate

it seems to be much more open than American debate. Could you imagine Amira Hass or Gordon Levy writing a regular column for the New York Times?

[breakaleg]

5. That's why this is so strange. To think that what happens in the US needs to be dealt

with in this way. What difference does it make how Palestinians are perceived in the US? Or at least, it shouldn't make a difference. But some have taken it upon themselves to make it matter.