US playwright Tony Kushner denied university award because he 'disparaged Israel'

Philip Weiss from Mondoweiss blog on the blocking of an honorary degree to Pulitzer award-winning playwright Tony Kushner because he "disparaged the State of Israel" - yet another example of the sad and corrosive influence of Zionism on Jewish life in the US. Tony Kushner has written a reply to the board of City University of New York (CUNY).

The Tony Kushner mugging is huge. It is sending more Jews to the exits, wondering what the messianic Zionist movement has done to Jewish political engagement, let alone to the Palestinian experience. Mark Kleiman, a public policy prof at UCLA, says he's done with Zionism (thanks to Sullivan and Voskamp):
Peter Beinart gave a very good talk – at once eloquent and morally and intellectually serious – at UCLA Hillel last night. The talk explored the complexity of loving Israel and yet disapproving of the pattern of ethnic subordination that characterizes Israeli rule over the West Bank. Beinart mentioned the fact that settler violence against Palestinians sometimes fits any plausible definition of “terrorism” – attacks on innocents to make a political point – and that very few of those attacks ever lead to law enforcement action against the perpetrators.

The response from part of the audience left me sick to my stomach. The basic theme – stated in so many words by one participant – was “they brought it on themselves.” To hear Jews talking about collective ethnic guilt in tones worthy of Der Sturmer was really more than I could handle. I left after being personally accused of indifference to the Shoah because I refused to profess indifference to the suffering of Arabs.

And today I learn that Tony Kushner – whose views about Israel seem roughly to track mine – has been denied an honorary degree by a minority of the trustees of the City University of New York, based on a typical cowardly wingnut smear job, launched without warning in a way that gave Kushner no chance to defend himself.

I know most Israelis don’t deserve their worst American defenders, but if the result of having to defend Israel is that Jews start acting like bullies and sounding like Nazis, at some point the price gets to be too high.

Thanks to Mondoweiss.

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