IRIS Blog*
December 6, 2005
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* Cross-posted with permission

Princeton U. Says Campus Event Against Terrorism is “Too Inflammatory”

Princeton University has cancelled a speaking event by three former Middle East terrorists because it says that the use of the word “terrorist” in the promotion for the event is “too inflammatory.”

Two of the three self-described former terrorists were members of the PLO. Each of them apparently converted to Christianity. Here is the must-read story of one of the group, Walid Shoebat, who is now an ardent Zionist.

Meanwhile, another former PLO member is likely to be named a full professor:

Khalidi is Sole Candidate for History Position
Controversial professor appears to have wide support

As detailed in Campus Watch Rashid Khalidi is trying to weasel out of having worked for the PLO:

Mr. Khalidi dismisses the allegation that he served as a PLO spokesman, saying, “I often spoke to journalists in Beirut, who usually cited me without attribution as a well-informed Palestinian source. If some misidentified me at the time, I am not aware of it.”

Here is another corroborating quote about being a PLO employee from the New York Times (February 19, 1978) that is not widely known because of an alternate spelling of the last name:

If the Israelis had any brains they could neutralize Palestinian irredentism just by giving back the West Bank,” asserted Rashid Khalidy, an American-educated Palestinian who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut and also works for the P.L.O. “It would split us.”

Khalidi and Khalidy are clearly the same person. According to the Columbia Spectator, he was a professor at the American University in Beirut before his first stint at Columbia:

Khalidi came to Columbia in 1985 after teaching at Lebanese University and American University in Beirut. He has taught in political science and history departments.

According to the New York Times, the Columbia Khalidi seems to have known Arafat from that time period:

Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American professor at the University of Chicago who has known Mr. Arafat since the 1970’s, said he visited Mr. Arafat recently and found him battered not only by the Israeli siege that confined him to his headquarters here but also by the recent calls for reform.

Khalidi should come clean about his terrorist connections. Here is what Khalidi’s employer did a few weeks after his Times interview:

On March 11, 1978 eleven terrorists, again coming from Lebanon with Zoadic rubber commando dinghies, landed at the beach of Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael. They killed an American photographer and a taxi driver and hijacked a bus, whose passengers, including many children, were on a day-trip to the north. The hijackers forced the driver to return to Tel Aviv. Driving on the coastal highway, the terrorists fired on passing cars from the bus.

When the bus approached a blockade set up by the police at an entrance to Tel Aviv, a shootout took place. The terrorists left the bus and fired missiles. The bus burst into flames and most of the passengers were either burned alive or killed by terrorist gunfire.

The massacre left 35 innocent people dead and 100 injured. The terrorists were identified as belonging to Fatah; nine were killed and two captured.

I have not been so embarrassed by my alma mater since Princeton hired Peter Singer, a proponent of the legalization of infanticide and bestiality, as a professor of bioethics in a decision unanimously endorsed by the Trustees.

(Big hat tip: Michael S.)

Update: The Daily Princetonian claims the event was not cancelled, only postponed, and that a serious argument occured between the head of the student group hosting the event and Walid Shoebat’s representative. Unfortunately for the Mr. Shoebat, the head of the student group also happens to be a news editor of the school newspaper. The newspaper’s account of the incident paints Shoebat’s organization in an extremely negative light, contrary to what I know about him. (Hat tip: Patrick D. O’Brien)

Update 2: I just spoke to Keith Davies, Walid Shoebat’s representative, for his side of the story. According to him, the lecture was approved three weeks ago by the Dean and the Head of Public Safety and that he received official notification from the school that the event was approved. Shoebat has spoken on college campuses before and Davies warned the student organizations that a pattern had emerged where left-leaning administrations have tried to quash his speeches by pressuring the students.

According to Davies, that is exactly what has happened in this case. Princeton’s Communication Director led the effort to censor the event, and the students capitulated.

Davies denies the claim by the Princetonian story that the event was only postponed and not cancelled. According to Davies he was told this directly by the Dean who said that without a contract, there would be no event.

I should note that I witnessed the pattern of Jewish student leadership capiltulation a number of times first-hand when I was at Princeton. The Jewish student organizations were generally allergic to controversy. For example, Rabbi Meir Kahane (who was later assassinated in what many regard as the first American strike of the Global Jihad) delivered a heavily attended pro-Israel and pro-Judaism speech without the endorsement of any Jewish organization. Another large pro-Israel and pro-Judaism speech by a popular Princeton student (Yoram Hazony) had to be hosted by a non-Jewish group in the end because of its potential controversy. Yoram is now a best-selling author and founder of Israel’s leading think tank, the Shalem Center. At the time, Yoram and I were co-authors of a one-page bulletin containing pro-Jewish and pro-Israel quotes by the likes of Mark Twain and Herman Wouk, as well as general and campus news clippings (similar to this blog) that we started mailing monthly to Jewish students. It had to be shut down after the first few editions because of attacks by much of the Jewish student leadership because of the potential offense that students might take over the unwelcome Jewish intrusion into their lives and the potential that some non-Jewish student might inadvertently receive a mailing.

Update 3: Not only has Rashid Khalidi (the director of Columbia’s infamous Middle East Institute) falsified his background, it turns out he apparently plagiarized an entire essay. Alan Dershowitz challenged the University to investigate, but their record in this area is quite disappointing.

Also, a reliable, but anonymous reader noted that the pattern of timidity among the Princeton Jewish student groups was also true at Harvard.

Update 4: A student representative contacted IRIS to emphasize that their objection is to the behavior of Shoebat’s assistant, not to Shoebat himself, and that their side of the story has been written in a press release found in “many places” on the Web. Neither I nor my correspondents can seem to locate it.

Update 5: Here is the press release of the Princeton student organization

Update 6: I can now reveal that the lecture will be going ahead as scheduled, but off-campus instead. It will be held at the Princeton Radisson Hotel this Thursday at 7:30 pm.

Update 7: The student group (PIPAC) appears to be telling two falsehoods about the reasons for cancellation. This is particularly serious given the personal nature of the attacks against Walid Shoebat’s representatives, and the conflict of interest in that the head of PIPAC had her side of the argument appear in the newspaper in which she is a news editor. This connection was not even mentioned in the print version of the newspaper.

Here are excerpts from the student group’s public statement, along with contradictions from an e-mail IRIS obtained which were sent by Keith Davies, head of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, to a PIPAC representative on Oct. 20 regarding his intentions for the event.

I, of course, am submitting this to PIPAC representatives for their response. I am requesting a copy of all e-mails so that the context can be fully preserved.

PIPAC: “The goal of PIPAC for this event was to bring a pro-Israel voice to Princeton’s campus and further the campus discussion of current issues in the Middle East. The Foundation did not communicate their intention to hold an event much larger in scale.”

Foundation: “you will need…to get a venue provisionally allocated that holds at least 1000 people…There also must be permission for non students to attend freely. We also need to permission to bring full camera crew to film the event, this will include 6 people.”

PIPAC: “The Foundation intentionally misled PIPAC concerning their plan to generate national media attention.”

Foundation: “Our approach is to BE CONTROVERSIAL ! so the media will focus on our message….You should also arrange the week before to have a temporary press office on campus as well as Press releases which need to be made to the local, national and international press in the days running up to the event. I hope to have the budget to employ a PR firm just for the event who can help create the huge buzz we want to create.”

This appears to lend support to the Foundation’s story that the University pressured PIPAC to stop the event and PIPAC made up a pretext for the cancellation to save face. Of course, appearances can be deceiving, emails can be taken out of context and misunderstandings can occur, so be sure to check back here, because this entry will be frequently updated..

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Editor’s note: For more info on Rashid Khalidi from netWMD, click here. For more info on Walid Shoebat from netWMD, click here.

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Related: Political Correctness

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