On May 17th, a group called “Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation” hosted an event titled, “The North American Nakba Tour: The Exiled Palestinians,” at the Columbia Missouri Public Library.
The event, according to the Columbia Tribune, was to feature “Palestinian refugees Amena Ashkar and Mariam Fathallah [describing] what they say is the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Jewish occupiers.” Before the event, I found an interview on YouTube in which Ashkar explained that earlier on the tour she had been scheduled to speak at Stanford University, but her hosts warned her not to say that Israel has no right to exist. Ashkar responded firmly, “I came here to say that Israel has no right to exist.” Ultimately, she cancelled the presentation, rather than capitulate. When I became aware of this information, I organized a group to urge the public library to cancel the room reservation. I made sure the library was fully informed that Ashkar’s stated goal was to call for the destruction of Israel, and that given her past stops on the tour, her message was likely to be delivered in a particularly offensive manner.
I wrote a letter in the Tribune, explaining that “the US State Department defines antisemitism as: ‘Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist.’” I also consulted a lawyer, who sent a letter to the director of the library, Melissa Carr, as well as to its board of trustees. The letter stated, “This is hate speech that implicitly calls for the genocide of the Jews… hate speech has no place in a tax-funded institution.” In addition, we started a letter-writing campaign calling for the room reservation to be cancelled.
To no avail. Though fully informed, Director Carr allowed the event to proceed.
The event had a very large crowd. Fathallah, 86, told her story about fleeing her Arab village, and how she eventually ended up in Lebanon. Ashkar told her story about growing up in a refugee camp in Lebanon. I grant them their historical narrative; what matters is whether the event called for the destruction of Israel, and thereby constituted a public institution hosting an event consisting of hate speech.
First, Ashkar apparently realized that she might generate trouble if she openly denied Israel’s right to exist. In fact, the Tribune asked her beforehand whether she would retract her earlier statement. “Reached by phone Thursday, Ashkar seemed unwilling to court further controversy,” it wrote. “She said she would share her thoughts during the event. ‘Anyone who has any concern can go to the event,’ she said. ‘I would be happy to answer any questions.’”