Madison-Rafah Journal

November 12, 2003

On Thursday, November 6, Madison, Wisconsin's Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative and a local newsweekly were able to convince Madison Area Technical College (MATC) to reverse its decision to impose restrictions on a speaking event about the Middle East, featuring noted writer and University of Chicago researcher Ali Abunimah. MATC had attempted to limit the scope of the talk and to deny Rainbow's request to sell books in conjunction with the event after some residents protested the talk due to Abunimah's pro-Palestinian point-of-view. However, faced with an unexpected backlash from the public, MATC decided at the last moment to proceed with the event as scheduled the evening of November 6.

The speaking engagement featuring Abunimah was scheduled as part of MATC's "Reporting From the Middle East," which is sponsored in part by Rainbow Bookstore, and also is part of MATC's Global Horizon lecture series. However, some in the community who vehemently opposed Abunimah's point-of-view on the Middle East exerted pressure on MATC to cancel, or at the very least, limit what Abunimah could talk about at the event. Subsequently, the college "sent an e-mail to Abunimah telling him what he could and could not speak about," Allen Ruff, Rainbow's events coordinator, told BTW.

When Abunimah was informed of the restriction, he told The Isthmus, a Madison alternative weekly newspaper, that it was "an outrageous violation of my First Amendment rights and the rights of the community to engage in dialogue and debate about matters of public interest."

(Read on …)

U.S. Media & The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Saturday, Nov 8, 2003
4:45 - 6:45 pm
Red Gym Media Room
UW-Madison Campus Information and Visitor Center
617 Langdon St.

This pivotal video exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites, working in combination with Israeli public relations strategies, exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Middle East conflict. Combining American and British TV news clips with observations of analysts, journalists, and political activists, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides an historical overview, a striking media comparison, and an examination of factors that have distorted U.S. media coverage and, in turn, American public opinion.

Interviewees include Seth Ackerman, Maj. Stav Adivi, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Hanan Ashrawi, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Dr. Neve Gordon, Toufic Haddad, Sam Husseini, Hussein Ibish, Robert Jensen, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Karen Pfeifer, Alisa Solomon, and Gila Svirsky. The producer and special guests will be on hand to answer questions.

The Media Education Foundation (MEF) presents this world premiere as part of the National Conference on Media Reform, November 7-9, Madison, WI.