US free speech row grows as author says Pro-Israeli complaints stopped launch party

Freedom of speech continues to be one of America's greatest virtues, unless the person speaking has any complaint regarding the behaviour of the state of Israel.

Carmen Callil, a British writer, planned to launch her new book "Bad Faith" - an account of Louis Darquier, the Vichy official who arranged the deportation of thousands of Jews - at the French Embassy in New York.

However, Embassy officials cancelled the engagement after they were made aware of a comment Miss Callil had made in the postscript of the book:

In the postscript Callil says she grew anxious while researching the "helpless terror of the Jews of France" to see "what the Jews of Israel were passing on to the Palestinian people. Like the rest of humanity, the Jews of Israel 'forget' the Palestinians. Everyone forgets."

The Embassy said it had been made aware of the postscript after a guest refused to attend because of it. Nor is this an isolated incident where criticism of Israel is deemed politically incorrect in the US.

A British-born academic based at New York University has had two speaking engagements called off after criticism of his views. Tony Judt, an American Jew who was brought up in Britain, was due to speak on the subject of the influence of the pro-Israeli lobby on US foreign policy and at a separate location under the title War and Genocide in European Memory Today. The first lecture was cancelled by the Polish consulate in New York, which owned the venue, while Mr Judt pulled out of the second after he was asked by the organisers to refrain from direct references to Israel. In both cases pro-Israeli organisations and individuals had raised objections to Mr Judt's views on Israel.

Mr Judt was one of six people who took part in a debate in New York last month organised by the London Review of Books on the controversy sparked by its article on The Israel Lobby. During that debate Mr Judt argued that pro-Israeli groups acted "to silence debate on the subject", adding that criticism of Israel had come to be thought of as un-American.

His talk last week on a similar theme at a venue owned by the Polish consulate was cancelled by the consul, Krzysztof Kasprzyk, after inquiries from two Jewish organisations. Mr Kasprzyk told the Washington Post that he had been subjected to "delicate pressure".

Abraham Foxman, director of one of the groups, the Anti-Defamation League, denied any pressurising. "All we did was to ask the consulate whether Tony Judt was speaking on its property. The decision to cancel was the Polish consulate's alone." Mr Judt riposted: "If all Mr Foxman was doing was making an inquiry, then he does an awful lot of inquiring. People are frequently being scared off."

It is ironic that, at the same time as Mr Foxman is claiming that talk of the overwhelming influence of pro-Israeli groups in the US is exaggerated, that he merely has to enquire if an event is taking place on certain premises in order to have that event immediately cancelled.

Mr Judt said his views had been misrepresented. "The only thing I have ever said is that Israel as it is currently constituted, as a Jewish state with different rights for different groups, is an anachronism in the modern age of democracies."

Pointing out such an obvious anachronism appears to be similar to having any sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians, in modern America that is taking free speech too far.

Even if one vehemently disagrees with the opinions that both speakers are expressing, surely in a democracy they have the right to express them?

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tag: Carmen Callil, Tony Judt, pro-Israeli lobby, US foreign policy, free speech, Anti-Defamation League, Israel, Palestine,