Date/Time
Date(s) - Saturday, March 27, 2021
10:00 am - 11:30 am
The Israel Lobby and the Repression of Palestine
Dr. Walter Hixson
Despite efforts to downplay its significance, the Israel lobby exercises an enormous and wholly detrimental influence over U.S. Middle East policy and the ongoing repression of Palestine. The propaganda deployed by AIPAC and other Israel affinity groups dominates the U.S. Congress, ensuring that Israel receives far more foreign assistance than any other country.
In-depth historical analysis demonstrates that the Israel lobby has played a pivotal role as the United States enabled Israel’s disdain for a negotiated settlement of the Middle East conflict, the contemptuous dismissal of the plight of Palestinian refugees, cultivation of nuclear weapons in defiance of the global nuclear non-proliferation movement, profusion of palpably racist, illegal and destabilizing Jewish-only settlements, takeover of Jerusalem, much of the West Bank, and the Golan Heights; its ongoing violent aggression has victimized Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and neighboring states such as Lebanon.
In recent years, the Israel lobby launched a campaign to criminalize political engagement and freedom of speech by equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. In order to achieve meaningful change in U.S. Middle East policy, the lobby’s grip on the U.S. Congress must be publicized, condemned, and broken.
Event Recording Available Here
About the Speaker: Walter L. Hixson is a historian and commentator whose work has focused mainly on the intersection of American culture and foreign relations. Hixson’s research on the Israel lobby flowed from his previous examination of settler colonialism. Like Israel, the United States is a settler colonial nation, analyzed by Hixson in American Settler Colonialism: A History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Mutual histories of settler colonialism provided fertile ground on which Israel and its lobby constructed the “special relationship” with the United States, which has bolstered Israeli militarism and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Further information at http://walterhixson.com/
Please direct questions about this event to mepn@mepn.org.
Thank you to our co-sponsor, Jewish Voice for Peace – Twin Cities.
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