Ilan Pappe who last year left Haifa University (at last!) and moved to Exeter University in England, has been on a Canadian speaking tour to promote his vile book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. One day in March he was invited to speak in Vancouver. Vancouver municipal politics is organized along party lines, and the "left wing" party is called C.O.P.E. - the Coalition of Progressive Electors". That week they featured an ad for the lecture by what they term "renowned" historian Ilan Pappe.
One of the essential things we in Canada must do is to try to cure "progressives" of the idea that it is "progressive" to support Islamic genocide against the Jews of Israel.
Here is my response to C.O.P.E.'s ad that appeared as the first entry on its website.

"As a real "progressive" who devotes a substantial part of my life to developing affordable rental housing for the working poor, and one who has met with senior C.O.P.E. people to advise on affordable housing policy, I am so disappointed to see your support for the upcoming lecture by Ilan Pappe, now of Exeter University in England, at the Vancouver Public Library.



He is in no way progressive. He is in not considered by most academics a legitimate historian, but instead one who has repeatedly said that the facts are not as important as the ideological position he is taking. Exeter University had every right to hire him, but in Canada to have a municipal political party like yours advocate for him is tragic. You state in your material that he is a "renowned" historian. Nothing could be further from the truth. Then you reproduce some glowing references about him by people like Richard Falk and Walid Khalidi, hardly reputable historians.



If you are interested in a succinct article about Pappe, so that you will understand how he is held in utter contempt by "progressive" Israeli historians like Benny Morris, I suggest you refer to:

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=122&x_article=994



As Vancouver welcomes both Greg Felton and Ilan Pappe to the Vancouver Public Library within less than one month, we hear numerous justifications for "freedom of expression". Of course such freedom is subject to the discretion of our institutions to use some judgment in giving over its facilities and aura of respectability to those it invites to its premises. Pappe does not accord others the freedom of expression that he himself has used throughout his career in the liberal democracy of Israel. Recently he has railed against those students who disagree with him as being "agents of the Israeli embassy". Like others of his ilk, he is selective about who deserves freedom. There was no protest by him when a distinguished academic was barred from Leeds University from speaking about Islamic anti-Semitism. Please see:

http://www.engageonline.org.uk/blog/article.php?id=955


I am not sure how C.O.P.E., with the enormous problems of social justice in Vancouver crying out for solutions, can fancy itself as expert enough in Middle Eastern History and Politics to associate itself with a character like Pappe. I am sorry that you are marginalizing your otherwise good efforts at social justice by linking up with a cause that is clearly beyond your mandate and your historical understanding. If you want to alienate people like myself, you are on the right track. Otherwise, I suggest you disassociate yourself from this lecture, rather than promoting it.



Howard Rotberg B.A., LL.B

Author of
The Second Catastrophe: A Novel about a Book and its Author Mantua Books)
Second Generation Radical (see www.howardrotberg.ca)
Exploring Vancouverism: The Political Culture of Canada's Lotus Land (forthcoming)