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Friday, September 07, 2018

Why We Invited Ilan Pappé to Speak

Dan Moulthrop, Chief Executive Officer, The City Club of Cleveland

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about an upcoming speaker, Ilan Pappé, and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, which has at times been a partner to the City Club, put out a statement forcefully criticizing our decision to offer him a platform. In the interest of transparency and in the spirit of engagement, we’d like to provide a bit of context for his appearance.

First, a few basic facts are in order. Pappé is an Israeli Jew, a dissident, and a historian, currently living in England, where he teaches at the University of Exeter. He is known for being among the founders of the “New Historian” movement among Israeli academics who re-examined the narratives and documentation of the founding of Israel. Specifically, they looked closely at what actually happened when Palestinian Arabs were displaced in 1948. Pappé’s City Club address is titled, “The Idea of Israel.”

Pappé came to us through partners in the community, as many of our speakers do. The partners in this case are the Northeast Ohio Consortium on Middle East Studies, with whom we have worked since the Arab Spring, to bring in voices from the Middle East and scholars studying the Middle East. As is typical in this partnership, Pappé will speak at the universities in the consortium (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University), in addition to joining us at the City Club. We have heard perspectives on Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Jordan and Libya, Gaza and the West Bank, and though there have been many speakers, none has brought Pappé’s point of view, that of an Israeli Jew, living more or less in exile, deeply critical of his homeland.

As an institution, we have a commitment to celebrating, exercising, and honoring freedom of speech, expression, and academic inquiry. Often this means offering our platform to individuals who may find their scholarship or professional work under attack. This is especially important when it comes to voices some would seek to silence. That said, we draw a line at hate speech.

I know many people in our community disagree with Pappé and with our decision to offer him a platform. In the tradition of the City Club, I would encourage those with differing views to come, listen and ask the hard questions. The following story will illustrate what I mean.

In 1967, the segregationist Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was invited to speak at the City Club, and many members of the City Club and the broader community were understandably upset. A number of City Club members organized a protest of his speech, and picketed the Club that day, effectively shutting down Short Vincent Street. A few minutes before the speech was to begin, they put their signs down and walked in to listen to his speech and challenge him during the Q & A. That’s what we do at the City Club. Our members and members of the community may forcefully disagree with speakers, but even when we do, we come to the events, we listen closely to the speech, we allow ourselves and our own points of view and biases to be challenged, and we ask tough, challenging questions.

I’m optimistic about humankind, and I believe that when we hear opposing perspectives it gives us insight into how to find solutions to historically intractable conflicts. Pappé is not the only Israeli Jew to be exceptionally critical of his own homeland, and we have an opportunity to understand and interrogate how he came to those beliefs. I hope we don’t squander this opportunity.

Correction: This piece has been altered to remove a reference to The City Club’s assessment of anti-Semitism. In recent years, anti-Semitism has come to be defined by some institutions by a very specific set of behaviors. We did not intend to imply that we were assessing Mr. Pappé according to those specific criteria. (See https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism)