IGNORANCE. DECEPTION. OPPRESSION.

Israel called the Gaza operation of 2008-2009 “Operation Cast Lead.” Current
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren was an Israeli military
spokesperson during that war. Following are a few examples of war crimes
committed by Israel during the Gaza operation, detailed in the Goldstone
report. Following these examples are some of Michael Oren’s defenses of
Israeli actions in Gaza.

From the Goldstone Report:

“On 15 January 2009, the field office compound of the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in
Gaza City came under shelling with high explosive and white phosphorous
munitions. The Mission notes that the attack was extremely dangerous, as the BRANDEIS COMMENCEMENT 2010
compound offered shelter to between 600 and 700 civilians and contained a
huge fuel depot. The Israeli armed forces continued their attack over several
hours despite having been fully alerted to the risks they created. The Mission
concludes that the Israeli armed forces violated the requirement under
customary international law to take all feasible precautions in the choice of
Sunday May 23, 2010
means and method of attack with a view to avoiding and in any event
minimizing incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to
civilian objects...

“The Mission also finds that, on the same day, the Israeli armed forces
Brandeis University
directly and intentionally attacked al-Quds hospital in Gaza City and the
adjacent ambulance depot with white phosphorous shells. The attack caused
welcomes
fires which took a whole day to extinguish and caused panic among the sick Israeli Ambassador
and wounded who had to be evacuated. The Mission finds that no warning
was given at any point of an imminent strike. On the basis of its
investigation, the Mission rejects the allegation that fire was directed at the
Israeli armed forces from within the hospital...
M I C H A E L O R E N
“The Mission also examined the intense artillery attacks, again including Honorary Degree Recipient and
white phosphorous munitions, on al-Wafa hospital in eastern Gaza City, a Commencement Speaker
facility for patients receiving long-term care and suffering from particularly
serious injuries. On the basis of the information gathered, the Mission found
a violation of the prohibition of attacks on civilian hospitals in both cases.
The Mission also highlights that the warnings given by leaflets and pre-
recorded phone messages in the case of al-Wafa hospital demonstrate the
complete ineffectiveness of certain kinds of routine and generic warnings.” Brandeis: Sustaining intellectual
arguments for the colonization of
Michael Oren’s Response to the Goldstone Report: Palestine since 1948
“Israel does its utmost to avoid inflicting civilian casualties during military
operations...We investigated numerable complaints of irregularities. The
army was cleared of virtually all of them...I think this report creates a
problem not just for Israel, but for all free democracies in the world. It's a
“KNOWLEDGE. TRUTH. JUSTICE.”
victory for terror.” (from PBS interview with Gwen Ifill, 9/15/09)
 HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENTS
DOCTOR PAUL FARMER
Chairman of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health
and Social Medicine, Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard
University, and attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr.
Farmer is one of the world’s most influential and important thinkers and
activists in the field of medicine.
Among his many accomplishments, far too many to list here, Dr. Farmer in
1987 co-founded Partners in Health, a worldwide health organization with
hospitals and clinics in Haiti, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi and Peru.
The Partners in Health hospital in Haiti provides free treatment to patients,
and helps patients living in poverty gain access to effective treatments for
tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
Co-founder and Board Member of the Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti, Dr. Famer was appointed Deputy UN Special Envoy for Haiti by
President Clinton. If Brandeis wanted to live up to its social justice
mission, choosing Dr. Farmer to give the commencement speech would
have made sense, especially in light of the recent earthquake in Haiti.
PAUL SIMON
American singer songwriter Paul Simon has won 13 Grammy Awards,
including the Lifetime Achievement Award. Formerly of the enormously
popular duo Simon & Garfunkel, Simon took his career solo in 1970.
In 1986, Simon released his most popular album to date, Graceland.
Written and recorded in South Africa during the waning years of the
Apartheid regime in that country, some anti-apartheid groups criticized his
travelling to South Africa in spite of the boycott. But other anti-apartheid
activists and the UN Anti-Apartheid Committee supported his decision
because the South African government did not benefit from Simon’s visit
and because he worked with and gave an international stage to many
talented but unknown black South African musicians.
Graceland became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement, and the
album went to #1 in the UK and to #3 in the US. It won album of the year
at the Grammys in 1986, and the title track won record of the year in 1987.
In passing over Simon as a commencement speaker, Brandeis wasted a
great opportunity to hear from a man with historical connections to a great,
global Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement for justice.
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OUR COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S., MICHAEL OREN
Today’s commencement speaker and
honorary degree recipient, Michael
Oren, is currently the Israeli
Ambassador to the United States.  A
well-known academic who contributes
regularly to The New Republic, Oren
has most recently served as a “media
relations expert” for the Israeli
government during its 2006 war on
Lebanon and its military incursion into
the Gaza Strip in 2008-09.  In his
official role as media relations expert,
Oren effectively defended the Israeli
military’s widespread and systematic
war crimes in both military offensives. 
Particularly in reference to the war on
Gaza, Oren justified Israel’s deliberate
targeting of civilians and devastation of
such mundane civilian infrastructure as
day schools, university dormitories, mosques, sewage systems, chicken
farms and flour factories as “legitimate self-defense.”  In part because of
Oren’s efforts, the use of white phosphorus on civilians to burn them alive
is no longer questioned as a legitimate military tactic by the mainstream
Western press, particularly if the war is waged in the name of state
sovereignty and security.  Moreover, Oren is extremely effective at
disarming critics of Israel and Israeli war crimes, largely by portraying these
critics as anti-Semites, self-hating Jews, un-serious crazies, or—as in the case
of Judge Richard Goldstone, lead researcher for the UN’s investigation into
Israel’s atrocities during the Gaza offensive—by accusing the Jewish and
Zionist jurist of going “further than Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust
deniers.”
 
In his role as Israeli ambassador to the United States, Oren serves at the
pleasure of Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman, the founder and leader of
the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party in Israel.  Lieberman is well-known for,
among other things, proposing that Arab citizens of Israel be required to
take loyalty oaths  to the state of Israel or else lose their right to vote, and
openly advocates segregation between Israelis and Palestinians and the
forcible transfer of Palestinians.  That Oren serves under Lieberman is
entirely fitting.  Oren’s ability to justify the military aggressions that are the
sequelae of such racist views, repeatedly and in multiple public spheres,
attest to his tenacity and singular diplomatic virtuosity.  Above all, however,
it is for his astounding talent to twist oppression into
victimhood, that we honor him today.
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