One of the important, even historic, changes taking place in the United States these days is the slow but steady erosion of the once absolute taboo to speak out about the excessive influence of pro-Israeli groups on the country.
Pro-Israeli forces in politics and the mass media can still destroy a public career, especially for a politician, but the stranglehold on discussing this phenomenon is slowly loosening.
I witnessed one example of this earlier this week when I participated in the second annual symposium on Gaza, jointly organised by and hosted at two outstanding universities, Harvard and MIT.
Equally noteworthy was its sponsorship by mainstream units at the universities - including MIT’s Centre for International Studies and the Programme on Human Rights and Justice, and Harvard’s Middle East Initiative at the Kennedy School, the Centre for Middle East Studies, and the Human Rights Programme at the Harvard Law School.
A respected member of Congress who had recently visited Gaza, Brian Baird from Washington state, made the opening comments, which were strongly critical of Israeli actions in Gaza - especially the excessive and disproportionate use of force - and of the American position supporting Israel.
Most of the speakers criticised Israel and supported Palestinian rights, pointing out the importance of the “resistance” of the Palestinians in Gaza who refused to be removed from history or from their land by the force of Israeli settler-colonialists’ violence.
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