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*Vol. XCVI,
Unsi
The end of
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Michigan Cle
significant pi
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4HE CO
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Council whi
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state of ga
across the co
If adopted
protect h
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housing, ax
modations.
munities, ini
Wisconsin,
measures to
homosexuals
Leaders of
and Jewish
demonstrate
however. Th
Cardinal Q't
would legal
therefore
homosexuali
legislators
recognizing
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The bill
homosexualil
discourage
discriminate
orientation.
recognition 4
y practice of h
recognition
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democratic
The Univ
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University.
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dited and managed by stude
No. 95
gned editorials represent a
OPINION
Thursday, February 13, 1986
The Michigan Daily
4
ents at The University of Michigan
Wasserman
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420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI °48109
---,
a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board
Health vs. profit
discrimination against received endorsements last year
iokers in this state is from 20 senators and is now one
pon the passage of the vote away from being sent out of
an Indoor Air Act - a committee to the Senate floor.
iece of legislation that The University, as a public in-
ential to establish a stitution, would be immediately af-
)recedent. fected if the bill succeeds.
to the State Senate However, the University is con-
st year, and now under sidering implementing its own
he Public and Mental regulations for smoking in the
mittee, the bill would workplace, regardless of the fate
king in public places of the Clean Indoor Air Act. Such
designated smoking intentions - if sincere - should be
e present, there is no commended.
ing consideration for For too long, smokers have had
s; the existence of the unrestrained freedom in most
d non-smoking areas public places to impose their
ces is subject only to the hazardous health habit on others.
of the individual Substantial evidence now exists
that clearly illustrates the dangers
isingly, the bill has to "second-hand smokers." The
dispute between the absence of governmental smoking
dustry and health regulations for public places is
s. This is clearly a con- inexcusable.
yest - between those If this bill can make it to the
y secoce Senate floor and subsequently be
and toscoivauted, approved, it will represent a major
he tobacco industry, victory for non-smokers, as well as
trying desperately to an end to discrimination on all
tootryngtdealytso sides; by guaranteeing an area of
n to Potential costs of clean, smokeless air, as well as
on to the state. providing a place where smokers
ess, the sentiment in may indulge. Even if the bill does
re strongly reflects the not succeed, the mere proposal will
bic opinion in favor of have proved immensely valuable
a fact that may be - by raising consciousness about
o overcome the non-smokers rights in the Univer-
d lobbying efforts of sity community, as well as in the
a industry. The bill community at large.
Gay rights
NTROVERSY over a may be discriminated against on
ore New York's City the basis of their sexual orien-
iich would prohibit tation.
ation against Only federal legislation exten-
is indicative of the ding to homosexuals the rights
y rights movements against discrimination enjoyed by
untry. other minorities, could assure
, the legislation would every citizen the right to freely
iomosexuals from make the fundamental decision of
ion in employment, personal sexuality.
ndpublic accom- . .
Nation wide com- The goal of national legislation
Nainwd, 42 com-
cluding the state of has been set back considerably, by
have passed similar hysteria over theAcquired Immune
assure the rights of Deficiency Syndrome virus. AIDS
has been labelled a "gay disease,,
New York's Catholic exacerbating public persecution of
communities have homosexuals. Supporting the
d opposition to the bill, misconception that AIDS can be
iese leaders, including contracted through casual contact,
Connor, fear the bill cities closed bars and bathhouses.
ize, legitimize, and Locally, harassment of
encourage homosexuals continues. The
ty; they claim that Lesbian and Gay Program Office,
would be officially an arm of University Counseling
and accepting an 'un- Services, has received several
tice. complaints that one professor
does not encourage repeatedly lectures that
ty. Rather, it aims to homosexuality is a pathological
those who would disease in lectures. The office also
on the basis of sexual mentioned reports of harassment
The bill is not a in residence halls and the Univer-
or acceptance of the sity hospitals.
omosexuality; it is a Gay civil rights legislation, like
of the rights that being considered in New York
s enjoy under City, provides hope that sexual
ideals. orientation discrimination and
ersity of Michigan harassment may eventually fade
licy similar to the New from American society. These bills
al at the start of the are not the work of homosexuals
ademic year. The presuming to impose their
Policy Statement adds morality on heterosexual America.
station to the list of Legislation cannot condone or en-
actors" upon which no courage the practice of
t or educational homosexuality, but it can recognize
n be made at the homosexuals as full citizens who
Any person so vic- merit complete protection under
receive counseling or the law. Realizing this,
a charges. aimam. Ami i- sI.."a
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LETTERS:
Arabs can overthrow Zionist apartheid
To the Daily
I have followed with great in-
terest the debate over Israel and
Palestine taking place in the
pages of the Daily. I want to
commend the editors for allowing
the Daily to be the vehicle for
such an extensive exchange of
views.
I am a Marxist and a Jew. As
both, I agree completely with
Hilary Shadroui's article,
"Zionism is Racist in Israel," in
the January 20 Daily. I also
agree with the central point of
Ibrahim Dawud's letter,
"Zionism is Racist as Apartheid"
dated January 10. Unfortunately,
I do not have a copy of Dawud's
letter, so I cannot say whether I
agree with all its particulars.
Shadroui's article makes a
series of absolutely correct poin-
ts. 1) whatever the legal or
financial pretexts, the
Palestinian Arabs were forced off
their land in order to create a
"Zionist state in Palestine. 2) The
expelled Palestinians and the
Palestinians remaining in
Israeli-controlled territory are
oppressed by Zionist policy. 3)
Zionism in action is essentially
racist, however pious the wishes
of its practitioners.
4) The Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and other
Palestinian groups are fighting a
legitimate fight for the liberation
of their country, whatever one
may say of their tactics. 5)
Palestinian terrorism is small
compared with Israeli terrorism,
for example, in Labanon and in
the West Bank. 6)A person can
be against Zionism and against
anti-Semitism at the same time,
as Shadroui clearly is.
Dawud's comparison between
Zionism in Israel and apartheid
in South Africa is also quite valid.
In fact, the Zionist letters them-
selves make this clear.
The Zionist argument runs as
follows. "Israel is the Jewish
homeland. Jewish settlers tran-
sformed Palestine into an advan-
ced agricultural and industrial
country. The Palestinians have
their own homeland: Jordan.
The Israeli government is simply
defending itself against
Palestinians and other Arabs who
deny its right to exist. So long as
the Palestinians follow the PLO
and Arab- leaders who support
terrorism, the government is
right to refuse to deal with
them."
Changing a few words, we get
exactly Botha's argument for
apartheid. "South Africa is the
Afrikaaner homeland. The white
settlers transformed South Africa
into an advanced agricultural,
situation in South Africa. In par-
ticular, there is no escaping the
problem that the existence of a
Jewish state of Israel is based on
the nonexistence of an Arab state
of Palestine. The national rights
of the Palestinians cannot be
realized without the abolition of
Israel as a Zionist state.
Abolition of the state of Israel is
not at all the same as driving the
Jews in Israel into the sea.
Rather, it means creating the
conditions in which 3 million
Jews and 4 million Palestinians
can live in Palestine in complete
economic, social, and political
equality.
The starting point for a solution
is the PLO slogan for a
"democratic, secular Palestine."
Accepting this slogan does not
mean accepting the political
leadership of Yasir Arafat, who
in fact is quite prepared to aban-
don the PLO goal for a West Bank
Palestinian mini-state in
federation with Jordan.
The question, though, is how to
get a "democratic, secular
Palestine." Israel, the Arab
governments - not only Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, but
also Syria - and the US all have
a stake in the status quo which
denies the Palestinians their
national rights. A fight for
Palestinian national liberation
means taking on all three.
The question is broader than
Palestine, however. A struggle
which could defeat the Israeli
army - which also means
defeating the US and overcoming
the sabotage of the Arab
leaders- would have to involve
at least all the Arab Middle East
and quite possibly North Africa,
Turkey, and Iran as well. It
would mean the development of a
unified Arab nation and a United
States of the Middle East and
North Africa.
A a socialist supporter of the
Revolutionary Workers League
(RWL) I believe there is only one
way to achieve this transfor-
mation. Terrorism by a handful
of guerillas will not achieve it.
Only mass struggle will. The
Arab workers, leading the Arab
peasants and allied with non-
Arab workers and peasants in the
region, will have to overthrow the
power ofalltheir oppressors.
What role Jewish workers in
Israel will have in this transfor-
mation remains to be seen. In
this regard too Palestine is like
South Africa. Sooner or later the
black workers will overthrow the
apartheid regime. In this struggle
the white South African workers
can fight either on the side of the
white racists or on the side of the
oppressed blacks. Similarly,
sooner or later the Palestinians
and other Arabs will overthrow
the Zionist regime. In this
struggle the Jewish workers can
fight either on the side of the Z
ionists or on the side of the op-
pressed Arabs.
At this point the white South
African workers seem almost
certain to fight on the side of the
oppressors. This will mean a far
more bloody and difficult tran-
sition. It is not so clear with the
Israeli workers. As the
Progressive Zionist Caucus poin-
ted out in its January 22 letter to
the Daily, there are encouraging E
signs of opposition to Zionist
policy in Israel itself.
I feel strongly that every Jew
- and every non-Jew who cares
about the fate of Jews - must
take a stand against Zionism.
That is the best hope for a
humane solution to the problem
of Palestine. It is also the best
way to fight anti-Semitism.
Today, the Nazis and other an-
ti-Semites use Zionist racism and I
oppression of the Palestinians
promote anti-Semitism against
the 3 million Jews in Israel and
the 10 million Jews outside Israel.
By fighting for Palestinian as
well as Jewish rights we can take
that weapon away from them.
Paul Green
February 5
ine print
sure students understood the
provisions of the petition before
they signed it." One could
'imagine what would happen if,
say Detroit Edison tried a similar
tactic. PIRGIM members would
be everywhere screaming "con-
sumer fraud!" If it's consumer
fraud for a company to bury its
true intentions in fine print, then
where does this leave PIRGIM
and its misleading petition drive?
Perhaps PIRGIM has learned a
little too much from their big
business adversaries.
Steve Angelotti
Dan Baker
February 6
fans sleep
sider changing the name oE
Crisler Arena to the Coma-Dome.
The crowd's lack of enthusiasm
is unexcusable. Sure the alumni
get the best seats up front, sure
there isn't a student section, and
yea, it ishard sometimes to cheer
on a Saturday afternoon with a
hangover. However, Michigan
has a great basketball program.
The fans can't wait for the team
to spark the crowd. The fans
PIR GIM's petition hasif
To the Daily:
Those who will be approached
to sign PIRGIM's funding
petition should be aware of a few
facts:
PIRGIM is seeking a
"negative" donation system, also
known as "refusable/refun-
dable." Under this con-
stitutionally questionable
system, students would be
assessed a $2 PIRGIM fee and
would have to request a refund.
In previous, similar petition
drives PIRGIM has used the
argument that non-donators are
attempting to "defund" PIRGIM
and thus must take action to get
their money back. The
"refusable/refundable" aspect of
the proposed new system is
buried in the fine print and unless
the student questions the
petitioner extensively, the
student will not understand what
exactly he/she may be endorsing.
In talking to several
petitioners; we have noted that
the type of funding system is the
last thing PIRGIM people want to
discuss. The opening line they
use has little to do with any fun-
ding system: Have you signed
(eaa- ta Ae _M nm it:nn vat')
ters of the true nature of tile
petition drive, they said that they
regretted their decision to sign.
Students should also question
PIRGIM members' occasional
claims of poverty. By signing up
non-student community mem-
bers over the last two years,
PIRGIM has expanded its war
chest well beyond what it could
ever receive from University
students.
One may argue "caveat em-
ptor;" that if students are willing
to sign something without
knowing its meaning then it's
their tough luck. However, this
does not square with PIRGIM's
claim that petitioners "made
Basketball,
To the Daily:
We have to congratulate and
commend sports staffer Tom
Keaney for his observations on
Michigan sports fan's behavior at
Crisler Arean. His article in The
Kean Eye column, "Hey you ...,
how 'bout some noise," finally
spelled out in harsh terms
something we have observed
constantly at Crisler. Wolverine
,.nt orn hni:d n A lo._ Wm