I OPINION Thursday, December 3, 1987 Page 4 The Michigan Daily I ed m yttganverity Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 4 Vol. XCVIII, No. 59 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Israel deports problem MUBARAK AWAD, A Palestinian- American activist, is facing deportation from Israel because Israeli authorities consider him a security threat. Awad is a threat to Israel's security if you use the Israeli definition of the word, which encompasses most forms of protest by Palestinians against the state. Awad calls for non-violent resistance to Israel's military rule and discrimination against Palestinians. He should be allowed to continue his activities in Israel as he is a vocal advocate of Palestinian rights and self-determination. Awad has helped many Israeli peace groups in their causes. He is an effective speaker for such groups and he has broken down stereotypes which portray Palestinians a s terrorists or rogues. A peaceful image of Palestinians is precisely what the Israeli government fears, and it explains why they are trying to deport him. ' According to the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, Awad, a U.S. citizen, cannot remain in Israel because his visa has expired. The Israeli government chose not to renew his visa because of his political beliefs. This charge is rarely brought against the many other Americans who reside in Israel. Awad is being persecuted as a Palestinian because of his political views. Awad's status as an American citizen makes this case unique. Most Palestinians who protest Israeli repression or human rights violations are stifled, either by bullets, curfews, or prison. In the last year, Israeli troops shot to death seven Palestinian students - women and men - during demonstrations at Bir Zeit University. Since Awad is a U.S. citizen, he has more rights than others like him in Israel, and must be dealt with differently by the authorities. The Israeli government needs to deport him, because they cannot use other means. The U.S. State Department, in a rare display of concern for the human rights of Palestinians, has decided to protest the Israeli move. It is helping Awad remain in Israel and warning Israel against taking further action. According to the United Nation's doctrine on human rights, every person has the right to reside in their place of birth. Israel has denied this right to other Palestinians, and is trying to do the same to Awad. It is commendable that the State Department is challenging this, maneuver, but it should also use its leverage with Israel to secure the rights of non-American Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. Not only should Awad be allowed to stay in Israel, but his call for a peace settlement in Israel should be heeded. Too often, the opposing side is not heard or is just drowned out in the roar of euphemisms and half truths which justify Israel's occupation and authority over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Human By Mark Weisbrot Normally I wouldn't bother to respond to yet another mindless defense of the status quo through a perverse twisting of "free speech" arguments. After all, the University is a breeding ground for such vacuous abstract formalisms. As a case in point, philosophy Professor Carl Cohen routinely defends military research, in spite of all the threats it poses to the free and open exchange of ideas at the University, on "civil liberties" grounds. So it was no surprise to see Noah Finkel and David Schwartz express their righteous concern that the world's largest terrorist organization, the CIA, be accorded its "right" to recruit on campus (Daily 12/1/87). But it is important to pierce through this veil of hypocrisy, in order to get at the real issues, which are quite serious. The argument that the CIA has a "right" to their recruiting activities of last week can be dismissed rather easily. The services of the University's office of Carreer Planning and Placement (CPP) are not available, as a matter of right, to any employer, but only to those deemed acceptable by the directors of CPP. This University agency makes its choices, of course, without any input from students. I once asked Harold Shapiro if he would allow the students to vote up or down on whether the CIA should be allowed to recruit through CPP. His answer was a flat, unequivocal no. The University is not a democratically run institution, and Harold was not making any pretenses to the contrary. So the question has never been one of "limit[ing] access to facilities for groups with variant [sic] ideologies" (Finkel & Schwartz). Groups opposing the CIA would like nothing more than an open debate in which the CIA would be allowed to defend itself and its gruesome record. But of course neither the CIA nor CPP has been willing to Mark Weisbrot is a Daily opinion page staff writer. rights v accept open, public debate as a condition for their recruitment, because "the company" avoids light like cockroaches. They prefer to hide behind a slew of police to carry on their recruiting in the hidden cubicles of the Student Activities Building, encountering only those who would sell their souls for a salary and a pension with early retirement. And with good reason. Their crimes, too numerous to recount here, have inflicted untold suffering on the world. Their victims include not only those tens of thousands directly murdered by CIA "counter- insurgency" programs, but the millions who, as a result of the CIA's covertactions, have been forced to live under the repressive and anti-human military dictatorships of the United States' choosing. From Latin America to Southern Africa to the Middle East, the CIA's violence against anyone struggling for democracy, independence, or even basic human rights, is well known. (The reader is referred to the extensive documentation beginning with the Church committee hearings in the U.S. Senate (1975), through numerous books such as Phillip Agee's CIA Diary, or Marchetti and Marks' The CIA and the Cult of Intellignce). The criminal nature of the organization is not a matter of debate. Would Finkel and Schwartz have the office of Career Planning and Placement help the Mafia recruit numbers runners and hit men? I assume not. Their argument for CIA recruiting, therefore, must rest on the domestic legality of the organization. To those who would confuse law and morality, I would refer to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who clearly knew the difference: "We must never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was 'legal', and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was 'illegal' "(Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963). If Finkel and Schwartz were really concerned about the state of civil liberties on campus, they would have been up in arms about the abuse of authority by police and campus security at the protest. With the unprovoked viciousness that one would expect from a pit bull, rather than an S. assistant director of public safety, Robert Patrick kicked protester Harold Marcuse full force in the groin. And although Marcuse never hit, punched or in any way attacked anyone at the protest, the police and campus security came with a number of fictitious allegations of assault and battery - but, suspiciously enough, only after Marcuse and numerous witnesses demanded that Patrick be charged with assault. The whole incident stinks of a conspiracy to obstruct justice, commit perjury, and violate Marcuse's civil rights by trumping up retaliatory charges against him for pressing charges against his attacker. This seems to be a much greater threat to civil liberties on campus that the possibility that the CIA may not be able to use CPP for their recruiting. There is another reason to question the authenticity of the civil liberties garb in which Finkel has draped himself. Just a couple of weeks ago he used this space to defend the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "relatively gentle" - perhaps he is unaware of the torture and shooting of Palestinian dissidents. But his blind support of Israeli repression leads me to question whether he isn't just hiding behind the formalism of his "free speech" argument to avoid having to defend the CIA as an institution. In his previous op-ed piece (Daily 11/16/87), Finkel chides two Palestinian lawyers for their use of the phrase "crimes against humanity" in their description of the Israeli occupation. He claims that such use of this phrase "trivializes the Holocaust." But Finkel himself has failed to understand one of the most important lessons of the Holocaust, which was embodied in the international agreements arising from the Nuremburg tribunal. This principle asserts that citizens of all nations had an affirmative duty to try to stop their country from committing war crimes. We must never allow specious arguments about the "rights" of governments to carry out the business of organizing these crimes to deter us from these responsibilities. CIA Wasserman UUP6S SNN-DYDOESN'T HAE CRAzy ?agRS s,,. AND VHE'S Not E MES WHAT MOREs COULD '*U WANT IN A NMINEF? 49 All 4 Soliciting non-sex LETTERS A NEW YORK millionaire's recent offer of $1,000 to young women who can prove they are virgins may have been a serious effort to curb teenage pregnancy, but the offer - e.xtended only to females - is an ap- palling example of the sexism that exists in our society. And although millionaire John La- Corte withdrew his cash offer two days later without citing a reason, his alternative "prize" for high school girls in three New York boroughs - free seminars on becoming "a good mother, wife, and a good house- keeper" - is equally offensive. LaCorte's idea that women should be chaste while men can philander is age-old. Although the 78-year-old millionaire can be relegated to the "old school" of thought, the publicity his offer received, for example from the Associated Press and the Detroit Free Press where the story graced the front page, shows modern society is still receptive to the idea that a woman's sexuality can be held accountable to men. g While there is nothing wrong with abstinence, a woman's sexuality is not a commodity to be bought and sold. The millionaire's $1,000 offer is little more than solicitation; the only difference between his offer and prostitution is that he would have paid girls to keep their sex instead of giv- ing it to him. If the millionaire is honestly trying to prevent teenage pregnancy, to fo- cus only on women is sexist and wrong. Men are as much responsible for controlling unwanted births as women. And men are as responsible for caring for children and maintain- ing the home as women, especially with today's women composing a large part of the work force. Assum- ing home and child care are only the woman's job wrongly distributes la- bor by gender. For LaCorte to say, "Virginity means self-respect. . . . If a young girl can learn to say no, the young boys will learn to respect them more" shows the high value he places on the woman's chastity. But if he really wants men to re- spect women he should send both men and women to seminars on sex- ism or rape. And if the millionaire wants to spend his $100,000 to pre- vent teen age pregnancy, the money should go to sex education in schools, free birth control for teens, or funding to clinics like Planned Parenthood. 'U' states policy on sexual orientation To the Daily: I am writing to advise the University community about the University's policy pro- hibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and the mechanisms available for filing complaints regarding discrimination and harassment. On March 21, 1984, President Shapiro issued the following Policy Statement on Sexual Orientation: "The University of Michigan be- lieves that educational and employment decisions should be based on individual's abili- ties and qualifications and should not be based on irrelevant factors or personal characteristics which have no connection with academic abilities or job performance. Among the traditional factors which are generally 'irrelevant' are race, sex, religion, and national origin. It is the pol- icy of The University of Michigan that an individual's sexual orientation be treated in the same manner. Such a policy ensures that only rele- vant factors are considered and that equitable and consistent standards of conduct and per- formance are applied. "Any University of Michigan employee having a complaint of discrimination because of sexual orientation (now called the Lesbian - Gay Male Program Office) for counseling and advice. It should be noted that this policy does not apply to the University's relationships with outside organizations, includ- ing the federal government, the military, and ROTC." This policy continues to protect students, faculty, and staff from discrimination which is based on one's actual or presumed sexual orientation. As the policy statement in- dicates, any student who has a" complaint of discrimination or harassment because of sexual orientation may report this to the Office of the Ombudsman (763-3545) or the Affirmative Action Coordinator in her/his school or college. Any em- ployee with such a complaint should notify her/his immedi- ate supervisor or the appropri- ate Personnel Service Center. A student or employee may, at any time, contact the Affirmative Action Office (764-3423) to register a complaint. Any incidents which involve threats or actual harm to personal safety and/or property should be reported immediately to the Department of Public Safety and Security (763-1131). In addition to these offices any student, faculty, or staff structed by President Shapiro to submit a reporting form to the Affirmative Action Office as part of a new centralized reporting mechanism. Students and employees me also communicate their complaints and concerns to the University's Task Force on Sexual Orientation. This task force was established by me to examine the various issues surrounding the Policy Anti-semiti To the Daily: I put my assigned disk into a terminal at the UNYN computing center only to find that the user before me had created his own original desk- top... hundreds of swastikas. I was horrified at the sight and pointed it out to a computing center manager. He assured me the disk would be remade im- mediately commenting that this was not the first time such a desktop had appeared %mong their disks. No, this was not the first act of blatant anti-Semitism I have witnessed at the University. I have seen the swastikas which so regularly decorate the eleva- tors in the Graduate Library, and the desktops in Angell Hall and the MLB. Statement on Sexual Orientation and its implemen- tation. People may contact the Task Force on Sexual Orientation through its chair- person, Dr. Jayne Thorson, 1210 Angell Hall. -Virginia Nordby Director of Affirmative Action Programs November 25 sm exists of Jewish men scrawled in thick black marker in these bathrooms as well as the bath- room at Charley's. He has seen "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work makes you free) a slogan which graced the entrance of the Nazi death camps in a bathroom at the Grad. He has also seen "Shalom means shell-em" and a swastika with "Amerika Awake" written beneath it in other bathrooms at the Gradu- ate Library. While I applaud the efforts of UCAR members who are so diligent in their fight against racism, I wonder why there is so little effort put forth b y Jewish and non-Jewish mem- bers alike to eradicate anti- Semitism on this campus. If the Holocaust has taught 4 '" {. ".V. "". }, h. L {11".?. " "'.}Q " 1. .. ."". .l 4, Y t. r PZ4 =