10-04-2012
In their ongoing bid to portray "Israel" as a peace-loving, multicultural, and progressive state and in an attempt to camouflage its war crimes, human rights abuses and atrocities, pro-"Israel" lobbies and student groups in United States campuses use several hasbara (propaganda) tactics, such as blackwashing - recruiting black and minority students to stifle critics of "Israeli" apartheid - and pinkwashing.
A similar tactic that has been repeatedly used by the "Israeli" government is "brownwashing" or as Palestinian blogger Abir Kopty called it, "Arabwashing".
A host of "Israeli" leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, audaciously and unashamedly boast about "Israel's" treatment of Palestinian citizens, claiming "Israel is the only place in the Middle East where Arabs enjoy full civil rights."
Never mind the racist Citizenship and Entry Law that was recently upheld by "Israel's" "liberal" High Court of Justice, nor the equally racist Law of Return, the Present Absentees Law, the mass expropriation of Palestinian land, the glaring economic and social inequality that plagues Palestinian citizens of "Israel", the persecution of Palestinian political dissidents and the Prawer plan that threatens to uproot nearly 300,00 Palestinian Bedouins in the Negev (Naqab) who are "unrecognized" on their own land and denied access to water and electricity. For it appears that family life, equality, freedom of expression, property and human dignity don't qualify as "rights" according to "Israel" and its supporters.
Tufts "Friends of Israel" and the Hillel Cultural Arts and Education Committee, organizers of "Israeli Independence Week", took "brownwashing" to a whole new level - or more precisely, hit a new low.
In the event's Facebook page, (which has now been changed) Tufts "Friends of Israel" falsely claimed that among the speakers in the week-long celebration of "Israel's" "independence" would be Palestinian author and journalist Sayed Kashua, known for his satirical sitcom "Arab Labor." I was utterly shocked when I read yesterday that a prominent Palestinian writer and critic of "Israeli" racism was supposedly due to give a lecture at an event that celebrates the ethnic cleansing and catastrophe of the Palestinian people.
Therefore I, along with other Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists, started a petition calling on Mr Kashua to cancel his lecture.
Following the publishing of the petition, I got in contact with Mr Kashua in an interview with journalist Zuheir Bahloul in this morning's show on Radio Ashams, a Nazareth based radio station. Mr Kashua declared he had no idea that he was scheduled to speak at "Israeli" "independence" week.
Kashua was invited by the Tufts University rather than pro-"Israel" student groups, and the event, which has been scheduled for some time, is a reading of his book and has nothing to do with "Israeli" "independence" week in any way, shape or form.
And after Tufts "Friends of Israel" deleted Kashua's name from the speakers' list on their Facebook page, it became clear that that they have deceitfully used his good name, reputation and event to brownwash the Nakba.
Moreover, Kashua pledged that if he finds out that the event has anything to do with celebrating "Israeli" "independence", he will immediately cancel it, as he refuses to be an accessory to re-branding Palestinian ethnic cleansing as a celebration.
I am truly sorry that Mr. Kashua has been subjected to this type of shameful deceit by the Tufts "Friends of Israel" and that he had to face criticism over such misleading allegations. Because of this, we demand that Tufts "Friends of Israel" both publicly clarify their actions and apologize for them.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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