[paulmd]

Israel's been doing this for a long time. Try inviting pro-Palestinian activists to campus and see what happens.

At the end of the day, everyone has the right to protest, whether that's Black Lives Matter or the Westboro Baptist Church or any other group. Always distressing to see it used to further what I see as oppression but there's not really a whole lot to be done about it. You get your opinions and I get mine.

If people want to miss their kids' graduation, well, kinda sucks to be them I guess. Not everybody agrees with their graduation speaker, but you choose to make it political instead of being, you know, about your kids' achievements. I had friends who had George W Bush speak at their graduations, in 2008 no less.

Suck it up for 15 minutes, nobody is forcing you to march in support of some college graduation speaker.

[Cyph0n]

There's a very interesting investigative documentary by Al Jazeera that shows how Israel funds and manages the Israeli lobby in the UK. I'll look for the link and edit this comment.

Edit: Here is a link to part 1 of the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCOhdgRBoc. You can follow the "Up next" link to watch the other parts; there are 4 parts in total.

[voodooranger]

Not sure that the mouthpiece of the ruling family of Qatar is a reputable source for anything, much less any topic involving Israel.

[Cyph0n]

You might be able to say that about AJ Arabic, but AJ English is an entirely different entity. You'd actually be surprised how much autonomy AJ English is given in its reporting.

Also, you could say AJ's reporting on Israel is biased, but why do you dismiss everything else? AJ has some of the best journalists in the world and continually pushes the barrier in its reporting worldwide.

[epmaybe]

Until you just referred to them as AJ, I had no idea that they were the same as Al Jazeera. I saw videos on YouTube by AJ and just figured they were some other entity.

[Cyph0n]

Ah yes, I believe that's their US branch. IIRC, the AJ America news channel didn't do so well, so they pivoted to an online-only presence and rebranded to AJ+.

You'd be amazed how many branches Al Jazeera has worldwide. Heck, they even have AJ Balkans[1]!

[1]: http://balkans.aljazeera.net/

[dmoy]

If you don't want AJ's take on it, read it from haaretz:

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.763768

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.765533

Even if you read both sides, it's hard to tell whether or not it's a loud mouthed idiot who thinks he's hot shit, or something more insidious like AJ and some Brits are insinuating.

[zhte415]

To complete the circle, however, Al Jazeera's China related journalism is excellent. And generally they seem to push the envelope in what they cover.

And for their home turf, would you like to suggest a better source for middle-east related news?

[Cyph0n]

I'm a huge fan of Al Jazeera for some issues in the Middle East, but I think the best all-round news source for the region is Middle East Eye[1]. Their journalists have a no holds barred approach to sensitive topics in the region.

[1]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/

[Inconel]

I've never heard of Middle East Eye, but I'm always looking out for more sources of news so thanks for the link.

Do you happen to have any specific articles handy, or general topics, that you feel they covered better than other news sources?

[Cyph0n]

Their best coverage is on topics related to the Gulf states. In particular, the arrests of human rights activists [1], the inner workings of the Gulf monarchies [2,3,4,5], and other similar topics which are rarely if ever covered by other news agencies, let alone state news agencies in the Gulf.

I've only linked a sample of articles I could remember off the top of my head. Their archive has many more articles on similar topics.

[1]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-jails-academic-10-year...

[2]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-yemeni-president...

[3]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revealed-senior-uae-royal-...

[4]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revealed-uae-backed-plan-y...

[5]: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-eyes-military-expansio...

[alva]

To be fair, this was a minor scandal that was covered by all the press in the UK.

[nyolfen]

as a rule, alj's reporting for things outside of the middle east are reliably pretty good. inside the middle east they have more obvious biases, particularly w/r/t qatar. if you have specific quibbles with anything said in this documentary, by all means raise them, but if you're just going to throw shade without any specific substantiation then you probably shouldn't bother.

[baursak]

Israel is a very special case in American political life, compared to any other country. Even UK and Canada are not anywhere near close to the level of influence Israel has over US politics.

There was an insightful article drawing parallels between ongoing hysteria over possible Russia's influence in the election and Israel's ho-hum business as usual that nobody dares question: https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/20/why-not-a-probe-of-isr...

[brandonmenc]

> Israel's been doing this for a long time. Try inviting pro-Palestinian activists to campus and see what happens.

Having spent some time on college campuses recently, the exact opposite is the case.

[maxxxxx]

"Suck it up for 15 minutes, nobody is forcing you to march in support of some college graduation speaker. "

As far as I know these speakers make big bucks. If they spoke for free it would be easier to ignore them.

[wbl]

Nothing. I was involved in hosting a debate between two Palestinians about one state vs two state and nothing happened.

[rubatuga]

If all we can do is feel distressed and lie down, then we are simply enabling the opposition. Apathy is quite cancerous.

[maverick_iceman]

Try inviting pro-Israel supporters and see what a stink BDS and the general leftist students make. [1]

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/students-are-shoutin...

[blackguardx]

Pro-Israel in what sense? Believing that Israel shouldn't exist is an extreme opinion that isn't widely shared in the western world. The debate is about a homeland for Palestinians.

[nol13]

Believing that Palestinians shouldn't have a homeland with safety and rights is an extreme opinion not widely shared in Pro-Israel world, they just aren't delusional about the security implications.

[blackguardx]

I'm serious. What does Pro-Israel mean in this context? Most of the western world is Pro-Israel as in pro Israel's existence. An Anti-Israel speaker would be extremely controversial.

Look at what happened when Ahmadinejad came to Columbia University.

[nol13]

I guess in this context, as referenced in the parent article, anyone who isn't anti-normalization/ doesn't support BDS.

Guess it's a point of view thing. They say "lift the evil Gaza blockade," Israelis/Many Jews hear, "We don't give a flying fuck if you and your families get killed by terrorists."

[bhouston]

Also Obama was considered "anti-Israel" because well, I guess he said something that wasn't pro-Israel enough:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Obama+"anti-Israel"&sourceid=...

It is sort of ridiculous what some segments will call anti-Israel.

[bhouston]

The term "anti-Israel" is used extremely often in North America to refer to things that are not "pro-Israel". For example John Kerry's speech about the occupation and why it is in Israel's best interests to end it.

Large segments of media here branded that as an "anti-Israel" speech even though it wasn't questioning existence of Israel:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=John+Kerry+anti-israel&q=John...

Anti-Israel is misused in many of its uses these days, not always but a lot of the time.

[WillPostForFood]

inviting pro-Palestinian activists to campus

Why invite pro-Palestinian activists to campus when you can just walk to the faculty lounge?