George Salzman

Weavers of the fabric of truth

Dahr Jamail, John Pilger, Mohammed Omer

by George Salzman 

Telling the truth has always involved some risk. At the least, friends might be offended. At worst, as is ongoing now for some years here in Mexico, reporters have clearly been assassinated because they have told truths that expose terrible acts by powerful people.

Dahr Jamail (left) and Mohammed Omer (right), co-recipients of the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for journalism, being congratulated by John Pilger (center), a member of the Martha Gellhorn Prize judges panel, at the award ceremonies in London, 16 June 2008. The photo, by Paul de Rooij, is from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which gives a brief account of Omer's harrowing treatment by the Israeli Shin Bet agents as he was returning to his home in Rafah, in Gaza. A more detailed, extensive account of this ghoulish incident, by John Pilger is in The Guardian of 2 July 2008.

Zionist censorship at colleges and universities

U of Ottawa, Canada; U of Cal at Santa Barbara; De Paul Univ, Chicago; Bard College, NY State; Clark U, Worcester, Mass

by George Salzman

I first became 'actively aware' of the strenuous effort of Zionist groups in North America to suppress open public discussion of Israeli policy in universities about two years ago from an email sent by a friend in Egypt. That involved a campaign which successfully prevented Norman G. Finkelstein from gaining his well-deserved tenure at De Paul University in Chicago.[1]

Since then there has been no shortage of attacks on uncensored discussion in Canadian and U.S. colleges and universities. A particularly fierce instance of this widespread drive is the recent firing of a long-time tenured physics professor by the University of Ottawa.