From: 'Michael Smolyak' via president@umd.edu Reply-to: Michael Smolyak Date: Thu, Nov 16, 2023 at 8:35 AM Subject: A statement from the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies To: president@umd.edu Cc: wgss@umd.edu Dear Dr Pines: I am writing to express my deep concern and indignation regarding a recent statement (see below) posted by the faculty of the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, my alma mater. While I fully support the principles of academic freedom and the right to engage in open discourse on important issues, I believe that the message in question is deeply problematic due to its critical omissions and strong anti-Israeli biases. I would expect any public statement from an academic department to present a balanced and nuanced perspective, especially when addressing complex geopolitical issues. Instead, the message posted on the department's website is written in the best traditions of Soviet propaganda (I have seen it - I grew up in the Soviet Union) - it distorts reality by simplifications, omissions, arbitrary labels and open lies. Just as the message of the Soviet propaganda had all the sophistication of the sentiment "Soviet Union - good, America - bad", the essence of the post in question is "Palestinians - good, Israel - bad". Specifically, the statement omits the critical information that the current military campaign against Hamas was triggered by an incredibly brutal terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians on 7/10/2023. It does not mention Israelis killed, raped, tortured and burned alive on that day. It does not mention over 240 civilian hostages, including kids and even an infant, taken by the terrorists. It does not talk about the elation and joy with which these inhumane acts were committed by the people who are the de-facto Palestinian government. When talking about the mass displacement of the Palestinian people 75 years ago, the article prefers to omit the fact that the main cause of this displacement was not the creation of Israel but the war against the legally-formed nascent state by the armies of 5 Arab nations with the goal of not only preventing the formation of the state, along with the partitioning of the Palestine into a Jewish and Arab states sanctioned by the United Nations, but also killing the Jews who wanted to form it. The post is full of labels using extraordinarily strong and accusatory language such as "war crimes", "genocide", "apartheid" without any justification or concern about their applicability. One would expect an academic institution to use the terms like "genocide" with extreme care. Genocide was what the Nazi regime in Germany committed against the European Jewry during 1930s and 1940s - its goal was to systematically annihilate all the Jewish population of the countries it controlled. If anyone has genocidal intent it is Hamas, whose stated goal is the murder of Israeli Jews and the destruction of the state of Israel. Calling Israeli strong response to the horrific terrorist attack of October 7th a genocide is an outright lie. Israel does not have the goal of killing the Palestinian civilians. Israel's military objective is eliminating Hamas, who, one should mention, continues sending rockets aimed at the Israeli civilian population. It is horrible that many Palestinian civilians are dying during Israel's military campaign agains Hamas. When Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations bomb Israel, the Israeli government does their best to protect the civilian population. They have the sirens announcing incoming rockets. They have safe rooms and bomb shelters for civilians to hide. The government of Gaza, Hamas, does none of that. In fact, they do the exact reverse: they build military installations in densely populated civilian areas, they prevent the Gaza civilians from leaving the areas after Israel's warning of the forthcoming attacks, all their resources go towards protection of the militants at the expense of the civilian population. The consequences of excusing the crimes carried out by the Palestinian terrorists and assigning all the blame to Israel has the pernicious effect of encouraging more violence. Hamas has no incentive to cease its murderous campaigns - after all, its apologists like the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies continue unquestionable support of the Palestinians regardless of how inhumane and barbarous the behavior of the Palestinian government is. Israel also would have little incentive to moderate their military campaigns, which do inflict a lot of suffering on the Palestinian civilians, since such statements are going to put all the blame on Israel's shoulders no matter what they do. I am certain that people who posted this biased message on the University of Maryland's web site are well aware of the facts above. They are not seeking the truth or trying to engage into a rational discourse. The propaganda has one and only one goal - to indoctrinate and this is the only possible purpose behind the post. I would love to know whether this anti-Israeli message reflects the view of the entire department. I would also like to know why the University of Maryland, a public institution, allows the use of its name and its pulpit for brainwashing its students. One can and should be concerned about the loss of innocent Palestinian lives. One can advocate for improving the destiny of the Palestinian people. One can criticize the Israeli government for their policies encouraging settlements on the West Bank. All these are important issues. Having an honest, rational and open discourse about them is a good thing. Posting biased, misleading, one-sided propaganda statements is not. I strongly urge the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies to reconsider its approach to addressing this issue and to strive for a more balanced and informed discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that takes into account the complexities and nuances of the situation. Encouraging open dialogue and respecting diverse perspectives is essential in the pursuit of justice and dignity for all. Sincerely, Michael Smolyak