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Bad sound but interesting content. Posted by
fightingforcrayons

this video is from a public debate on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It took place on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at the University of San Francisco.

The two invited guests to participate in the debate were the Israel Consul General, Akiva Tor and professor As’ad Abukhalil.

about the guests:

Akiva Tor- Akiva Tor has recently taken up the post of Israel Consul General to the Pacific Northwest. In his previous position as World Jewish Affairs Adviser to the President of Israel he began the organization of the World Jewish Forum, a presidential initiative for creating a pan-Jewish strategy for stemming assimilation and decline in Jewish life. Tor has served as Director of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and as Deputy Director for Palestinian Affairs. He was a Wexner Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government and has written and lectured extensively on Jewish values in the foreign policy of Israel.

As’ad Abukhalil- AbuKhalil was born in Tyre, Lebanon, and grew up in Beirut. He received his B.A. and M.A. in political science from the American University of Beirut, and a Ph.D. in comparative government from Georgetown University. AbuKhalil is a tenured professor at Cal State Stanislaus and a visiting professor at UC Berkeley. In addition, he has taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, California State University Stanislaus, and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. AbuKhalil describes himself as “a former Marxist-Leninist, now an anarchist”, a feminist, and an “atheist secularist”. AbuKhalil is vocally pro-Palestinian, describes himself as an anti-Zionist, and supports one secular state in historical Palestine. He is an opponent of the Iraq War. He is critical of Israeli government, of United States foreign policy, of Saudi Arabia, of both Fatah and Hamas, and of all rival factions in Lebanon. Abukhalil also writes for the Angry Arab News Service, angryarab.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately, due to limited space on my memory card in my camera, i was not able to capture the entire forum. i managed to catch both guests’ opening speeches, and most of the closing statements (rebuttals). After the closing arguments, the floor was opened to a question and answer period. every audience member that too the mic spoke very critically towards Mr. Tor. It was clear where the audience stood on this issue. Towards the end (not really seen in the video) Mr. Tor started to lose his patience with the audience. He was obviously not prepared for such a passionate and well-informed audience.

CHILLING testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel’s Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law. The emergence of a predominantly right-wing, nationalist government in Israel suggests that there may be more violations to come. Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians also constituted war crimes, but do not excuse Israel’s transgressions. While Israel disputes some of the soldiers’ accounts, the evidence suggests that Israel committed the following six offenses:

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