ZOA QUESTIONS BRANDEIS HONOR [ZOA news release]The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), which includes Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis among its former presidents, criticized Brandeis University for planning to give anti-Zionist playwright Tony Kushner an honorary doctorate at its commencement on Sunday, May 21, 2006.
In the book, "Conversation,' edited by Robert Vorlicky (University of Michigan Press, 1998, pp. 83-84), Kushner said, "The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community and Israel itself has got this disgraceful record. Israel is a creation of the U.S., bought and paid for."
Kushner has also made other numerous egregious statements viciously condemning Israel and decrying its very existence. He called Israel's founding a "mistake," saying "it would have been better if Israel never happened." He also condemned Israel for "ethnic cleansing" and "behaving abominably and denounced, "the shame of American Jews for failing to denounce Israel."
Kushner also "deplored the brutal and illegal tactics of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]" and "the deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people." He is also on the board of an organization that supports
boycotting Israel and divesting from Israel, [and that] opposes the security fence, a unified Jerusalem, or military aid to Israel.
[The ZOA leaders] said, "We urge Brandeis to rescind the honorary doctorate you plan to present to Tony Kushner. Don't enhance the reputation of anti-Zionist activist like Kushner, which will only diminish the reputation of Brandeis."
Brandeis Press Release
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