The enemy is us

Sad story by Michael Levenson on the front page of the Globe this morning. An Israeli Jewish student at Brandeis - who is also an Israeli Army vet - organized a Brandeis show of artworks by youth from a Palestinian refugee camp. The pictures, not surprisingly, are not exactly pro-Israeli, and after student complaints, Brandeis officials yanked the exhibit after four days of a planned two-week run. They told the Globe the exhibit lacked balance. Yeesh.  Brandeis looks gutless on this one, and the censorship will fuel the resentment of those hostile to the Israeli cause. Not to mention the ammo it provides to those who say various kinds of political correctness have quashed free speech on American campuses. The exhibit, "Voices from Palestine," may get a run at MIT.

 Ironies of the day: Student Lior Halperin created the exhibit as her final project for a class called "The Arts of Building Peace." The Brandeis commencement speaker on May 21 will be Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan. And while the independent student paper at Brandeis, The Justice, has not yet posted a story on the controversy, it does have an interesting piece with the headline, "News Analysis: A University With An Eye Set On Mideast Peace."