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I was told by a friend who just graduated from AUB that there was a brief protest during the commencement against giving a certain Donna Shalala, whose from Lebanese descent, a honorary degree. I found the video this morning and looked up Donna Shalala to see what this is all about.
From what I read, Donna is a highly respected Lebanese-American who has “four dozen honorary degrees and a host of other honors, including the 1992 National Public Service Award, the 1994 Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award; in 1992, Business Week named her one of the top five managers in higher education; in 2005, she was named one of “America’s Best Leaders†by U.S. News & World Report” [Miami University]. Added to that, “President Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award; and in 2010 she received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, which recognizes individuals for outstanding dedication to improving the health and life chances of disadvantaged populations in South Africa and internationally. In 2011, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.”
She’s one of America’s best leaders, President of Miami University and a member of three corporate boards. She’s the first Arab-American to serve in a Cabinet position and the USA’s longest serving Health & Human Services Secretary and we are labeling her as a Zionist because she visited “Israel” and has honorary degrees from there??
I don’t get it.
Cultural boycotts only lead to intellectual stagnation. They will never change the opinion or policy of the opposite side. On the contrary, they will reinforce the “siege mentality” and the political outcome might well be counterproductive. Almost all cultural/intellectual boycotts are completely arbitrary anyway.
If you want to win against the enemy I think the best way is by beating them in the field of intellect, inventions and proper service to your own citizens. These are victory signs neither bombs nor boycotts can achieve. These intransigent folks will not make any Israeli lose one night of sleep, or even lose a single dollar. Maybe she will now just visit Israel more often, which she has done repeatedly anyway. Not that they treat her any better (2010 incident).
I’d like to steal/plagiarize this comment if you don’t mind 🙂
Use and abuse it however you wish 😉
why am not I surprised. of course you dont! maybe this will help you see things clearer http://m.assafir.com/content/1340152261996362500/Fi%20Assafir
Actually no it doesn’t. Please explain how this makes her a Zionist.
imagine yourself now being honored by the Damascus University and you go visiting Syria during this situation. Maybe you understand, although I lean more to Daniel’s opinion
She’s accused of normalization not Zionism. Big difference.
To me, the question remains what has she ever done for AUB or Lebanon for us to honor her? And the question applies to many other people who have received an AUB honorary doctorate. There are so many people out there who have directly contributed to Lebanon, why not honor them?
AUB is an American university last time I checked, even if it’s located in Lebanon. It has the right to honor whomever it wants, and it chose a Lebanese-American woman who’s highly regarded in the US and in the World. I wish some students would learn from her experience and achievements rather than focus on such details.
She is running a renowned university in the US. Don’t you think that would play to our advantage as Lebanese students? exchange programs maybe? faciliating acceptance? more grants to Lebanese? etc etc ..
students also have the right to protest and express their opinion as far as I know. Plus, who said that a student cares about individual private interests. leave that to the businessmen.
If some of us spent half as much time loving Lebanon than hating Israel, our country wouldn’t be half as bad.
(I agree that she didn’t do much for Lebanon, though…)
and you will never get it! stay with your fake “high educated and superior ego feelings” good news for you that you’re not alone these days! Anyway, cultural boycott and nonrecognition are the only reasons that kept the so called “Israel” isolated by it’s surroundings and kept the true Palestinian cause up after more than 60 years. Not a retardation nor a hate upraising, it’s the courage and honor to refuse the injustice and unfair despite all twisted logics.
Israel is isolated? by whom? which surrounding are you talking about?
Wake up and smell the coffee my friend.
First of all there’s a difference between cultural boycott and commercial boycott. The cultural boycott has had little influence on Israel beyond a nuisance. It serves the Israeli far-right perception of Arab unwillingness to make peace and it helps some people give an honorable feeling they are not reeding Cohen’s romance novels, I guess… Oh yeah, and it cuts of Palestinians inside Israel. And the peace camp in Israel who are against the occupation. Meanwhile Israel’s inventions are used globally, and they don’t care about the boycott. They are culturally isolated from nations they are officially at war with anyway, this is usually the least of worries for warring states.
Commercially, I doubt Israel would be able to compete on agricultural goods (though of high quality). Surprisingly we have Israeli fruits and herbs in the supermarket, it must have been so painful for them they couldn’t export to Syria and had to do business with Europe… Israel is producing academics and patents at high speed. Even blocking Israeli academics hasn’t worked out.
I hope you are filled with honor when you believe your worthless boycotts has prevented Israel from doing anything. In your silly world Israel should be out of universities, literature prices and excellent business relations with the West for decades, for at least 200 years.
You know what? The best thing you boycott people ever achieved by isolating Israel is forcing their participation in the Eurosong Festival. Which is why I blame you personally for broadcasting Israeli transsexual singers and Israeli-Arab Communist a with high-pitch voice all over Europe.
Question :3a ases if someone visits Israel cannot enter Lebanon ,if she’s known to have visited Israel even though it’s know they don’t put stamps on passports why is she allowed to come to Lebanon???
Lila,
I think there are two sorts of passports for officials and journalists. Added to that, she’s a US official so I don’t think someone should be checking where she went on the airport.
In our case, business people can have two passports. There are people here who have business in Lebanon (or even Iran) and Israel, and they just get two copies of their passports for a fair price.
If you enter Israel you can request your stamp to be taken on a separate paper. You can throw it away when you leave the country, fly to Cyprus then fly to Lebanon. Or vice versa. Just lie about your entry into Cyprus. I know people have done this, even recently. Just don’t leave Israel via Jordan because I think the Syrian authorities may ask you how you got into that country. I know someone who was denied entry in Syria because he couldn’t prove he entered Jordan without entering Israel. Long time ago though.
Theoretically you can enter Lebanon via Israel through the occupied village of Ghajar. But the Israelis usually let in only locals, I was almost apprehended during my attempt.
I think if you join the Israeli army or Hezbollah you could also cross the border, but it is quite an unorthodox alternative.
Sorry for spamming your blog, but I would like to add that some Israelis visit Beirut every year as a thrill-seeking experience or just because they like the place. Back in the 80s thousands of Lebanese visited Israel for health care, work and pilgrimage. If anyone wants to establish a list of who visited an enemy country I think they will be shocked.
a non-lebanese can visit israel and later enter to lebanon but indirectly (not even by transit through cyprus, jordan or turkey). 90% of those loved artists and singers who have concerts in Lebanon are on a tour to the Middle east including israel, usually if they go to israel first, they later enter to dubai and then come to lebanon to avoid entering directly from israel