Gaza, February 25, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Racism must be stamped out wherever it occurs, but when it rears its ugly head in an institution as prestigious as Harvard University, an immediate, international response - including punishment of the offender - is required if we are to defend our status as an enlightened society. If Harvard does not take action on its own by revoking Martin Kramer's position as visiting scholar, we must all raise our voices in massive protest.

Kramer is a visiting scholar at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs as well as a fellow at the influential Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) and president-designate of Shalem College in Jerusalem. He was a featured speaker recently at the Herzliya conference, an annual gathering of Israel's political and military establishment.

His remarks included this statement: "Aging populations reject radical agendas....[E]ventually, this will happen among the Palestinians, too. But it will happen faster if the West stops providing ‘pro-natal' subsidies for Palestinians with refugee status. Those subsidies are one reason why in the 10 years from 1997 to 2007, Gaza's population grew by an astonishing 40 percent. At that rate, Gaza's population will double by 2030 to 3 million. Israel's present sanctions on Gaza have a political aim, [to] undermine the Hamas regime, but they also break Gaza's runaway population growth and there is some evidence that they have. That may begin to crack the culture of martyrdom, which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men."

In other words, Israel's crushing siege on Gaza, which has reduce 80 percent of its nearly 1.5 million residents, can be justified because of its "hoped -for" effect on the families' ability to have and take care of children. (The average family size is currently 6.5.) As Kramer explained in a response to a torrent of protest over his remarks, "UNWRA assures that every child with ‘refugee' status will be fed and schooled regardless of the parents' own resources, and mandates that this ‘refugee' status be passed from generation to generation in perpetuity. ... If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA's help. "

So, what Kramer is advocating is to cut off the UNRWA subsidies on which 80 percent of the families have been forced to depend, in the wake of the Israeli invasion that destroyed more than 90 percent of private businesses and the siege that prevents reconstruction and almost all imports and exports. What he is advocating is more than just "population control" - as distasteful as that is. (The best way to reduce family size, it has repeatedly been shown, is to improve women's education and employment prospects for women - impossible under a siege.) He is actually advocating slow starvation.

One might think that Kramer would realize how blatantly "Nazi-like" his solution is, and try to limit their reach to his original audience. But no, he actually posted the video of his remarks on his Web site! Meanwhile, there has been no response from Harvard. Perhaps that is no surprise, given Harvard's silence when Hebah Ismail, a Harvard law student who planned to study the Bedouin human rights situation, was recently expelled from Israel. According to the Harvard Political Review, Ismail passed Israel's security clearance, and had a letter from the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School providing details about her research. "But she was a Muslim. Airport security forces at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport routinely use ethnic and religious profiling as an index of suspicion; if you look Arab, if you have an Arabic name or if you wear Muslim clothing, you immediately become suspect." Yet Harvard's Human Rights Program has remained completely silent.

Harvard needs to hear from all people of conscience. Email the two directors of Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and tell them what you expect of an institution of its caliber, and to which so many people around the world look to for futuristic thinking. Here is what Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian American and executive director of Electronic Intifada, wrote in his email to the institution:

"If you doubt the shocking, offensive and outlandish nature of Mr. Kramer's comments, ask yourself how you -- and other reasonable listeners -- would react if his comments were directed at Jews, African-Americans or virtually any other group that has at one time or another been the target of systematic and widespread demonization and dehumanization in our society and abroad.

While I value academic freedom and freedom of speech as much as anyone else, I believe calls for genocide of a specific group -- made at a conference attended primarily by those who have the power to do it (Israeli military and political elites) -- crosses the line into a form of incitement that we, as members of a decent society should not tolerate, appease or forbear. I believe you should completely dissociate your center from Mr. Kramer and not allow him a platform, or resources with which to disseminate such odious policies."

It is time for all believers in the equality of humanity to be heard.

The Palestine Telegraph