A guest lecture schuled for April 09, 2023 by Israel’s representative to Taiwan Maya Yaron at National Tsing Hua University ( 國立清華大學) was cancelled on April 3th by the organizing body NTHU Global Program. This event is part of National Tsing Hua’s ambassador lecture series.
At first the event was “postponed”, but NTHU Global Program later announced it was cancelled. No explanation is given other than “unforeseen circumstances”.
My personal speculation:
No official reason was provided for the explanation, but I saw the original post announcing the event (now deleted), and the comment section had blown up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any screenshots, but there were a lot angry reactions and comments. Additionally, an online petition (Petition against NTHU event promoting Israel) was started asking it to be cancelled, accusing in part:
By giving Israel a platform, you are risking your reputation in condoning the Israeli State’s undeniable violations of international law and the Genocide Convention.
I think NTHU Global Program decided to cancel the lecture due to online pressure. Looking at their past Facebook posts announcing past ambassador lectures, it seems these ambassador lectures don’t get many reactions/comments/shares. This might have been the first time NTHU administrators ever received negative feedback for an ambassador and they cancelled out of panic.
Personally, I think it was wrong to cancel the event after it had been announced. NTHU Global Health should have had from the beginning the political savvy to know that it would not be appropriate to have any Israeli official come to speak about “Israeli culture” when the Israeli government is currently engaged in profound violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, and while the International Court of Justice is currently reviewing if the Israeli government is in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. But once scheduled, cancelling it now seems like someone was denied a right to speak, even if that someone is a despicable soulless genocidal war-crime enabler.
It’s okay to disagree with speakers, but this effort to censure or black list anyone that might challenge one’s pre existing biases is just more proof of academia’s inner rot. Shame that contagion of anti-free speech has now spread to campuses here as well.
We don’t know that about the speaker, though it’s hard to deny the government they’re representing doesn’t seem to have much regard for any human lives. They bombed a team of people whose sole function is to get hot meals to people in crisis places for gods sake!
But censorship is a bad look. I agree the Uni should have thought about this before announcing it.
I’m against censorship, but it’s also nice not having to deal with either side of the issue while in Taiwan. Their conflict isn’t something that should concern me.
Your comment is interesting. If you don’t mind, I’d like to quote-bomb you here with some words from Mr. Martin Luther King, and see if you agree with something:
I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice"
“Their conflict isn’t something that should concern me.” ← I think your comment expresses the attitude that MLK was critiquing. That some people are not bothered by injustice, they’re just bothered by the noise generated by the injustice. They don’t object to the injustice, they object to the inconvenience of having to hear about it.
So you’re not for or against the genocide in Gaza, you’re against the people making noise against the genocide in Gaza. Because you don’t like noise, not because you have a political position. Or in MLK’s terms, you prefer ‘negative peace’ over ‘positive peace’. The mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza by Western supplied bombs can continue or not, it doesn’t concern you. What concerns you is the level of noise and inconvenience you have to deal with from the protests of people opposing the mass killings.
fair enough. thanks for confirming. i have zero respect for that type of weak-sauce curmudgeonly thinking, but at least you’re honest about it. you may be apathetic, or just bigoted, but you don’t deny it. i can respect that part.
You’re looking at the comments of the cancellation post. The original post had many different people posting, some people claiming to be Alumni of Tsing Hua. Though unfortunately I didn’t take any screenshots . I will try to document future events better. It’s always interesting to observe how Israeli hasbara spreads into audiences unfamiliar with Zionist narratives.
. I will try to document future events better. It’s always interesting to observe how Israeli hasbara spreads into audiences unfamiliar with Zionist narratives.