05
Apr
2008
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Criticism, and then there is criticism

by

I can take criticism. I get it all the time. But what does push me to respond is when the critics resorts to distortions and lies to make their point. One such criticism focused on the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour by a student at The Daily Cougar Newspaper at the University of Houston. We performed at the Houston Hobby Center to a sold out crowd hosted by the World Affairs Council on March 25. A student named Sousan Hammad asked if she could come to the show and interview us.

The interview started with criticism from her saying that I was supporting Israel and the occupation. I told her that wasn’t true. I am an outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation AND I am an outspoken critic of Hamas terrorism and a foe of suicide bombings. While everyone during the show laughed and we received a standing ovation, Sousan seemed stoic. She told me before the show that she couldn’t decide between being a journalist or an activist. I urged her to stay the course in journalism but to not allow politics to color her writing. The truth, I told her, whether we liked it or disliked it as Palestinians, is what will help create a Palestinian State. Manufacturing facts, distorting events to make her political views look better, always fail.

Now, for the past year, I have been a target of attacks from extremists in the Arab community who are angry about three things. First, I am performing with Israelis — the “Zionist Entity.” It’s a stupid argument. Israelis are people. I dispute and challenge Israeli government policy all the time, but I distinguish from Israeli people.

The second is that I am an outspoken critic of the Hamas terrorist organization, their use of suicide bombings first to destroy the peace process, and then to claim after they helped destroy it that it could never work. I also said that Palestinians have told me that they live under a double occupation, one of the Israeli military occupation and one imposed by the fanatics among them who attack, beat and even kill those with whom they disagree. That kind of Palestinian terrorism which targets other Palestinians happens all the time, but we are prevented from addressing it.

The third reason is more subtle. Many extremist Muslims — political Islamicists, not regular everyday Muslims who believe int he true principles of Islam, are troubled by the fact that I am a Christian Palestinian. When I respond, they always say, well George Habash was a Christian. A Christian? Someone who described himself as a “Marxist-Leninist” is NOT a Christian. Someone who used violence to kill civilians was not a Christian, and not a true Muslim, in my opinion.

My writings are everywhere. You can pick and choose what you want and Sousan Hammad did exactly that. And she pandered the story she wrote in the Cougar, which I ignored at first, to the “Electronic Intifada, the bully pulpit of the far left-wing extremists who like Hamas terrorists, have done everything they can to destroy the peace process so they could say the peace process failed, two-states can’t work and we must therefore embrace the notion of a “One State Solution.” That one state solution is a pipe dream smoked in Nargila’s of the fanatics who brainwash young Palestinians to strap themselves with explosives and target Israeli civilians … while the pipe smokers sit back and live to find more victims of their fanaticism.

Here is Sousan’s story, printed by the Electronic Intifada.

Sousan’s hatchet job on the Electronic Intifada.

By the way, the Electronic Intifada has NEVER published a story about the positive side of the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour because the Electronic Intifada is a propaganda site for anti-Israel hatred that demonizes anyone who challenges their notion of a “One State Solution.”

Sousan is factually incorrect about several things. She says I portray myself as a “Muslim” even though I am Christian. That’s not true. In fact, a major part of my routine is all about being a Christian Palestinian. But her “proof” is that I had a toy called “GI Abdullah” as a child and Abdullah, she told me during the interview before the show, is a Muslim name. By the way, Sousan also told me when I asked her if she was a Christian, because she said she is from Ramallah, responded that she was non-religious. (Marxist-Leninist I am sure from her writings and rhetoric that she passes off as “journalism.”)

My cousin, a Christian, is named Abdullah. One of my great grandfather’s was named Abdullah. Abdullah means “servant of God” not mark of Islam.

She takes an off-the-cuff comment (ignoring all the other substantive humor) that if I went to Ramallah we would be shot at as a serious statement, even after explaining in a lengthy, serious manner that she ignored that we WANT to perform in Ramallah and in Bethlehem but the fanatics don’t want it, and that the Palestinians who do want it openly said they could not guarantee the security of the Israeli performers.

She didn’t report that in her “feature.”

She says I perpetuate stereotypes, but I explained that my comedy show offers several kinds of humor: some self-deprecating humor, political humor, social humor and personal humor about my personal life as a Palestinian married to a Jewish woman and who has a Jewish son. She was shocked.

Sousan didn’t care about the comedy. She was on a mission to attack. Frankly, I have been telling people about the fanatics who have boycotted me, complained and had Arab groups cancel my show, and even exclude me from other Arab comedy venues that I helped launch without ever asking any comedian about their political beliefs. To have the venom crawl out from under the putrid rock of Palestinian fanaticism is fine by me.

I want people to see the ugliness that I see all the time. Until Sousan Hammad’s political hatchet job review, the attacks were below the radar screen. Now, it’s out in the open and in addition to Sousan, the Electronic Intifada and their ilk are front and center in the melee.

(By the way, Randal Jones reared his ugly head on another board claiming that I “only” criticize Muslims in my comedy, but off course, never once watched any of my online comedy performances.

If you go to www.Hanania.com, you will see a 30 clip of my performance at a South Side Chicago synagogue.

You can also go to www.IPComedyTour.com and read the reviews from Jews, Muslims and Palestinians about the comedy show. Yes, some Arab segments oppose the comedy. They dislike the presence of self-deprecating humor (which is used by every single Arab American comedian including Maysoon Zayid, whose picture was posted right on top of Sousan’s story on the Electronic Intifada. I respect Maysoon even though we have a difference of political opinion. Some Arabs respect tolerance and differences of political opinion, but others, the extremists, do not). Self-deprecating humor was used by Jewish comedians through the 20th century in America to confront growing anti-Semitism. Self-deprecating humor is a political statement to the majority of audiences, in many cases Americans. If I can laugh about some of the stereotypes they hold of me, whyd o they take them serious? It undermines the substance of the stereotypes and does not perpetuate stereotypes. In fact, the stereotypes are so common they couldn’t be perpetuated any more than they already are. Challenging them by turning them into humor is a strategic and proven technique to undermine public hatred.

She also says I claimed our comedy team was the ONLY Israeli-Palestinian collaborative, which is a lie. I SAID, the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour is the ONLY COMEDY TOUR featuring Palestinians and Israelis — and we have tried and continue to try to change then, organizing an open mike in East Jerusalem …

Honestly, had Sousan Hammad been clever in her criticism, and stuck to accuracy and facts instead of exaggerating comments taken out of context, I could have enjoyed her criticism. But the criticism doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the distortion of facts. The twisting of my career dedication to applying ONE PRINCIPLE to both Palestinians and Israelis. I asked her if she condemned the murder of Israeli children by fanatics and her response was to only denounce the murder of Palestinians.

Being criticized by Sousan Hammad is like being called ugly by a pig, a common American colloquialism, by the way, used often to describe the inherent hypocrisy of people who use hatred and distortion as a substitute for talent.

Thanks
Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com